Can anybody spare a little slack?

[Catfish]

Wow !!! My internet has been out since Saturday. When I got it back and read the message board this morning, I thought we must have lost the game. I was almost sure we won when I watched on Sunday afternoon.

It seems like after, surviving a lockout, surviving no OTA's, surviving adding a whole lot of players to the roster, not having time to incorporate either an offensive plan or a defensive plan to normal standards because of time constraints, playing a number of new players, we might just be able to cut this team some slack. After all, they did win a game that we normally would have lost in previous years, due to all the patchwork planning.

Good Lord, does everyone have to ride Levi Brown and Paris Lenon out of the stadium? Neither played that badly. It seems like there is enough blame to go around for the whole team. No one part of it was without some fault, yet we hung together and won a game where we got behind---- and found a way to pull it out. That hasn't happened with any frequency at all in the past. We mostly found ways to lose a game that we had won.

This is a work in progress, and ANYONE who is willing to find all kinds of fault at this stage of the game is just not being fair with this team. Yes, there are a multitude of things to clean up. Yes we made a lot of mistakes. BUT WE WON !!!!! Give the coaches and the players a little slack already. The sky is not falling. The world has not ended. We started in the win column, and only San Francisco in our division can say the same thing. Sheeeeeeeesh !!!!!

 

[THESMEL]

We are tied for 1st in the NFCW and looked way better than the niners in all phases, except the CB's. plus the seachickens were not as good as the Panthers week 1. Rams Bradford and Jackson are both hurt and lost, falling backwards, will compete, evaluate evenly to Redskins in back to back games.

Beanie had a great game
Kolb had a great game
new TE's had a great game
We have at least 2 #2 WR's options better than the panthers and most teams.
Fitz kept all eyes on him and his team mates made the Kitty's pay for it!

We got 4 sacks
both first time CB's, got 2 games worth of experience in 1 game( still won)
Horton knows a lot more about what he has to work with, or not got.
AW is playing Woo Hoo!
We overcame the refs and our own mistakes to win.

Remember the panthers were just trying to tie at the end of the game.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Good Lord, does everyone have to ride Levi Brown and Paris Lenon out of the stadium? Neither played that badly. It seems like there is enough blame to go around for the whole team. No one part of it was without some fault, yet we hung together and won a game where we got behind---- and found a way to pull it out. That hasn't happened with any frequency at all in the past. We mostly found ways to lose a game that we had won.

Levi did. Lenon did not.

 

[DemsMyBoys]

Fish, I learned a long time ago that moaning and groaning is what this board does. (Probably every other board as well.)

I looked in on the game thread at half time in the first pre-season game and everyone was so complimentary I thought I'd slipped into an alternate universe.

Personally, I like to read the posters who agree with my tremendously well-informed and savy opinions.

 

[Cheesebeef]

It seems like after, surviving a lockout, surviving no OTA's, surviving adding a whole lot of players to the roster, not having time to incorporate either an offensive plan or a defensive plan to normal standards because of time constraints, playing a number of new players, we might just be able to cut this team some slack.

every team in the league "survived" the same thing.

After all, they did win a game that we normally would have lost in previous years, due to all the patchwork planning.

we played the worst team in the league last year... who had a rookie head coach... with a rookie QB... with the same patchwork planning... at home. I think it's fair for some to have issue with barely winning that type of game. Personally, I don't, but you're acting like the Cardinals were the only ones who were locked out of the off-season.

This is a work in progress, and ANYONE who is willing to find all kinds of fault at this stage of the game is just not being fair with this team.

so NO ONE in your opinion should be able to find fault with anything on this team at this stage of the game? Should we ONLY talk about facets of the game which are positive? That should make for a lot of 4 post threads.

I'm not sure what a lot of you want. It's not like it's been all doom and gloom. People pretty much unanimously PRAISED Kolb, Washington, Fitz, Peterson's return skills and a lot of Beanie's game, not to mention the ability to close out a game while coming from behind, but the idea that the above is ALL we should talk about and not comment on the negatives just doesn't make for very interesting conversation, nor does it really discuss the team as a whole.

 

[Duckjake]

every team in the league "survived" the same thing.



we played the worst team in the league last year... who had a rookie head coach... with a rookie QB... with the same patchwork planning... at home. I think it's fair for some to have issue with barely winning that type of game. Personally, I don't, but you're acting like the Cardinals were the only ones who were locked out of the off-season.



so NO ONE in your opinion should be able to find fault with anything on this team at this stage of the game? Should we ONLY talk about facets of the game which are positive? That should make for a lot of 4 post threads.

