Early morning thoughts

[Russ Smith]

Arians is a great play caller, I'm not sure he's a great coach though, he makes decisions that just boggle the mind. The early challenge I guess we have to blame the players for telling him to challenge that but it took seconds to see it was a bad challenge.

Going for 2 too early and then the playcall was a joke.

Offense struggles all night, he finally inserts Taylor and surprise suddenly SD has to worry about a RB other than Ellington because he can both pass block and catch, and shudder he runs forward not sideways(like Dwyer was doing). We drive right down the field with Taylor and Ellington playing big roles taking the underneath stuff, and then Taylor sits out virtually the entire next drive. We scored obviously but I don't get why he was back on the bench the prior drive the difference was glaring.

Love deone, he'll get better in pass coverage, he also rushes too wide when blitzing off the edge, runs himself out of plays, but coming inside he's a real factor and when we get TM back we're going to have some really good talent at DB.

Foote was terrific, Minter ok when in there. We're really short on the DL now but they played well, Dan Williams was very good last night.

OL we gotta hope Cooper gets healthy enough to start and plays well because Larsen and Fanaika together aren't great and Massie struggled.

Why we have TE's block DE's I'll never get.

We should trade Housler because Palmer just can't throw him the ball, 3 targets 2 should have been picked the 3rd was behind him. They just don't mesh, Palmer's not going anywhere.

Niklas missed a bunch of blocks on ST, one of them led to Ginn going down at the 6.

Ginn is reverting to his pre SF afraid to get hit days.

All in all nice win, they hung together and just about everyone contributed.

 

[Chaz]

Good critiques Russ.
I suspect the Taylor thing is because he was only in for certain packages of plays. I imagine that his role could expand after they watch the tape.
Well coached teams get better as the season goes on.

On the almost interception to Housler I put that on ball placement. If Palmer put that over the top it looks like a touchdown.

 

[Totally_Red]

Arians is a great play caller, I'm not sure he's a great coach though, he makes decisions that just boggle the mind. The early challenge I guess we have to blame the players for telling him to challenge that but it took seconds to see it was a bad challenge.

Going for 2 too early and then the playcall was a joke.

Offense struggles all night, he finally inserts Taylor and surprise suddenly SD has to worry about a RB other than Ellington because he can both pass block and catch, and shudder he runs forward not sideways(like Dwyer was doing). We drive right down the field with Taylor and Ellington playing big roles taking the underneath stuff, and then Taylor sits out virtually the entire next drive. We scored obviously but I don't get why he was back on the bench the prior drive the difference was glaring.

Love deone, he'll get better in pass coverage, he also rushes too wide when blitzing off the edge, runs himself out of plays, but coming inside he's a real factor and when we get TM back we're going to have some really good talent at DB.

Foote was terrific, Minter ok when in there. We're really short on the DL now but they played well, Dan Williams was very good last night.

OL we gotta hope Cooper gets healthy enough to start and plays well because Larsen and Fanaika together aren't great and Massie struggled.

Why we have TE's block DE's I'll never get.

We should trade Housler because Palmer just can't throw him the ball, 3 targets 2 should have been picked the 3rd was behind him. They just don't mesh, Palmer's not going anywhere.

Niklas missed a bunch of blocks on ST, one of them led to Ginn going down at the 6.

Ginn is reverting to his pre SF afraid to get hit days.

All in all nice win, they hung together and just about everyone contributed.

It would be nice to have a tight end on the roster who could actually block an NFL DE.

 

[Russ Smith]

It would be nice to have a tight end on the roster who could actually block an NFL DE.

It would be nice to not regularly ask it though. Carlson blocked ok, Housler we know can't block and Niklas was horrible blocking on ST, admittedly I didn't notice his blocking in the regular offense and I was surprised how often he was in.

I get that we like to set up situations where we can create a matchup by leaving a TE in and leaking the back out and stuff like that but asking a TE to block Freeney is just silly, and we did it multiple times and he beat them every time.

 

[Totally_Red]

It would be nice to not regularly ask it though. Carlson blocked ok, Housler we know can't block and Niklas was horrible blocking on ST, admittedly I didn't notice his blocking in the regular offense and I was surprised how often he was in.

I get that we like to set up situations where we can create a matchup by leaving a TE in and leaking the back out and stuff like that but asking a TE to block Freeney is just silly, and we did it multiple times and he beat them every time.

While I'm wishing, I wish the Cardinals could generate the kind of pass rush that San Diego gets.

 

[Stout]

So much in this game made me scream angrily at the TV. We're not a good team, not yet. Nowhere close to it. Can we become one? If we kill the mental errors, or at least cut down on them a great deal, sure, we can. Oh man, I just had to turn off the tube, throw up my hands, and say, 'We won--try not to look past that.'

Oh, and I wanted to puke listening to those idiots Burman and Dilfer jabber all night.

