The late, great Head Coach Dennis Green — who coached the Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals between 1992 and 2006 — won 113 games in the NFL, but perhaps became best known for his 2006 rant following a loss to the Chicago Bears.Do yourself a favor and look it up on YouTube if you haven’t seen it.“The Bears are who we thought they were!” he yelled. “They are who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook!”Eleven years later, you could replace “Bears” with “Cubs,” slap a Cardinals jersey on the ghost of Green and his words would still ring true.Last offseason the St. Louis Cardinals front office and Manager Mike Matheny repeatedly told the fan base that 2016’s defensive miscues, lackadaisical base-running and overall uninspiring play would become a thing of the past.They signed former Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler to boost a poor defensive outfield.They took a page out of an NFL team’s playbook and signed a quality control coach, someone — in theory — who would help fix things like base-running, defensive positioning and fundamentals, among others.They worked a little longer on fundamentals in spring training — and made sure everyone knew about it.And, right on cue, 2017 started where 2016 left off.Third base coach Chris Maloney was reassigned in early June and General Manager John Mozeliak — who has since been promoted to president of baseball operations — held a press conference to put his team on notice, apparently.The team has treaded water since.The Cardinals were 21-19 on June 9 and were 49-51 heading into Wednesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies.But while the Cardinals floundered the first four months of the season, something strange happened.Whether suffering from a World Series hangover, regression to the mean or just plain bad luck, the Chicago Cubs treaded water just the same.The Cardinals traveled to Wrigley Field last Friday in fourth place in the National League Central, but were 3.5 games out of first place and 2.5 games behind the second-place Cubs (49-46).A sweep could have put the Cardinals within a half game of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers.And after taking game one and a 2-0 lead in the eighth inning of game two, that didn’t seem like a crazy possibility.But in less than 30 hours, the team seemed to remember who it was.The Cardinals bullpen gave up the lead — and the game — Saturday.Cubs catcher Wilson Contreras hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning Sunday to break a 3-3 tie and the Cardinals returned home losers of six of their last 10.In five of those six losses, the club held a lead late in the game.As much fun as I have playing general manager behind a keyboard, I don’t envy John Mozeliak’s job.His team could easily be in first place in the division right now while he looks to add pieces for a playoff run.Or, the Cardinals could just as easily be 10 games out of first place — making it an easy decision for Mozeliak to trade away assets to set up the roster for next season.But here they stand, stuck in no-man’s land as the July 31 trade deadline looms.I still think the club should look to trade guys like Lance Lynn, Trevor Rosenthal and even starting pitcher Michael Wacha, but it can’t be an easy decision when you realize how close the Cardinals were to first.While the Cubs spent the first half of the season wiping champagne out of their eyes and playing average baseball, the Cardinals continued to amaze its fan base — and not in a good way.The World Champs have opened the second half on an 9-2 run and appear to be heading toward another division title.It didn’t have to happen this way, though.The Cubs are now playing like we thought they would play.And the Cardinals let them off the hook..