I'm not sure what a lot of you want. It's not like it's been all doom and gloom. People pretty much unanimously PRAISED Kolb, Washington, Fitz, Peterson's return skills and a lot of Beanie's game, not to mention the ability to close out a game while coming from behind, but the idea that the above is ALL we should talk about and not comment on the negatives just doesn't make for very interesting conversation, nor does it really discuss the team as a whole.

Great response.

 

[Duckjake]

Fish, I learned a long time ago that moaning and groaning is what this board does. (Probably every other board as well.)

I looked in on the game thread at half time in the first pre-season game and everyone was so complimentary I thought I'd slipped into an alternate universe.

Personally, I like to read the posters who agree with my tremendously well-informed and savy opinions.

Me too.

As for the game thread you have to take that with a grain of salt. That's just fans being fans during the course of a football game. Read the page where the Cards score and we're on our way to the SB. Read the page where the other team scores and we suck and won't win another game.

It's what goes on in living rooms and stadiums and sports bars etc. all across America during football games. I love it.

 

[MrYeahBut]

I'm not sure what a lot of you want. It's not like it's been all doom and gloom. People pretty much unanimously PRAISED Kolb, Washington, Fitz, Peterson's return skills and a lot of Beanie's game, not to mention the ability to close out a game while coming from behind, but the idea that the above is ALL we should talk about and not comment on the negatives just doesn't make for very interesting conversation, nor does it really discuss the team as a whole.

well put. As you say, there was plenty of praise for those who deserved it. Don't know why the bad stuff can't be discussed as well. IMO, most of the bad is what people have been saying here for months, nay years, in Levi's case.

 

[crisper57]

After a day to calm down, I will cut Horton a little slack. He clearly gameplanned for a mobile QB who could not make all the tough throws. Anyone would have, given the limited film and scouting that was available on Newton. What his defense got, however, was a QB who was unphased by the blitz and electric with his arm.

I am convinced any DC would have approached the game the same way. Newton proved the gameplan against him was flawed, but there was no way to know that going in. We are lucky to have gotten by him and the rest of the league owes us for being the guinea pigs in his career.

 

[40yearfan]

Cup half full

Cup half empty

Cup empty with a major hole in the bottom

We won. Now we need to beat Washington. If we do, I predict great things for this team this year. If not, we will have to do it the hard way which is the usual way with this team. Next Sunday's game is a biggee.

 

[PACardsFan]

every team in the league "survived" the same thing.



we played the worst team in the league last year... who had a rookie head coach... with a rookie QB... with the same patchwork planning... at home. I think it's fair for some to have issue with barely winning that type of game. Personally, I don't, but you're acting like the Cardinals were the only ones who were locked out of the off-season.



so NO ONE in your opinion should be able to find fault with anything on this team at this stage of the game? Should we ONLY talk about facets of the game which are positive? That should make for a lot of 4 post threads.

I'm not sure what a lot of you want. It's not like it's been all doom and gloom. People pretty much unanimously PRAISED Kolb, Washington, Fitz, Peterson's return skills and a lot of Beanie's game, not to mention the ability to close out a game while coming from behind, but the idea that the above is ALL we should talk about and not comment on the negatives just doesn't make for very interesting conversation, nor does it really discuss the team as a whole.

The Panthers may have been the worst team in the league LAST YEAR, but last year doesn't count. They would have beaten more than half of the NFL teams last Sunday.

 

[Mulli]

The Panthers may have been the worst team in the league LAST YEAR, but last year doesn't count. They would have beaten more than half of the NFL teams last Sunday.

CAR is easily better than Cincy and Cleveland, for example.

 

[Cheesebeef]

CAR is easily better than Cincy and Cleveland, for example.

that's not saying much.

man it must suck to be from Cleveland.

 

[Cheesebeef]

The Panthers may have been the worst team in the league LAST YEAR, but last year doesn't count. They would have beaten more than half of the NFL teams last Sunday.

time will tell.

 

[Rivercard]

man it must suck to be from Cleveland.

So true. We don't need time to tell us that.

 

[gmabel830]

that's not saying much.

man it must suck to be from Cleveland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM
(Cleveland Tourism Video)

 

[Cheesebeef]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM
(Cleveland Tourism Video)

easily one of the funniest videos on the internet. so many classic lines:

"our economy's based on LeBron James"

"this guy has at least three DUIs"

"you buy a house for the price of a V-C-R!"

"at least we're not Detroit... WE'RE NOT DETROIT!"

 

[Arizona's Finest]

Im very happy. The part of our team that looked most deficient was our secondary and we have essenitally two rookie corners and a one armed man back there.

That will get better especially as we get adjusted to the Horton's defense.

Otherwise throwing, running, run defense, and even pass rush (4 sacks) was good by me.

And MOST importantly Kevin Kolb looked like a veritable stud. I rewatched the game and hes going to win us some games by himself this year. Its amazing hes only been here 6 weeks.