 

[football karma]

It would be nice to have a tight end on the roster who could actually block an NFL DE.

those dont exist -- otherwise they would be tackles

while Dwight Freeney is on the downside of his career -- he is still darn good in bursts. Him matched up on any TE is a mismatch

 

[football karma]

just to add a big picture observation:

I am not in favor of going for two until you are under 7 mins in the game. Exceptions obviously ( like down 24 in the 4th q)

but, you have to anticipate the potential for the other team to score. Had that snap not gone wrong, the Cards might have been looking at a TD and 2 pt to simply tie. Further, just kicking two extra points means the SD drive at the end means a SD FG only ties the game.

also: SD played a passing D that we will see all season -- drop 6-7 into coverage in zone, dare Palmer to make good decisions. I hope Palmer has the patience to find guys like Taylor and let him take the easy 7-10.

 

[Finito]

Arians is a great play caller, I'm not sure he's a great coach though, he makes decisions that just boggle the mind. The early challenge I guess we have to blame the players for telling him to challenge that but it took seconds to see it was a bad challenge.

Going for 2 too early and then the playcall was a joke.

Offense struggles all night, he finally inserts Taylor and surprise suddenly SD has to worry about a RB other than Ellington because he can both pass block and catch, and shudder he runs forward not sideways(like Dwyer was doing). We drive right down the field with Taylor and Ellington playing big roles taking the underneath stuff, and then Taylor sits out virtually the entire next drive. We scored obviously but I don't get why he was back on the bench the prior drive the difference was glaring.

Love deone, he'll get better in pass coverage, he also rushes too wide when blitzing off the edge, runs himself out of plays, but coming inside he's a real factor and when we get TM back we're going to have some really good talent at DB.

Foote was terrific, Minter ok when in there. We're really short on the DL now but they played well, Dan Williams was very good last night.

OL we gotta hope Cooper gets healthy enough to start and plays well because Larsen and Fanaika together aren't great and Massie struggled.

Why we have TE's block DE's I'll never get.

We should trade Housler because Palmer just can't throw him the ball, 3 targets 2 should have been picked the 3rd was behind him. They just don't mesh, Palmer's not going anywhere.

Niklas missed a bunch of blocks on ST, one of them led to Ginn going down at the 6.

Ginn is reverting to his pre SF afraid to get hit days.

All in all nice win, they hung together and just about everyone contributed.

Im not really gonna question if BA is a good coach after what he did with the colts then chiming here and winning 10 games and Winning last night. I mean what more do you want.

Both offenses look like they needed time to gel in the first half. Not being able to protect the passer and rush the passer will kill this team

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Im not really gonna question if BA is a good coach after what he did with the colts then chiming here and winning 10 games and Winning last night. I mean what more do you want.

Both offenses look like they needed time to gel in the first half. Not being able to protect the passer and rush the passer will kill this team

Exactly. Great game manager/decision maker? Maybe not, but he is certainly a very good coach.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Positives:
1. Aggressive play calling on defense, especially at the end of the game. The three blitzes were fantastic. There is a reason so many qb's look good in the 2 minute offense. Its because teams play the 2 minute defense (prevent) and give away yards like crazy. Love Bowles here.
2. Carson Palmer. While not everything was perfect, the guy has guts. He stepped out and ran, took hits and kept going.
3. Floyd and Brown(s). Love that rookie especially. I would love to see him on kickoff and punt returns.
4. Foote. Where did he come from? Wow.
5. Kickoffs. As in our kick offs. Out of the end zone. NIce
6. Run defense still looks good.
7. Stepfan Taylor. Runs in the right direction

Negatives:
1. Pass rush and outside linebackers. Could not get to the qb, lost contain on numerous occasions.
2. Kick offs, theirs. Ted Ginn. This one player hurt field position more than any other player. Just down it in the end zone already! Fair catch after fair catch. I suppose that is OK if the punts are really high. But running it out of the endzone 3 times without reaching the 20 is not acceptible.
3. Too many missed open field tackles.

 

[kerouac9]

I was totally fine with going for 2 when he did. You're going to have to get it at some point. Better to take the opportunity early when you want but don't need it, than add the extra pressure late in the game.

It's mystifying that there was a situation where John Carlson was blocking Dwight Freeney one-on-one. I hope that these TEs get a free pass on holding in those situations.

Minter does an excellent job running into the frame at the end of someone else's play. I'm very interested to see what his snap count was, because he rarely seemed to be on the field.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Minter does an excellent job running into the frame at the end of someone else's play. I'm very interested to see what his snap count was, because he rarely seemed to be on the field.

He also does a good job hitting a running back from behind (when his own players are about to bring him down) and driving him 6 yard further down the field.

 

[Russ Smith]

Exactly. Great game manager/decision maker? Maybe not, but he is certainly a very good coach.

