Ed Burmila opinions on loss to Giants

[Skkorpion]

http://arizonasportsfans.com/storypage.php?Story_ID=605&Category=cardinals

 

[Renz]

OMG!!! More Pete Kendall?! I quit reading right there!

 

[DKCards]

With his Bolded headlines I decided not even to waste my time reading it.

 

[clif]

You must be registered for see images attach

Pete: I miss you guys too!

 

[General Chaos]

well at least he's not bitter at the world.

 

[Pariah]

Fact: Oliver Ross is a big, fat bust.

Isn't it a little early to call him a bust?

See above. Replace "Ross" with "Davis" and the argument holds. He's 380 pounds and somehow he can't manhandle a 260 pound DE named Osi Umenyora.

I'll tell you what that "somehow" is--Umenyora is a speed rusher. He's faster than the 380 colossus playing opposite him.

Big played okay on Sunday. Has he lived up to his salary? No. But, he's hardly a "bust."

Fact: Bad tackling persists everywhere. Maybe I was foolish to think that cutting Ohalete would solve this problem,

Yeah, you were foolish to think that cutting a backup safety would make our starters better tacklers. The only place that might help is in our backup safety position.

Two things, and only two things, sunk the Cardinals on Sunday: poor tackling and poor O-Line play.

Did you just fastforward through the special teams plays?

 

[40yearfan]

Not a bad article Ed and right on with your assessments. Someone needs to light a fire under this team. The talent is there, but it is young and it needs a true leader. Hopefully this Sunday will show us the team we all thought we had.

 

[RedViper]

The aritcle seems made up of non-sequiturs. The writer first tries to remove the sting of the upcoming strafing run. Once into the strafing run, he seems to make an argument we will give the 76 Bucs a run for their money. Then the writer tries to say we have enough talent to make the playoffs. I don't get it.

To me, if those two tackles are completely without value, we aren't making the playoffs. Done deal. I just hope he's wrong about that.

 

[spanky1]

When will people quit saying L. Davis is 380 lbs. He is 365 for cryin out loud.

Ed.......I don't believe that this article is appropriate at this time......after all it is only game #1. Let's wait until just before the bye week before we make these kind of sweeping declarations as to our ineptitude.

 

[Mitch]

I think this article is one of Ed's best, if not the best. It is thoughtfully written and it makes timely, accurate points...such as Leonard Davis' draft class turning out to be a poor one...the offensive linemen the Cards' passed up at $1M a year, all of whom are better fits than Ross...and Pete Kendall's replacement becoming Bridges, who is now trying to find a spot with another team.

Yes, Dennis Green is a draft expert...plain and simple. And most of the free agent moves he's made have been excellent...especially the signing of Bertrand Berry.

However, it's mystifying that a so-called offensive guru like Green could possibly think he could win with the offensive linemen he has...particularly at the three interior spots. Sure, Step and Brown may develop, but they've been thrown in there way too early. Wells, well, all one has to do is watch him try to run block and one will know he simply doesn't have the girth or the strength to do it. So the team is stuck without a running game for another year. "We want to be able to run the football consistently," Green keeps saying ad nauseum.

Compounding the matter, is Green's absurd decision to promote Everett Lindsay to offensive line coach. As bad as the offensive line was last year, Lindsay couldn't even make the team. He's not served long enough as an apprentice to understand what it takes to be a good coach, both from a motivation and a technical standpoint. And yet, he's the coach whether any of us like it or not.

In the interim, we the fans will have to sit through 16 games of watching J.J. Arrington get hammered before he can muster up a yard of momentum...and without a running game, how long will it take for the oft-injured Kurt Warner to limp off the field with a concussion or a serious knee injury?

Bill Parcells left New England because as he put it, "If I'm cooking the meal, I want to shop for the groceries." Well, Dennis Green has brought home some filet mignons in Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Bryant Johnson, J.J. Arrington and Marcel Shipp...but forgot to buy the charcoal briquettes...and those filets aint gonna get hot sitting on a cold grill. The neglecting of the ineterior three o-line spots is a real oversight...one that many of us have been scratching our heads over for two years now after the one bona fide player on the roster was sent packing...and Ed was even kind to not mention L.J. Shelton, who, when healthy and properly coached, is hands-down better than any offensive lineman on the current roster, save the uninspired Davis.

