Monday, August 20, 2012

Assessing The Cardinal's Situation

      Friday night the Cardinals restored a little bit of faith to the fanbase (including me). All week long the team was talking about how they were going to come out and do better. Friday, the starting defense only allowed 6 points, through a quarter and a half. As the game was starting, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous. I knew that if the Cardinal's defense didn't show any signs of improvement, from last weeks Kansas City game, then the Cards were in deep trouble. So when the ball was kicked high into the air, to start the game, I was feeling extremely apprehensive.
       
         Then the Cards forced a three-and-out, Patrick Peterson had a very nice return, Williams and Kolb drove the offense down the field for a touchdown, and the defense had a great looking goal line stand. All in all I was extremely impressed with what the Cardinals did on Friday.
       
       Now I'm afraid I have to be gloom and doom a little bit. With all that being said there were a couple things that I was very unhappy about. For example; Kolb usually didn't have very much time to throw, he was constantly trying to escape from pressure, and was sacked three times (one intentional grounding call), with one resulting in a safety. Also John Skelton had four plays to work with, but with what he did do he looked very impressive, going 3-3, and a TD, still I would liked to have seen him out there a bit longer. The last thing that I disliked was, and this is probably the worst one, was Levi Brown getting a torn tricep, he likely could be out the entire season. With the protection a question mark already(?), this could be very bad for the Cardinals. Even though Brown has not lived up to the expectations of being a top five pick, he has always been in the offense since 2008, whether starting at right or left tackle. The Cardinal's will explore options in free agency and also of course on their own roster.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Expect A Physical Game Friday

     
       This Friday the Arizona Cardinals play the Oakland Raiders. The past two weeks have not been what fans have expected, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Ray Horton has said that he takes the blame for not "watering down" the hype on the defense this offseason. Horton says, "I think we were a little full of ourselves, I really do. That was the discouraging thing, but now hopefully they have refocused." It is understandable that the defensive unit would be cocky, they were the main reason for the Cardinals 6-2 stretch over the last eight games of the season.
       This week in practice Ray Horton has continually said to his players "not some of the time, all the time." He is talking about how the defensive unit is trying to pace themselves this preseason, and turn it on during the regular season. One of the reasons the defense has struggled is because they have felt that the preseason has been lengthy, and the regular season needs to get here so they can start proving themselves.This of course is not good, when a team tries to pace themselves through preseason they start out slow in the regular season. They find problems that could have been fixed easily if they would have gone all out during the preseason.
      With that being said, this week the defensive unit has been going all out, they are mad, and they feel like they have something to prove this week against the Raiders. So when the cardinals go out against the Raiders, expect a dominant defense that is looking to show that they are even better than what they were last year.

-Skelton favored?

      This morning ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Skelton was the favorite to win the competition. Schefter has usually been right. Everyone has been going off about this today, and a lot of people think it means that Skelton has won the job. Skelton is the favorite right now because he has been able to stand in the pocket and make necessary throws when under pressure. Kolb has not. Kolb always runs away at the first signs of pressure and is forced to throw on the run, usually resulting in an incompletion. The Cardinals need someone who stands tall in the pocket and is wlling to make throws under pressure, someone who can control the game.

     So who is the favorite? Self explanatory.

     Kolb needs to have a big game if he wants to gain ground on Skelton. If he doesn't, then expect this to be Kolb's last start in a game for a long time.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

5 Things That I Want To See In The Hall Of Fame Game

       In wake of the Hall of Fame game coming up this Sunday, there are some things that I want to see, either in this game or the next one, when the Cards play the Kansas City Chiefs.

1. Secondary Depth 
       One of the things that I want see happen this Sunday is for the second corner, whoever it's going to be, to establish himself. Whether it's Greg Toler, William Gay, A.J. Jefferson, or even Jamell Fleming! I feel like one of these guys needs to distance himself so we can start to see the secondary pieces come together.

2. Michael Floyd Playing Time 
      In this upcoming game I would absolutely love to see Michael Floyd make some big plays! Even better would be critical plays, plays in the red zone, on third down, or in the two minute drill. I just feel like if we could see Floyd make a catch or two in big situations, then we would be feeling like the future is bright in AZ for Cardinal fans.

3. Defense Improvement
     The third thing I want to see in this game, is to see how much the defense has improved from last season. Last year the defense was number one in third down defense, allowing a conversion rate of less than 40%, as Ron Wolfley says that is "Championship quality." Another statistic is they were number two in red zone defense, another championship quality. This defense has the potential to get even better and I want to see that in this game.

4. Ryan Williams no show?
     Last year when Ryan Williams got hurt the whole team was devastated. Ryan Williams had turned himself into a star, last year in training camp. This year he is doing the same thing while not being at 100%. In my opinion I think if he did play it would give the whole team a HUGE boost. To see Williams come back from that injury and play well in such a short amount of time, would fire up the whole team to play their best and give 110%.

5. Distancing in QB competition
     The last thing that i want to see, is for someone to distance themselves in this excruciating QB competition. To see either Kolb or Skelton make more plays than the other, would start to make me relax, and not keep waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, after terrorizing nightmares of having two mediocre quarterbacks switching out every other play (shudder).

     Now I realize that most of these things most likely will not happen, and it will take time, but as a die hard Cardinals fan, I am allowed to dream! 

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