A Telling Line-----

[Catfish]

I was reading the teams new column on the official site today, and I came across a line that said something to the effect of ----- (we are not making mistakes in practice, we are not dropping balls, we are not missing assignments, we just have to translate that into the game)

ONE thing that I see in that comment is that----- WE DO NOT HAVE A FEARED PASS RUSH TO PRACTICE AGAINST. If you play like you practice, and you practice against a non-existent pass-rush, then you CANNOT POSSIBLY play well against the real thing when you see it. If your QB has all the time in the world to decifer the defensive scheme in practice, he may well put the ball where it needs to be on time and in stride. That is not what he sees in the game though, and that is leading to lack of success in our passing game that is so tied to everyone being in place and on time. ALL THE PRACTICE IN THE WORLD (at practice speed), will never compare to (what he sees in game speed).

That is exactly why some things need to change in my opinion.

l. We need to try to establish the run, in order to have the opponent play honest against us. We have not done that very well except in the Jacksonville game where we had almost as many runs as passes.

2. We need to scrap the slow-developing runs for the most part, and use quick hitters, (preferrably using Beanie AND TH), not just TH. A couple of decent runs early will loosen up the D just like it did in the JAX game.

3. We almost always open our first offensive series with a hand-off to TH. Why not just this once, do a play-action to him and try for a go-pattern to either Fitz or Breaston for our first offensive play of the game?

4. When we face 3rd and one, why not employ our power run game that we built this O-line for. What better way to give confidence to them than converting 3rd and short with a quick hitter? Can't we rope our QB in a little bit to keep him from ALWAYS checking out of the run?

 

[Early]

I do partly agree with that. However you can have a situation where you have a tackle going against a great passrusher every time in practice and never being able to block him. Obviously Freeneys spin move is one of the most dangerous counter moves in the NFL. But you can stop it. No doubt, and Gandy did as the game progressed, but when you do that your positioning then expose yourself to the speedrush and even bullrush as counter to that. That was deadly.

There comes another story into that. That is that you dont meet a spin move like that every sunday. Next week you can meet the best bullrusher in NFL and for that you will need a completely different technique and your experience from the practices with the spin move artist will not help you much.

In the end it comes down to how good your tackle is to adjust during the game...How your coaching staff prepares him by looking at film and how the line works together. Obviously Colts bring 4 guys every play and rarely blitz. We have 5 guys to block. It comes down to chemistry and adjustment of the double team, or even sending a TE to chip block his speedrush outside as to help. That didin't happen last week

I couldn't agree more on the formation issue you bring up. It's so obvious when we run and when we pass. For example when Beanie is in we run the ball almost 100 percent guaranteed. That is because he can't block anyone at the moment not even knowing the playbook and even the handoffs are a gamble with him in. We could just as well put another lineman in and give hima direct snap. When we line 4 WR sets we almost always pass or make draws. Draws just dont work for us at all. IMO we have to make a 3WR, 1TE, 1RB formation with Timmy and learn to to run out of that. When we do that the pass will be even easier.

 

[Catfish]

I do partly agree with that. However you can have a situation where you have a tackle going against a great passrusher every time in practice and never being able to block him. Obviously Freeneys spin move is one of the most dangerous counter moves in the NFL. But you can stop it. No doubt, and Gandy did as the game progressed, but when you do that your positioning then expose yourself to the speedrush and even bullrush as counter to that. That was deadly.

There comes another story into that. That is that you dont meet a spin move like that every sunday. Next week you can meet the best bullrusher in NFL and for that you will need a completely different technique and your experience from the practices with the spin move artist will not help you much.

In the end it comes down to how good your tackle is to adjust during the game...How your coaching staff prepares him by looking at film and how the line works together. Obviously Colts bring 4 guys every play and rarely blitz. We have 5 guys to block. It comes down to chemistry and adjustment of the double team, or even sending a TE to chip block his speedrush outside as to help. That didin't happen last week

I couldn't agree more on the formation issue you bring up. It's so obvious when we run and when we pass. For example when Beanie is in we run the ball almost 100 percent guaranteed. That is because he can't block anyone at the moment not even knowing the playbook and even the handoffs are a gamble with him in. We could just as well put another lineman in and give hima direct snap. When we line 4 WR sets we almost always pass or make draws. Draws just dont work for us at all. IMO we have to make a 3WR, 1TE, 1RB formation with Timmy and learn to to run out of that. When we do that the pass will be even easier.