 

[Duckjake]

I haven't noticed any difference between the Oline when Kendall was here and the one playing Sunday. Couldn't run block then either.

There was a difference between the Olines when Selby/Devlin/and Redmon played in the middle. Now that was a terrible offensive line.

 

[Russ Smith]

I haven't noticed any difference between the Oline when Kendall was here and the one playing Sunday. Couldn't run block then either.

There was a difference between the Olines when Selby/Devlin/and Redmon played in the middle. Now that was a terrible offensive line.

I can't believe I'm saying this because I understand why Green cut Pete and while I disagree, it was part of his overall method as a coach so I dealt with it.

But to say we weren't any better with Kendall is missing the point. You don't improve a weak area by cutting your best players and replacing them with journeymen. Green made a point by cutting Kendall, that's his right, but he hasn't upgraded the talent on the OL at all with his surgeries to date. If Kendall were still here this OL would be better, unless you believe Pete was a cancer that was going to tear this team apart, and if that's the case, I would argue the OL should be BETTER because Kendall is gone, it's not.

Green made a statement, the team heard it loud and clear, but the problem is he didn't follow through with more talent and a better coach instead he brought in journeymen and hired a guy with about a month of coaching experience. If the season goes in the can and Green gets fired is any other NFL team going to hire Lindsay as OL coach?

 

[Ryanwb]

Everybody needs to let the Pete Kendall thing go.....

 

[kerouac9]

Everybody needs to let the Pete Kendall thing go.....

Also, Ed's way off base in saying Big couldn't handle Osi in that game. The guy had one tackle! Say what you want about Big--I'm not his biggest fan, either, but he didn't do anything wrong in that game short of getting gamed by Michael Strahan on one play, and there's no a tackle in the NFL that Strahan hasn't gamed once or twice.

I'm not a huge fan of Jeremy Bridges or Reggie Wells, but neither of them, to me, has done anything less that Pete Kendall did during his years here. If Oliver Ross was a big, fat bust (which I don't agree with if only because he's coming off an injury), then so was Pete Kendall. Sometimes you cut bait on a player and limit the disaster. No one cried when Duane Starks was traded.

Elton Brown played pretty well, but you couldn't see it because Shawn Lynch played about as well as I would have in the game. Leonard Davis was wasting away at the LG position, and has shown Pro Bowl ability as an LT. Without a doubt, he is the best player on our offensive line, as well as the most talented.

Meanwhile, "Kurt Warner can throw laser beams"? Since when? Certainly not in the Giant game, if ever. Pressure or no, his balls were wobbly all game long.

 

[Russ Smith]

Allow me to make an analogy since Green likes to fish. You're a professional bass fisherman and you never win, tourney after tourney you lose. So you get a new partner and your new partner has won lots of times.

So you're out fishing and you have 5 fish in the box and your new partner says "you should release the 3 smallest fish, and keep 1 of the 2 big ones and let the other one go." Sounds bass ackwards to you but hey he wins he knows what he's doing. So you fish the rest of the day and you come in with 5 fish, all of which are smaller than the 4 your partner convinced you to let go. Your partner tells you tough break we'll try again next tourney, those fish weren't good enough to win anyways and there's no sense keeping them until you catch something bigger, you need to cut your losses and let them go, and go catch bigger fish.

How many times are you going to listen to your partner and repeat that before you push his butt overboard and get another partner?

Green's a bass fishermen and so far that's what he's done on the OL, let medium size to small fish go(with the exception of Kendall who was a reasonable size fish) and replace them with smaller fish.

Maybe he needs to just the crankbaits and use a Senko?

 

[Russ Smith]

So can you explain why Wells and Bridges were not high picks and why Bridges is currently out of football?

IF the Cards released Wells would he have as many teams calling him as Kendall did?

I fully understand why Green let him go, but that doesn't make Kendall a mediocre player like Wells or Bridges. The biggest issue we had with Kendall was his health, he got hurt too much, and he didn't see eye to eye with Green, he was not released over talent.

 

[CaptTurbo]

JJ is perfect for this offense. Or I should say the type of RB he is is perfect for this offensive scheme. Howevery we need a ricky williams type on this current team.

Once we get decent blockers the pass WILL open the run for home run runs. Unfortunately JJ is way slower than advertised.

oh and boo hoo to Kendall.

