Fear the Pats

[Harry]

I've read several posts that seemed to imply this game would be a walkover. I can only hope none of the Cards are thinking that way. It's not that I'm saying the Cards are going to lose, I just think this game will be much tougher than pundits and fans are labeling it.
First, nothing would please Belicheck more that winning a game the media thinks he will lose. He'll have his team ready to play well. The Pats win more with strategy and execution than having the best athletes.
Second, remember Matt Cassel! With Brady out the Pats were supposed to be doomed. Cassel goes 11-5, a record he never would approach again.
Third, my recollection is that Palmer has never beaten Belicheck.
Fourth, all the pressure will be on the Cards. They will be favored. They figure to need the game more to win their division. The Pats figure to easily handle their group. They will play relaxed if the Cards don't shake them early.
Fifth, my concern that the Cards may be over-confident. Not BA and not all the Cards, but it won't take many to shift the balance of power.
Sixth, Garoppolo has waited a long time for this chance. The Pats will just ask him not to lose the game. He can do that.
These guys aren't the Walking Dead, but they could bite the Cards if the Cards aren't careful. The Cards have the best team, but they've got to bring their "A" game to lock up this one.

 

[Cardiac]

Fully agree Harry. The fact that Cassel went 11-5 and has sucked ever since tells us all we need to know about Bellicheat's coaching ability.

I expect BA to have the team in the right frame of mind and we get the win but it won't be an easy one.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

I've read several posts that seemed to imply this game would be a walkover. I can only hope none of the Cards are thinking that way. It's not that I'm saying the Cards are going to lose, I just think this game will be much tougher than pundits and fans are labeling it.

Fifth, my concern that the Cards may be over-confident. Not BA and not all the Cards, but it won't take many to shift the balance of power.

+1

I'm concerned they are reading the press clippings and are ripe to be beaten.

 

[oaken1]

maybe a good tar and feather party on our home field is exactly what the Redbirds need to start the season.
they're good... but they aint THAT damn good...and they need to prepare accordingly.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I've read several posts that seemed to imply this game would be a walkover. I can only hope none of the Cards are thinking that way. It's not that I'm saying the Cards are going to lose, I just think this game will be much tougher than pundits and fans are labeling it.
First, nothing would please Belicheck more that winning a game the media thinks he will lose. He'll have his team ready to play well. The Pats win more with strategy and execution than having the best athletes.
Second, remember Matt Cassel! With Brady out the Pats were supposed to be doomed. Cassel goes 11-5, a record he never would approach again.
Third, my recollection is that Palmer has never beaten Belicheck.
Fourth, all the pressure will be on the Cards. They will be favored. They figure to need the game more to win their division. The Pats figure to easily handle their group. They will play relaxed if the Cards don't shake them early.
Fifth, my concern that the Cards may be over-confident. Not BA and not all the Cards, but it won't take many to shift the balance of power.
Sixth, Garoppolo has waited a long time for this chance. The Pats will just ask him not to lose the game. He can do that.
These guys aren't the Walking Dead, but they could bite the Cards if the Cards aren't careful. The Cards have the best team, but they've got to bring their "A" game to lock up this one.

I'll be honest, if the Cards come out anything but completely pissed off and ready to rock after being utterly embarrassed on a national scale in the NFC title game, they're goose is probably cooked for the entire season.

I think they'll come out on fire. This is primetime, they want to put last season behind them and will be looking to make a statement no matter who they play that they will be a force to be reckoned with this year.

And if they don't, then I'll start to wonder about their psyche and my own sky-high expectations for this team.

 

[Cheesebeef]

maybe a good tar and feather party on our home field is exactly what the Redbirds need to start the season.
they're good... but they aint THAT damn good...and they need to prepare accordingly.

if they need that after getting EMBARASSED in the NFC title game, looking like crap against GB and getting embarrassed again the previous game against Seattle, this team has major mental issues.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

This is how I see the game:

Less than 1 Cards Turnover - Cards win by at least 14

1-2 Cards Turnovers - Cards win by 5-8 (Cover but barely)

3 Cards Turnovers - Cards are a coin flip

Over 3 CardsTurnovers or any appearance by Stanton outside of a Cards Blowout - Cards lose

 

[AzStevenCal]

they're good... but they aint THAT damn good...and they need to prepare accordingly.