That's what I mean, in terms of decisions in the games I think he at times is lacking. In terms of play calling and getting the team prepared I think he's excellent.

I think his philosophy is go for the jugular which is fun to watch but at times counter productive.

I'm certainly happy they hired him.

 

[Shaggy]

With the challenge, I was one of the fans that wanted him to challenge it. The replay that was showing on the big screen looked like he caught it. Then after the challenge, they show a different angle and it was clear it wasn't caught. Arians was looking at that first replay and from the angle, it really looked like he caught it. So I wouldn't be to hard on him about that challenge.

 

[kerouac9]

With the challenge, I was one of the fans that wanted him to challenge it. The replay that was showing on the big screen looked like he caught it. Then after the challenge, they show a different angle and it was clear it wasn't caught. Arians was looking at that first replay and from the angle, it really looked like he caught it. So I wouldn't be to hard on him about that challenge.

I will. Because head coaches are supposed to be better than average fans and shouldn't be making emotional decisions based on one playcall. There should be someone upstairs where ESPN streams every camera angle and telling him "You're going to lose this one, and it's going to take about 15 seconds. Prepare to make an emotional outburst because you're going to look dumb once this reverse angle gets shown.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

That Niklas pick really chaps my hyde. Hate it more every time I see that hack play.

 

[Russ Smith]

I was totally fine with going for 2 when he did. You're going to have to get it at some point. Better to take the opportunity early when you want but don't need it, than add the extra pressure late in the game.

It's mystifying that there was a situation where John Carlson was blocking Dwight Freeney one-on-one. I hope that these TEs get a free pass on holding in those situations.

Minter does an excellent job running into the frame at the end of someone else's play. I'm very interested to see what his snap count was, because he rarely seemed to be on the field.

That's just it you're not going to have to go for 2 sometime if you get 2 TD's and kick the Xp's you win by 3. If you don't think you can score 2 TD's that's different but that's where time comes into it. We had plenty of time. We'd just scored, and frankly rather easily so there was no reason to think we can't get another TD I better go for 2. I think that was the go for the jugular move as opposed to the what do the numbers say move.

on Minter I don't think he was good, I just don't think he was bad. He didn't make any glaring mistakes that I saw. Counter with say Acho who comes in and damn near first play blows contain leading to a 12 yard run, something he's done consistently. At least he made a real nice play later. Young players tend to make mistakes trying to make big plays, I didn't see it from Minter he seemed to be in the right place for the most part.

It wasn't just Carlson there was a play where Housler was blocking Freeney(?) 1 on 1 as well, just hard to explain the guy can't block so let's ask him to block a DE?

That's why I like Taylor in on passing downs he creates an opportunity, he's a good pass pro RB so you can ask him to pick up someone and he will, but he's also got good enough hands that you can get them to think he's just staying in to block and then leak him out like we did on the first scoring drive.

 

[Reddog]

The early challenge I guess we have to blame the players for telling him to challenge that but it took seconds to see it was a bad challenge.

I don't know if you were at the game Russ but in his defense, the angle they showed a couple times right after the play appeared to be a clear catch. It wasn't until after the red flag was down and the refs were under the hood that they showed the angle where the nose of the ball hit. That one was on the booth.

 

[dylanbw]

1 - The missed 2 point conversion was a huge blessing in disguise, as we played to win at the end instead of setting up a rookie K for the game tying FG. The play calling would have certainly been different if we were only down by 3.

2 - No mention of LB Thomas Keiser? I thought he played very well and is an obvious keeper.

3 - Tony Jefferson's would-be INT was very athletic. However on Ryan Mathews' TD run, Jefferson missed an open field tackle that Honey Badger makes 10 times out of 10.

4 - Bobby Massie - yikes. he will improve I am sure but that was a poor showing. Agreed on the lunacy of asking TEs to single block DEs.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't know if you were at the game Russ but in his defense, the angle they showed a couple times right after the play appeared to be a clear catch. It wasn't until after the red flag was down and the refs were under the hood that they showed the angle where the nose of the ball hit. That one was on the booth.

No I watched on tv where about 15 seconds after the first replay they showed another angle and it was obvious not a pick.

I don't think he had any major reason to rush but I don't know but it was really clear on tv we were going to lose that I was quite surprised he challenged but then maybe he didn't get the angle he needed fast enough.

 

[kerouac9]

That's just it you're not going to have to go for 2 sometime if you get 2 TD's and kick the Xp's you win by 3. If you don't think you can score 2 TD's that's different but that's where time comes into it. We had plenty of time. We'd just scored, and frankly rather easily so there was no reason to think we can't get another TD I better go for 2. I think that was the go for the jugular move as opposed to the what do the numbers say move.

I don't know. If you get the 2 and you score another TD you win by 4. If you get the 2 and then kick a field goal, you're forcing overtime. Why not punt on every down if you think that you're going to score 5 TDs before the game is over?

