Canuck: My frustration and temper got the better of me when I signed off last year. When I came back I apologized for my rash decision and most of my fellow posters have been kind enough to accept my apology.
I HAVE to write my feelings or I will explode.
Like many of us...I am sick and tired of watching bad football from my favorite team of 43 years...yeah, yeah, yeah...I can quit being fan...but there's no quit in me there. I will be a Cardinal fan for the rest of my life.
I came back also because I realized that I was here rooting for the Cardinals long before Dennis Green arrived...and I will be here long after he's gone.
I do NOT have a personal vendetta against Dennis Green. I, like everyone else, want to see the Cardinals win...and if Green is the answer, I am all for it.
I made it public from the minute Dave McGinnis was let go that I wanted Charlie Weis as the Head Coach. I wanted Weis because I believe he brings a special talent as a play caller with him to the position...and in this day and age, with the parity of talent in the NFL, the teams that get their edge from creative coaches such as Weis are the teams that generally win.
With Dennis Green his special talent is working the NFL Draft. I would hire him as the GM in a blink of an eye.
As a Head Coach, he has not brought any special talent that has been readily discernable to this point. In fact, he's a lousy manager of the clock...he stands there stoically on the sideline...and never seems to do anything to motivate the players, except threaten them with their jobs.
If it hadn't been for Green's hiring of Clancy Pendergast, there's no telling how pitiful the Cardinals would still be. Pendergast has a good mind for the game...he's a little too zone happy for my tastes, but at least, he sprinkles in some aggressive stunts and blitz packages.
Last year Green did not get lucky with the hiring of Alex Wood. Game after game the play calling was atrocious...yet Green did NOTHING. Green kept talking about his TOP 5 Offesnsive System...but when Wood was clearly overwhelmed by the play calling responsibilities and the team was losing games because of it, Green never stepped in.
All Green did was fire the offensive line coach in order to appoint an old Viking player fresh off the waiver wire to be the new o-line coach. Even though the o-line was horrible last year...Green has stuck with the unqualified Lindsay.
Green went out and hired another offensive coordinator (Rowen) who has never called a play in the NFL...so...we have a super green OC and a super, super green OLC. It would be one thing if Green was there to call plays and orchestrate his so-called vaunted offense...but Green is so uninvolved that typically he either stands on the perimeter of the practice area simply observing...or he runs the scout team.
I am honestly not sure whether Dennis Green really remembers how to take over an offense and call the plays...because this team has desperately needed his direction...and he has put the fate of the team squarely in his assistants' hands, instead.
Green seems to fashion himself as a Bear Bryant type...oversee the operation from a distance...decide who plays and who goes...and let the assistants do all the work in the trenches.
If Green could make smarter decisions across the board...hiring an OC and OLC with direct NFL experience, for example...and if Green had a clue as to what kind of interior linemen he needs to win football games...Green could just as well operate from a distance.
The problem is...he has handicapped this team with rookie assistants and poor linemen...when the decisions could have been otherwise.
We are now staring an 3 or 4 win season in the face.
For the Cardinal fans who have been suffering for many years now...this is more agonizing than ever.
Green has talked playoffs since he arrived here...and he's brought some major league talent to the roster...but without providing key components at guard and nose tackle, and without making sure that the offense is in the hands of an experienced OC, he has essentially rendered this team too vulnerable to win...let alone get even a whiff of the playoffs.
We, as fans haven't been brain fu%^ed like this since Buddy trotted off into the sunset.
Once again...just two games into the season, the Cardinals are at rock bottom and bracing to try to climb their way out...which, year after year, gets more and more difficult to cope with.