 

[Russ Smith]

Im very happy. The part of our team that looked most deficient was our secondary and we have essenitally two rookie corners and a one armed man back there.

That will get better especially as we get adjusted to the Horton's defense.

Otherwise throwing, running, run defense, and even pass rush (4 sacks) was good by me.

And MOST importantly Kevin Kolb looked like a veritable stud. I rewatched the game and hes going to win us some games by himself this year. Its amazing hes only been here 6 weeks.

Kind of how I felt, I knew the pass defense would be a problem with 2 young CB's and AW playing hurt. I didn't expect that bad but then I didn't think Newton could make the throws he did. It was like a basketball game where you lay off non shooters and they keep making 3's either you eventually decide ok he can shoot, or you take the risk he keeps making the shots. Newton kept making the shots.

People keep saying Levi improved as the game went on but that's like saying Bob Saget is less annoying on stage than he was on Funniest Home Videos, probably true but how could he not be? Levi was terrible pass blocking in the first half the first sack was on him, the fumble was caused by his man beating him, he didn't block johnson on the pass to Fitz that nearly got Kolb nailed etc. Yeah he did better as the game went on but maybe the Panther DE's were just tired from chasing Kolb after they blew by Levi.

He run blocks well, I think his pass blocking is a big key to this season because it's apparent Kolb is good enough if he can get time.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Im very happy. The part of our team that looked most deficient was our secondary and we have essenitally two rookie corners and a one armed man back there.

That will get better especially as we get adjusted to the Horton's defense.

Otherwise throwing, running, run defense, and even pass rush (4 sacks) was good by me.

And MOST importantly Kevin Kolb looked like a veritable stud. I rewatched the game and hes going to win us some games by himself this year. Its amazing hes only been here 6 weeks.

I agree with all of the above except the thought that the secondary will get better. Wilson's going to be in pain all season, I don't know how mcuh better a guy like Jefferson can get seeing as i don't see him as talented in the first place and who knows with Marshall. I DO think Peterson WILL get better, but it's gonna take a good deal of time. CB is one of the hardest positions for college players to make the transition and while I think he's definitely got the goods, my excitement with him making an impact is much more long term than it is for this season. My fear is what we see for the most part is what we're going to get with this secondary for the year. Can they get slightly better? Probably... but they're also gonna start facing QBs who aren't making their first rookie start and that will even out the growth we hope to see IMO.

But him, Washington and Williams are three EXCELLENT building blocks for the future of this D. Every great team needs at least one playmaker at every level of the defense and it appears that this team already has those potentially locked and loaded for years between those three guys.

 

[az jam]

Sorry to disagree with you catfish but I see that most of the posts are pretty positive on our win. Sure work needs to be done especially our secondary but overall I see a very happy positive Cardinal base. A few negative posters should not get you down!!!

 

[AzStevenCal]

Sorry to disagree with you catfish but I see that most of the posts are pretty positive on our win. Sure work needs to be done especially our secondary but overall I see a very happy positive Cardinal base. A few negative posters should not get you down!!!

I agree with you. There was an incredible amount of negativity in the game day thread but post game threads have been mostly upbeat. Most of us realize we have some real issues but that should come as no surprise to anyone that's been following this team. I think we're all thrilled with the victory and not willing to write off the season just because a rookie moved the ball well against us.

Steve

 

[Duckjake]

Sorry to disagree with you catfish but I see that most of the posts are pretty positive on our win. Sure work needs to be done especially our secondary but overall I see a very happy positive Cardinal base. A few negative posters should not get you down!!!

Don't forget that last year after the win over St.Louis there were a ton of positive posts. Even people defending Dereck Anderson. Then the Cards lost 41-7 to Atlanta and averaged 122 yards per game passing over the next 5 weeks and had that horrific game in San Diego where they only managed 134 yards total offense. Meanwhile the D was giving up 377 a game. How they managed to go 2-3 is amazing. (But they found a way to play like crap and win. )

So even though I know Kolb is way better than DA or Hall or DA and Hall combined I'm still tempering the enthusiasm a little.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Don't forget that last year after the win over St.Louis there were a ton of positive posts. Even people defending Dereck Anderson. Then the Cards lost 41-7 to Atlanta and averaged 122 yards per game passing over the next 5 weeks and had that horrific game in San Diego where they only managed 134 yards total offense. Meanwhile the D was giving up 377 a game. How they managed to go 2-3 is amazing. (But they found a way to play like crap and win. )

So even though I know Kolb is way better than DA or Hall or DA and Hall combined I'm still tempering the enthusiasm a little.

We're number 1, we're number 1.

Steve

 

[Duckjake]

We're number 1, we're number 1.

Steve

In yards allowed by our defense.

No wait, we're not even #1 in that. Only 3rd. Dang Miami.