MVN - Most Valuable Network

Not ready for prime time. Cardinals lose to N.O. 31-24.

This week and last have illustrated exactly why the Cardinals are not ready for prime time or the play offs. Just like last week against Seattle, they once again had little or no pass rush, the secondary was picked apart by a hot quarterback, they abandoned the run when they fell behind and then had foolish penalty after foolish penalty. It hurts as a fan to run these guys down right now, as the effort was there once again by most of the players, but there are some areas of glaring weakness that are keeping this franchise from making the big step forward.

1. Penalties once again killed this team. 10 flags for a total of 78 yards doesn’t begin to tell the story here. It is when they get the penalties, and in which situations, that just kill this team. Why this week they even got the rare ” two penalties on one play” on an extra point! At what point in time is this group going to stop holding, lining up in illegal formations, jumping off sides, etc? If they were flags due to being aggressive I could see it, but these are just dumb, mindless mistakes that you’d expect from a JV football team, not an NFL franchise. The Cardinals lead the league in penalties per game and that’s really pathetic.

2. Turnovers at the worst possible times. The first interception was a result of the tight end not hanging on to a pass that hit him in the hands and then deflecting it into a Saints DB. That one was just a bad luck play on a tough pass and catch but it came in a situation where the Cardinals could have taken a lead in the game. The fumble by Warner in the pocket was another situation where the play call was for a deep pass and protection broke down with Kurt was exposed to a solid pass rush. It’s no secret his ball protection stinks, it always has, and he and Todd Haley got into it after the play on the sidelines over what I suspect were the messed up formations and calls that preceded that turn over.

3. Burning time out’s due to plays not getting in on time or the wrong plays for the defensive set being called. The second half was 30 seconds old and Kurt had to burn a time out because the play either didn’t get in or else something was wrong when he went to the line of scrimmage. It was clear that he and the coaches were not on the same page the whole half and quite frankly this has been a recurring theme all season. I’ve never seen a team burn so many time outs or get some many delay of game calls then this years Cardinals. There is clearly something going on with the play calling system that is creating this issue, and you’ll notice when they go no huddle, the offense springs to life. What ever the problem is on play calling it better get fixed in the off season because it was a huge issue this year and just saps the life out of the offense.

4. Failure to stick with the running game. Edgerrin James had 16 carries in the entire game and had 84 yards. Has anyone on the Cardinals staff noticed that when they RUN the ball more and Edge gets 100 yards they almost always win? We all love the passing game but this staff bails out on the running game way too early and tends to run in what would be obvious running situations only, allowing the other team to stack the box. The games where they have more balance we have fewer turn overs and the defense plays better because its off the field. We are paying the guys a kings ransom to be our feature back, so how about we give him the ball 20 times a game at least?

5. The secondary couldn’t cover anyone all day long. Quite frankly i’m shocked N.O. didn’t pass even more then they did. It looked like a flag football league out there with the N.O. receivers typically catching the ball with out a Cardinals DB with in 5 yards of them most of the time.

Long and short of it is the Cardinals just aren’t ready to compete against the top tier teams in the league. Too many penalties, too much confusion on play calling, too many mental lapses and not enough depth to withstand injuries.

I’d expect them to beat Atlanta next week at home but probably lose to the Rams the last week of the season leaving them at 7-9. I wish I could say this was an acceptable record but it’s not, and neither is 8-8 if they finish with that. This team absolutely shouldn’t have been any worse then 10-6 this year and in reality should have been 11-5. For them to finish at 7-9 or 8-8 is a big disappointment and should lead to some guys losing their jobs at the end of the year. To me the test of this management and coaching staff will be if Holt, Arrington and Neil Rackers return, all three of which I will take as signs that they are not serious about upgrading the roster. This is a tough team that works exceptionally hard and doesn’t quit, and that’s the most encouraging change from past years, but the mental errors, the penalties and failure to seize opportunity are bitter reminders for fans that this franchise is still a long way from being able to move into the upper levels of the NFC where they can compete every season for a play off berth.

For all you Arizona Cardinals fans that think this was a “good” year, you need to stop being so pleased with poor results and put pressure on this team and ownership to keep doing the things that get it to the next level. Take a look at the stadium, the revenue streams, the skill position guys we have and the weak division we play in and tell me that being 6-8 is acceptable when this team should be 11-5 to finish the year. Stop settling for middle of the pack results and start finding ways to be winners.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Voice of the Cardinals, game analysis, Regular season, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.