Two-point conversion chart: http://waitingfornextyear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2-point-conversion-chart.emf_.jpg

According to that chart, you go for 2 trailing by 5 with 12 minutes remaining if you feel you have a better than 20% chance of converting. Now, I'm not sure how that could feel that way with the playcall they chose (which was reprehensible).

on Minter I don't think he was good, I just don't think he was bad. He didn't make any glaring mistakes that I saw. Counter with say Acho who comes in and damn near first play blows contain leading to a 12 yard run, something he's done consistently. At least he made a real nice play later. Young players tend to make mistakes trying to make big plays, I didn't see it from Minter he seemed to be in the right place for the most part.

I don't think that Minter was good, and I know for sure that he wasn't on the field very often. I've been told that Minter is good, and that he just needed his chance. That's why I'm interested in seeing his snap counts.

Same with Frostee Rucker. Remember how after Dockett's injury we were told that Rucker was outperforming Dockett as a player all camp? Did Frostee even play?

Finally, extra shout out to Matt Shaughnessy, who was the Cardinals best outside linebacker last night and hasn't gotten enough credit for his play the last TWO years.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't know. If you get the 2 and you score another TD you win by 4. If you get the 2 and then kick a field goal, you're forcing overtime. Why not punt on every down if you think that you're going to score 5 TDs before the game is over?

Two-point conversion chart: http://waitingfornextyear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2-point-conversion-chart.emf_.jpg

According to that chart, you go for 2 trailing by 5 with 12 minutes remaining if you feel you have a better than 20% chance of converting. Now, I'm not sure how that could feel that way with the playcall they chose (which was reprehensible).



I don't think that Minter was good, and I know for sure that he wasn't on the field very often. I've been told that Minter is good, and that he just needed his chance. That's why I'm interested in seeing his snap counts.

Same with Frostee Rucker. Remember how after Dockett's injury we were told that Rucker was outperforming Dockett as a player all camp? Did Frostee even play?

Finally, extra shout out to Matt Shaughnessy, who was the Cardinals best outside linebacker last night and hasn't gotten enough credit for his play the last TWO years.

Rucker got hurt that's why Kelly played so much.

I don't know what the % of 2 point conversions is I think it's higher than 20, we were 25% last year.

San Diego is not Seattle or SF where you think we might not get a 2nd TD better go for 2.

But in the end it worked and we won.

 

[kerouac9]

Rucker got hurt that's why Kelly played so much.

I don't know what the % of 2 point conversions is I think it's higher than 20, we were 25% last year.

San Diego is not Seattle or SF where you think we might not get a 2nd TD better go for 2.

But in the end it worked and we won.

I'm not sure I understand what you feel the downside risk is here in going for 2. If you feel you can score a TD later, what difference does it make? If you don't score that TD later, and can only get a field goal, you're still better off than if you just kicked the XP.

I guess I don't understand the process that you have that lead to a different choice?

 

[BigRedRage]

I don't know. If you get the 2 and you score another TD you win by 4. If you get the 2 and then kick a field goal, you're forcing overtime. Why not punt on every down if you think that you're going to score 5 TDs before the game is over?

Two-point conversion chart: http://waitingfornextyear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2-point-conversion-chart.emf_.jpg

According to that chart, you go for 2 trailing by 5 with 12 minutes remaining if you feel you have a better than 20% chance of converting. Now, I'm not sure how that could feel that way with the playcall they chose (which was reprehensible).



I don't think that Minter was good, and I know for sure that he wasn't on the field very often. I've been told that Minter is good, and that he just needed his chance. That's why I'm interested in seeing his snap counts.

Same with Frostee Rucker. Remember how after Dockett's injury we were told that Rucker was outperforming Dockett as a player all camp? Did Frostee even play?

Finally, extra shout out to Matt Shaughnessy, who was the Cardinals best outside linebacker last night and hasn't gotten enough credit for his play the last TWO years.

Frostee got hurt on the third play.

http://www.foxsports910.com/onair/mike-jurecki-9574/ - Snap counts

Cardinals Defensive snap count vs. Chargers

Cardinals Defensive Snap Count:

DL Calais Campbell 58, Tommy Kelly 47, Dan Williams 21, Ed Stinson 16, Alameda Ta’amu 7, Frostee Rucker 3.

LB Larry Foote 61, Matt Shaughnessy 40, John Abraham 36, Sam Acho 31, Kevin Minter 24, Thomas Keiser 14.

DB Rashad Johnson 61, Patrick Peterson 61, Antonio Cromartie 59, Tony Jefferson 56, Jerraud Powers 38, Deone Bucannon 37, Justin Bethel 1.



Read more: http://www.foxsports910.com/onair/m...nap-count-vs-chargers-12746436/#ixzz3CqBkYzqk