Counting postseason and preseason, we have a 5 game stretch that suggests we are far from "good". I'm not ready to buy into the idea that we're super bowl contenders until we start showing it consistently on the field. I'm not even convinced we'll be the better team, if the Pats beat us on September 11th it might have nothing to do with over-confidence.

Other than our receivers, the only unit I'm really confident about is our running backs and I'm not sure we have the front line or even the coaching staff to make full use of that talent. We have serious questions everywhere else. We have talent, it remains to be seen whether we have a good team.

 

[Garthshort]

Agree with Harry 1000%.

 

[TJ]

Counting postseason and preseason, we have a 5 game stretch that suggests we are far from "good". I'm not ready to buy into the idea that we're super bowl contenders until we start showing it consistently on the field. I'm not even convinced we'll be the better team, if the Pats beat us on September 11th it might have nothing to do with over-confidence.

Other than our receivers, the only unit I'm really confident about is our running backs and I'm not sure we have the front line or even the coaching staff to make full use of that talent. We have serious questions everywhere else. We have talent, it remains to be seen whether we have a good team.

#PostsFrom2006

 

[PJ1]

Garroppolo has been very good in preseason. Anything short of a very good effort by the Birds will result in al loss.

 

[MadCardDisease]

seventh, the Cardinals let 3rd stringer Landry Jones come in off the bench last year and made him look like Peyton Manning in his prime.

 

[Buckybird]

Garroppolo has been very good in preseason. Anything short of a very good effort by the Birds will result in al loss.

Yep! I think many Cards fans are selling short how good Garrapolo really is.

If Big Red is still "full of it's performance" on the way to 13-3 last year & they don't play well, 0-1 is staring us in the face IMO. Last year is done & in the past & has no bearing on how good the 2017 version is...it must perform!!!

 

[SO91]

They have massive injuries on the OL, and are starting their #2 QB. If we don't beat the snot out of them on the first game of the season, in primetime, then we have some big issues to correct. I don't care about preseason records, or how good Garoppolo has looked. Preseason records mean nothing. We're 3-7 in preseason since the start of 2014 and have won 11 and 13 games respectively.

 

[AzStevenCal]

#PostsFrom2006

Not even. In 2006 it would have been a post about our lack of talent or about our inept front office, neither being the case today. But solving those two shortcomings still doesn't mean we have an elite team. Things change so quickly in this league, you never know how a team will come together from one season to the next and we've just finished a very unimpressive 5 game stretch. And I really worry about the fact that although we preach "next man up", we seem to struggle perhaps even more than other wounded teams do when we lose someone like Palmer or Mathieu.

 

[TJ]

Not even. In 2006 it would have been a post about our lack of talent or about our inept front office, neither being the case today. But solving those two shortcomings still doesn't mean we have an elite team. Things change so quickly in this league, you never know how a team will come together from one season to the next and we've just finished a very unimpressive 5 game stretch. And I really worry about the fact that although we preach "next man up", we seem to struggle perhaps even more than other wounded teams do when we lose someone like Palmer or Mathieu.

What unimpressive 5 game stretch? I see two losses, one was the drubbing in Carolina (understandable given the circumstances) and one was a game against Seattle in which the team was not playing for anything. We beat Green Bay twice and clobbered Philly. Despite Harry's preoccupation with preseason, individual results do not matter. If that were the case, Dak Prescott should be MVP of the league along with a handful of guys who'll be wearing UPS brown shorts in 3 weeks.

This is the most talented, well-coached team AZ has ever had, more so than last season. This team and its coaches have done a good job to date deflecting the high praise.

