Catfish
Registered
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2006
- Posts
- 4,551
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- 64
This one smarts, not just because we lost to a divisional opponent, but by the manner in which we lost. After believing in the Mantra, Cardinals will not cause Cardinals to lose, they did just that, (caused themselves a smarting loss at home against a bitter rival).
It began when the opening kickoff was fumbled away to give the Rams an early lead, and never after that, did the Cards take control of the game. There were opportunities a plenty to do so, but the confidence switch just never seemed to get turned on for the Red Birds from the Desert.
To be sure, there will be those who cry foul that the officials took the game from them, but every Cardinals player will tell you that they failed to capitalize time after time after time today, and never really played smart during the whole game. The whole game seemed to be about trying to do something spectacular, and failing to do simply what was necessary to play their own game. The whole day seemed to be spent playing the Rams kind of football instead of their own.
Perhaps it is well that this game is only one quarter way into the season. There is ample time to learn from today as we begin to play an extended number of primarily road games. We still hold on to the division lead, so not everything is lost at this point. This could well prove to be a great lesson for the guys who wear red. It wasn't so much that we made constant mistakes, but that the ones we did make were 'glaring' and extremely costly, both in terms of field position, and in player's abilities to find their comfort zone and play under control the entire game. It seemed like each glaring mistake was cause for still more scrambling around to make the huge play, instead of just taking control of emotions and the game itself. There is much that can be learned from this.
It began when the opening kickoff was fumbled away to give the Rams an early lead, and never after that, did the Cards take control of the game. There were opportunities a plenty to do so, but the confidence switch just never seemed to get turned on for the Red Birds from the Desert.
To be sure, there will be those who cry foul that the officials took the game from them, but every Cardinals player will tell you that they failed to capitalize time after time after time today, and never really played smart during the whole game. The whole game seemed to be about trying to do something spectacular, and failing to do simply what was necessary to play their own game. The whole day seemed to be spent playing the Rams kind of football instead of their own.
Perhaps it is well that this game is only one quarter way into the season. There is ample time to learn from today as we begin to play an extended number of primarily road games. We still hold on to the division lead, so not everything is lost at this point. This could well prove to be a great lesson for the guys who wear red. It wasn't so much that we made constant mistakes, but that the ones we did make were 'glaring' and extremely costly, both in terms of field position, and in player's abilities to find their comfort zone and play under control the entire game. It seemed like each glaring mistake was cause for still more scrambling around to make the huge play, instead of just taking control of emotions and the game itself. There is much that can be learned from this.