Thanks Early: That makes a lot of sense to me. I just want us to get more balance to our offense so that other teams can't lay their ears back like they have when we are not balanced. I hope Beanie gets a chance to show that he can hang onto the ball in the next week. Would be nice to see a two back set with him and Timmy in at the same time. Can you see us handing off to Beanie off-tackle one play, then play action to him and hit Timmy out of the BF next. That would probably suck some backers in real close then our 3WR set will be open mid-range. Just need some balance that we don't get when KW checks out of runs early.

 

[Jay Cardinal]

I do partly agree with that. However you can have a situation where you have a tackle going against a great passrusher every time in practice and never being able to block him. Obviously Freeneys spin move is one of the most dangerous counter moves in the NFL. But you can stop it. No doubt, and Gandy did as the game progressed, but when you do that your positioning then expose yourself to the speedrush and even bullrush as counter to that. That was deadly.

There comes another story into that. That is that you dont meet a spin move like that every sunday. Next week you can meet the best bullrusher in NFL and for that you will need a completely different technique and your experience from the practices with the spin move artist will not help you much.

In the end it comes down to how good your tackle is to adjust during the game...How your coaching staff prepares him by looking at film and how the line works together. Obviously Colts bring 4 guys every play and rarely blitz. We have 5 guys to block. It comes down to chemistry and adjustment of the double team, or even sending a TE to chip block his speedrush outside as to help. That didin't happen last week

I couldn't agree more on the formation issue you bring up. It's so obvious when we run and when we pass. For example when Beanie is in we run the ball almost 100 percent guaranteed. That is because he can't block anyone at the moment not even knowing the playbook and even the handoffs are a gamble with him in. We could just as well put another lineman in and give hima direct snap. When we line 4 WR sets we almost always pass or make draws. Draws just dont work for us at all. IMO we have to make a 3WR, 1TE, 1RB formation with Timmy and learn to to run out of that. When we do that the pass will be even easier.

Great post. The playcalling in the running game has been atrocious. The Cards are definitely trying to be tricky and deceptive with all the draws and delays. I really wish they would line up and run the ball with power. Maybe I'm over-thinking but wouldn't the O-Line feel the coaches don't have any confidence in their ability to run-block the guys in front of them?

 

[187]

4. When we face 3rd and one, why not employ our power run game that we built this O-line for. What better way to give confidence to them than converting 3rd and short with a quick hitter? Can't we rope our QB in a little bit to keep him from ALWAYS checking out of the run?

I'd like to know what "power running game" you are referring to. The cardinals have a power running game? That's news to me. This offensive line sucks in all aspects of the game.

 

[Early]

187 - I agree, we don't have any power running game, but we do have a power blocking scheme, probably what he meant. Let each lineman dominate his assignment, we really don't have confidence in that yet at all.. With a passinggame like we have, we should be able to help the rungame more than just by draws and delays

Jay Cardinal - I defenitely agree. I don't think our line has confidence and that's one of the things that cause it... And when you meet Freeney and your passprotection blows, then you, as a Cardinal offensive lineman, get the feeling you cant do either of the two..

A very important and rarely mentioned part of footballgame is keeping DEs respecting the run behind the offensive tackles. Did you see how much Freeney respected our rungame?Or for that matter any other DE that we face despite their scheme...? The answer is not very much.... In fact, the answer is not at all....

When you can run the ball, the DE's then, as the game progresses, can't just speedrush outside like crazy and go for the QB. They need to be carefull and stay at the line to protect the rungaps.... DE's don't do that against us and that makes it about ten times harder to passprotect as Cardinal lineman than for some team that have respected rungames..

This is very important to consider before anyone labels any of our tackles bad. I think they do an OK job, especially Gandy. The pass vs. run ratio that we have, and the ratio of pass succes vs. run succes is absolutely exceptional, even looking at the history of the game, not just now. Being a Cardinals tackle is a very very hard job. They come after you with speedrush every time and they don't care about the run at all, week in and week out

 

[WildBB]

That is exactly why some things need to change in my opinion.

l. We need to try to establish the run, in order to have the opponent play honest against us. We have not done that very well except in the Jacksonville game where we had almost as many runs as passes.

That is exactely the mindset we had going into the playoffs last year. We couldn't ONLY depend on our passing attack and the need to keep defenses off balance. It's also easier to call plays 2nd and 6 or 7 than 2nd/3rd and 10 or more.

It also eats up more clock and keeps the D fresher. Look at what Miami did to that Indy D the week before we got them.