I get the anxiety from fans because the stakes have never been higher and we are legit championship contenders, but look at the big picture and not a bunch of inconsequential series in the preseason.

 

[AzStevenCal]

What unimpressive 5 game stretch? I see two losses, one was the drubbing in Carolina (understandable given the circumstances) and one was a game against Seattle in which the team was not playing for anything. We beat Green Bay twice and clobbered Philly. Despite Harry's preoccupation with preseason, individual results do not matter. If that were the case, Dak Prescott should be MVP of the league along with a handful of guys who'll be wearing UPS brown shorts in 3 weeks.

This is the most talented, well-coached team AZ has ever had, more so than last season. This team and its coaches have done a good job to date deflecting the high praise.

I get the anxiety from fans because the stakes have never been higher and we are legit championship contenders, but look at the big picture and not a bunch of inconsequential series in the preseason.

The score in preseason games matters not but you can tell a lot by how the team plays and we just haven't played that well. And that Seattle game didn't become meaningless until after we lost it. Sure, you could make the case we knew late in the 2nd quarter it probably didn't mean much but we were already getting killed by then. And we played our best players until late into that game so it's not like the coaching staff mailed it in.

And that GB win was an OT victory, at home, against a team that had played .400 ball in their previous 10 games. We have not been a good team over the past 5 game stretch, there's no other way to call it IMO. Being talented and being a good team is not always the same thing in the NFL. I'm not predicting doom and gloom for this season, I just think it's too early to start calling this team great. That shouldn't happen until we actually start playing that way.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

#8 we have James Bettcher.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Cardinals record in preseason under Arians:

2013: 3-1 preseason real record 10-6

2014 1-3 preseason real record 11-5

2015 2-2 preseason real record 13-3

There is no correlation between preseason and regular season.

 

[Buckybird]

Cardinals record in preseason under Arians:

2013: 3-1 preseason real record 10-6

2014 1-3 preseason real record 11-5

2015 2-2 preseason real record 13-3

There is no correlation between preseason and regular season.

I'm sure this forum will explode should we go 0-4

 

[eastcoastSUN]

Two things:

1. Do we have a solution for Gronk? Are we going to have Deone shadow him all game? Something that is swept under the rug could be the emergence of Bennett in the Pats 2TE set, since Gronk will draw double coverage. Bennett is still better than anyone on our roster at the TE position.

2. The Pats just picked up the Mingo guy from Cleveland. His production dropped off considerably last year but who knows what a change of scenery/system could do?

 

[crisper57]

I probably should be scared, but I am not. Focus on Gronk. After that, I'll take my chances in a shoot-out between Palmer and, what's-his-name, Not-Tom-Brady.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Cardinals record in preseason under Arians:

2013: 3-1 preseason real record 10-6

2014 1-3 preseason real record 11-5

2015 2-2 preseason real record 13-3

There is no correlation between preseason and regular season.

True, if you're just looking at win/loss records in preseason versus regular season. But that doesn't mean there's no correlation between the two "seasons". If your starters are getting manhandled by the starters, or worse, their second team, that very much correlates to how your season will go. We really haven't seen our starters yet so it's too early to say we're in trouble but it's also too early to say we're a great team, especially given how we finished last season. I don't see us returning to the days of 5 - 11 but we've seen nothing yet to assume we're super bowl bound

 

[Shane]

Two things:

1. Do we have a solution for Gronk? Are we going to have Deone shadow him all game? Something that is swept under the rug could be the emergence of Bennett in the Pats 2TE set, since Gronk will draw double coverage. Bennett is still better than anyone on our roster at the TE position.

2. The Pats just picked up the Mingo guy from Cleveland. His production dropped off considerably last year but who knows what a change of scenery/system could do?

Does anyone have a solution for Gronk??? I mean really? SMH

 

[AzStevenCal]

Does anyone have a solution for Gronk??? I mean really? SMH

Other than throwing a killer party the night before, there's not much you can do with Gronk.