 

[conraddobler]

Everybody needs to let the Pete Kendall thing go.....

At this point we basically all have let it go, we are only doing what all fans do and that is second guess the coach.

Basically it goes like this, either your moves as a head coach produce victories and sweep anything you've done wrong under the carpet or you lose and stuff like this comes back to haunt you.

I like the way Russ put it, want to make a statement to the team? Fine we are all down with that, good idea and go for it.

But what in the sam hill are you doing fielding this O line in a professional football game?

 

[kerouac9]

I don't agree with that, Russ.

LT: Leonard Davis > L.J. Shelton
LG: Reggie Wells = Leonard Davis (Davis stunk at LG, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool)
C: Alex Stepanovich > Pete Kendall (Kendall finished all of one season as a Cardinal, and he was tremendously average at center)
RG: Elton Brown = Jeremy Bridges (Neither are all that good right now, but Brown is going to be much, much better)
RT: Oliver Ross = Anthony Clement (At worst, and I was a Clement supporter)

Also, I defy anyone to tell me in what ways Cameron Spikes is better the Nick Leckey.

I see that we've improved as a team since Green came here on the offensive line, and we're only going to get better as Step and Brown improve, and I think that Leckey is going to make a solid backup along all three interior line positions in the next year or two.

After only 20 rushes, it's impossible to say whether this team is better or worse along the offensive line, especially when you consider that the leader of that line was a guy that's going to be managing one of Andre Wadsworth's Whataburger restaurants in the next couple days.

This line may not be as talented as the Big Red Mound of Crap that Mac assembled a few years ago, but they may be a better group. This is ridiculous discussion for now since we haven't seen them play together. Wait until Week 5. Then we'll have a good idea of what we have.

 

[kerouac9]

I fully understand why Green let him go, but that doesn't make Kendall a mediocre player like Wells or Bridges. The biggest issue we had with Kendall was his health, he got hurt too much, and he didn't see eye to eye with Green, he was not released over talent.

It was a production issue. The guy hasn't been a standout player in New York, he's been a good player surrounded by superior talent. When he was here, he didn't lead, didn't produce, didn't mesh with the players around him.

If Wells was released today, would he get attention? Heck yes, he would. It's impossible to find good, young, experienced offensive line help late in the year, as we've found out while looking for some. Would he be an immediate starter? I have no idea. The guard position is not high on my NFL radar, to tell the truth.

By the way, STATS, INC did not credit Elton Brown with a single sack from last week's game. Leonard Davis was credited with 0.5 sacks. Looks like Reggie Wells got the other half.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't agree with that, Russ.

LT: Leonard Davis > L.J. Shelton
LG: Reggie Wells = Leonard Davis (Davis stunk at LG, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool)
C: Alex Stepanovich > Pete Kendall (Kendall finished all of one season as a Cardinal, and he was tremendously average at center)
RG: Elton Brown = Jeremy Bridges (Neither are all that good right now, but Brown is going to be much, much better)
RT: Oliver Ross = Anthony Clement (At worst, and I was a Clement supporter)

I'll concede Davis over Shelton I think he's a better run blocker.

Davis NEVER played LG, Green moved him from RG to LG in the offseason, and then moved him again to LT. So unless you were at minicamp I don't know how you know he stunk at LG. If you meant RG, I disagree, his rookie year there were times Davis was a monster at RG, not consistently, but at times. After that he had weight problems, injury problems and he moved around due to other injured players. But as a RG which was his position when Green took over, he was light years ahead of Spikes, Wells, Bridges or Brown. Brown may someday be very good he has a lot of talent, but I think we're seeing why Brown fell in the draft, he's extremely raw.

Step is not even close to Kendall except in the 4 games a year Kendall missed due to injury. Step was the worst starting C in the NFL the first half of last season IMHO(worst I saw). he was awful, he couldn't make line calls(Josh had to) he couldn't shotgun snap, he got mauled repeatedly. I can still recall Lewis' comments on cardinal radio during the New England game, he literally said he felt sorry for Alex being thrown to the wolves in that game he repeatedly pointed out that Stepanovich was killing us in that game. He got a lot better, he's a very competitive person, probably the wrestler in him, but he's still not a great player. He's light years ahead of Lynch, but he's not yet good.