2. We need to scrap the slow-developing runs for the most part, and use quick hitters, (preferrably using Beanie AND TH), not just TH. A couple of decent runs early will loosen up the D just like it did in the JAX game.

Yep, they might as well get used to game planning that way and do things the right way. If Kurt can't then we have to go from there.

3. We almost always open our first offensive series with a hand-off to TH. Why not just this once, do a play-action to him and try for a go-pattern to either Fitz or Breaston for our first offensive play of the game?

Oh, it's coming.

4. When we face 3rd and one, why not employ our power run game that we built this O-line for. What better way to give confidence to them than converting 3rd and short with a quick hitter? Can't we rope our QB in a little bit to keep him from ALWAYS checking out of the run?

Like I said if Kurt can't , we have to go from there. We had success last year because of the balanced attack and keeping the D off the field as much as we could. We have to start using the ground attack when they are expecting pass and the pass maybe more when they expect the run.

 

[Catfish]

Sorry 187: I didn't mean to suggest that we've ever demonstrated a power running game. What I meant is that this line was put together to support a power running game. We may or may not have one, (we have definitely not shown it yet---save for some in the Jax game). I don't believe we will know until someone, (either the QB allows us to run it---or the HC demands it). I don't mean slow developing plays designed to accomodate an old slow-footed QB who has terrible footwork and worse ball handling. I mean the quick hitters that pop into the open fast and the back gets a chance to cut away from the secondary for a 10+ yard burst. The kind where you impose your will to run on the opposing team. That is what this line was designed for, but we probably will not see it until we have a much more nimble QB and one who doesn't always check out of the run into a pass play. Warner just doesn't like to run, and he is not much good at it when asked to do so. I do hope he spent some of this week working on his footwork so that he can at least try to get a quick hitter or two into the works against Houston. It would open up our passing game so much more.

 

[mrbyte]

I think some of our woes on offense has to fall in the lap of Fitz...there I said it...great recievers get open even when they are doubled and even triple teamed, Fitz isn't and he isn't making the catches he made last year routinely infact he has had way too many drops for the amount he has been thrown to, for an elite receiver. He flat out isn't the same guy this year...yet..
But I do agree 150% that we need to get rid of those pathetic delay hand offs and go to a quicker set of running plays, I think that in its self will improve our offense no end once teams have to pay some attention to the run Fitz should be a better target and the big plays will follow.

 

[Catfish]

I think some of our woes on offense has to fall in the lap of Fitz...there I said it...great recievers get open even when they are doubled and even triple teamed, Fitz isn't and he isn't making the catches he made last year routinely infact he has had way too many drops for the amount he has been thrown to, for an elite receiver. He flat out isn't the same guy this year...yet..
But I do agree 150% that we need to get rid of those pathetic delay hand offs and go to a quicker set of running plays, I think that in its self will improve our offense no end once teams have to pay some attention to the run Fitz should be a better target and the big plays will follow.

Not so sure I want to lay that on Fitz. Most of the drops he has were contested and knocked away from him, and two of them were thrown low and behind him, (but allmost none of them were thrown high where he could go up for the ball over shorter cornerbacks). The only time he was really open last week downfield, the ball was thrown beyond even his reach. We have yet to put the soft fade into the corner of the endzone for him to run under, OR deliver the ball high enough for him to go up and get it like we did last year.

 

[mrbyte]

I just think you're an elite WR when you can get open against double coverage and make the play. Andre Johnson does it so does Calvin Johnson. Q did it before Fitz came a long (which made his job a bit easier) but Fitz seems not to be coping so well.
dont get me wrong I'm noy laying everything at his doorstep but he should carry his share of the responcibility.
Is Kurt holding the ball too long or is no one open...

 

[Duckjake]

This is very important to consider before anyone labels any of our tackles bad. I think they do an OK job, especially Gandy. The pass vs. run ratio that we have, and the ratio of pass success vs. run success is absolutely exceptional, even looking at the history of the game, not just now. Being a Cardinals tackle is a very very hard job. They come after you with speedrush every time and they don't care about the run at all, week in and week out

Excellent analysis. This is exactly why a high first round quality offensive lineman left town for Dallas and most fans said good riddance. Teams had so little respect for the Cards running game that they would set their DE out like a WR. Almost impossible for anyone to block that consistently.

Finally Denny Green started running plays through the huge gap between the DT and DE with Edge and it stopped.

 

[lauraw]

MR.BYte I totally agree with your assessment about the running game helping to get Fitz AND Breaston going..I love your Passion sir!!