Brown/Bridges I agree with but Green didn't inherit Bridges he inherited Big at RG. No contest as I wrote above.

RT I think Ross is better than Clement because Clement was physically broken down. I read stories about his time in Denver's camp he literally couldn't finish practices they ask their OL's to move a lot and with his size and back problem he literally would have to stop almost every day and rest. Ross will be a better run blocker at RT than Shelton was last year that's not LJ's strength at all, but he won't ever be as good of a pass blocker. There's not a team in the NFL that would willingly start Oliver Ross at LT, there's at least one that will start LJ there.

I guess my other real concern is we have a very young OL, a rookie and 2 young guys in Step and Wells, and the guy coaching them is learning on the job himself. Hopefully Rowen will be a huge factor there that's why I got so excited when he was hired I figured he's going to help Lindsay a lot.

So far it's just like last year, the OL came out in total disarray and when it got better people said see he knows what he's doing. But you don't keep blowing it up every offseason so you can get better week to week, at some point you make it better in the first place if you want to be able to run the ball.

 

[kerouac9]

So far it's just like last year, the OL came out in total disarray and when it got better people said see he knows what he's doing. But you don't keep blowing it up every offseason so you can get better week to week, at some point you make it better in the first place if you want to be able to run the ball.

I guess to me this year is closer to last year than next year will be. It's about expectations. I think that Denny figured that his offense was going to blow this year--Denny knows that Kurt Warner is no Jeff George. But he saw that his roster wasn't going to get much better, but his young guys would. Denny saw that if he destroyed the O-line over the last two seasons, he'd have a handful of experienced players that make nothing (all of them make minimum salaries except for the tackles) but will have the physical abilities as well as the experience to produce.

I think that Denny believed that he could win the division with a good defense and a very, very mediocre offense. I think his gambit this season was that the offense would get it together in the first quarter of the season as the defense attempts to win games (against susceptible teams like San Fran, Seattle, and St. Louis). Whether or not that works out will be seen over the next month.

BTW: Even you have to know that it's ridiculous to say that Big was where he needed to be at RG when he had one rookie season where he showed some flashes of Pro Bowl potential and then was a loser for the next two seasons.

 

[Russ Smith]

I
BTW: Even you have to know that it's ridiculous to say that Big was where he needed to be at RG when he had one rookie season where he showed some flashes of Pro Bowl potential and then was a loser for the next two seasons.

Big has clearly gotten better, but my point is he was a much better RG than the guys that replaced him are.

I like Brown, he has talent, but I watched Adam Snyder and David Baas(briefly) in the preseason with the 49ers and both guys are way ahead of Brown in terms of technique and polish. If healthy both those guys would start here right away. And in the preseason they weren't playing next to Newberry they were playing next to Heitmann playing C for the first time in his life, and some scrub they cut who's name I forget. Brown has a lot of physical talent but he's really raw, he's only starting because the other guys are so bad Green figured I may as well get his feet wet. I agree with that but only because there's no other viable option.

I don't see why Green would think the offense is goign to blow so let's play a young OL, he's got a proven veteran QB, talented WR's and a RB he personally wanted. But for some reason he chose to make no effort at TE and go with the OL that we're now debating.

Oh well the OL will get better, I just hope it's not too late.

 

[Theoldred29]

Pete Kendall

My only opinion on your article is the mention of Pete Kendall. He is gone, we need to let go. Whether you agree or not with Coach Green he is gone. He had only one year left on his contract so Kendall may have chosen to leave the Cards on his own rather than stay. So to say he would make a difference on this unit this year is not valid.

Let's see if the O-line can get it done this week against St. Louis. They were pretty tight against the Niners so don't expect alot of running yards this week either. I just hope Warner can stay sharp and stay clean and get Q a TD this week.

 

[Skkorpion]

My only opinion on your article is the mention of Pete Kendall. He is gone, we need to let go. Whether you agree or not with Coach Green he is gone. He had only one year left on his contract so Kendall may have chosen to leave the Cards on his own rather than stay. So to say he would make a difference on this unit this year is not valid.

Let's see if the O-line can get it done this week against St. Louis. They were pretty tight against the Niners so don't expect alot of running yards this week either. I just hope Warner can stay sharp and stay clean and get Q a TD this week.

Welcome theoldred.