Game Balls

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For me, I'm giving game balls to some guys I doubted who had good games today:
Kirk
Murphy
Chase (not because he was stellar, but he was better today than I thought he would be)
Alford (for simply being healthy and not getting beaten like a rented mule

lol @Krangthebrain trolling his "class"
 

Cards_Campos

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I’m going to tell you who deserves a game ball and he didn’t have great stats. JJ Watt. Dude made some huge tackles early on Henry and you could tell the OL was worried about him on a few of Jones’s sacks. His leadership I guarantee was on display and his motor. He is as good as advertised. He is a difference maker without getting big stats.
 

Russ Smith

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I’d like to give a sneaky small game ball to chase Edmonds

avergaed over 5.4 ypc and over 10 yards per catch at RB. He was solid.


I love Chase the first guy rarely gets him and for a guy who's quick and elusive he doesn't mess around. Drake first year here was great but after that he started trying to break everything outside looking for home runs instead of taking the yards there.
 

Russ Smith

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He is lightning fast. You can see it the moment he touches the ball.

his first few steps are electric. Again that screen he took for good yardage that was good blocking but he got way more yards than were blocked because he hit the gas so quickly. Can't find video of it but the acceleration was so impressive.
 

Russ Smith

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I put those forced timeouts on Murray. The man has to watch the snap clock. And he still hasnt learned.

2 of them were because we subbed and then the refs let the Titans sub and you can't snap it until they get off the ball. That's why KK was so mad he thought the time allowed for titans to sub was intentionally delayed.
 

Krangodnzr

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For me, I'm giving game balls to some guys I doubted who had good games today:
Kirk
Murphy
Chase (not because he was stellar, but he was better today than I thought he would be)
Alford (for simply being healthy and not getting beaten like a rented mule

lol @Krangthebrain trolling his "class"
Chase played about as good as Chase normally does when he gets touches. I've never understood the Chase doubt other than his durability.
 

Krangodnzr

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Game balls offense:

Murray. Probably his best game yet. The Cardinals rarely win when Murray doesn't put up big rushing numbers, but he rarely ran yesterday. He also completed a few throws while scrambling which he has struggled to do in the past.

Hopkins. DHop is the rock in which this offense is built on. Did anyone notice that he ran routes from different positions? Looks like Kingsbury did a proper post mortem last season. Hopkins will have another monster year.

Kirk. I said it all offseason, Kirk was going to be much better in the slot and it proved true.

Honorable mentions: Rondale and Chase. Both made plays. Chase had over 100 yards total offense. He will easily go over 1000 yards this year. Rondale makes a good offense even better. He was the missing piece to run WR screens, though Kirk can be good running screens too so it shouldn't be too predictable.

Jones. I think most of us were sleeping on Jones. He looks better than ever and he beat up a damn good LT.

Simmons. He has gotten a lot of negativity from fans on this board, but he is a great player when he is able to have simple keys to read. Simmons should post a lot of splash plays this year.

Murphy. It was always fake news that Murphy was a bad player. His statistics showed he was an average corner last year. Its not crazy to expect a 2nd year corner to improve going into year three, which is when alot of NFL players really take off. Murphy made a few big PBUs and it didn't look like he will struggle as the #1 guy.

Honorable mentions: Watt, Wilson/Alford, and Hicks. Watt was sucking up blockers and make nice trench plays. He will make the rest of the DL better. Wilson and Alford quietly played well. Hicks will play a lot of snaps this year against run heavy teams and he will be a steady player.

Shout out to Kingsbury. He calls a much better game than fans give him credit. His game management undermines him at times, but he calls as good and offensive game as any Cardinals playcaller has.
 

Chopper0080

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Game balls offense:

Murray. Probably his best game yet. The Cardinals rarely win when Murray doesn't put up big rushing numbers, but he rarely ran yesterday. He also completed a few throws while scrambling which he has struggled to do in the past.

Hopkins. DHop is the rock in which this offense is built on. Did anyone notice that he ran routes from different positions? Looks like Kingsbury did a proper post mortem last season. Hopkins will have another monster year.

Kirk. I said it all offseason, Kirk was going to be much better in the slot and it proved true.

Honorable mentions: Rondale and Chase. Both made plays. Chase had over 100 yards total offense. He will easily go over 1000 yards this year. Rondale makes a good offense even better. He was the missing piece to run WR screens, though Kirk can be good running screens too so it shouldn't be too predictable.

Jones. I think most of us were sleeping on Jones. He looks better than ever and he beat up a damn good LT.

Simmons. He has gotten a lot of negativity from fans on this board, but he is a great player when he is able to have simple keys to read. Simmons should post a lot of splash plays this year.

Murphy. It was always fake news that Murphy was a bad player. His statistics showed he was an average corner last year. Its not crazy to expect a 2nd year corner to improve going into year three, which is when alot of NFL players really take off. Murphy made a few big PBUs and it didn't look like he will struggle as the #1 guy.

Honorable mentions: Watt, Wilson/Alford, and Hicks. Watt was sucking up blockers and make nice trench plays. He will make the rest of the DL better. Wilson and Alford quietly played well. Hicks will play a lot of snaps this year against run heavy teams and he will be a steady player.

Shout out to Kingsbury. He calls a much better game than fans give him credit. His game management undermines him at times, but he calls as good and offensive game as any Cardinals playcaller has.
I feel like this is misconstrued. The criticism has been that the need at RT was greater and there were very good players available. The other criticism was that they took a ILB at 8 and then didn't play him. None of those are critical of Simmons as a player. I don't feel like I have ever read a post questioning Simmons as a player on this board.
 

Krangodnzr

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I feel like this is misconstrued. The criticism has been that the need at RT was greater and there were very good players available. The other criticism was that they took a ILB at 8 and then didn't play him. None of those are critical of Simmons as a player. I don't feel like I have ever read a post questioning Simmons as a player on this board.
Yeah I can see that.

I would argue that having defensive playmaker is huge, and few ILBs have Simmons skill set.
 

BullheadCardFan

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I’m going to tell you who deserves a game ball and he didn’t have great stats. JJ Watt. Dude made some huge tackles early on Henry and you could tell the OL was worried about him on a few of Jones’s sacks. His leadership I guarantee was on display and his motor. He is as good as advertised. He is a difference maker without getting big stats.
Plus he brings a positive attitude

So far so good

If he's making guys accountable then better yet
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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Chase played about as good as Chase normally does when he gets touches. I've never understood the Chase doubt other than his durability.
I don’t know about others, but I’ve always thought chase was at least an average back. Hoped maybe we found a gem like shady McCoy or Westbrook, but I know that’s a long shot. Like you it’s his durability that’s the biggest question for me.
 
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Yup Chase again over 5 ypc and over 10 on catches... when he plays he’s productive.
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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I feel like this is misconstrued. The criticism has been that the need at RT was greater and there were very good players available. The other criticism was that they took a ILB at 8 and then didn't play him. None of those are critical of Simmons as a player. I don't feel like I have ever read a post questioning Simmons as a player on this board.
Agreed. The most criticism of Simmons I’ve seen have been either a) he’s being played outta position at ILB or b) maybe he wasn’t picking up the D quickly - which was really more conjecture early and mid season last year than late or into the offseason.
 

Krangodnzr

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I don’t know about others, but I’ve always thought chase was at least an average back. Hoped maybe we found a gem like shady McCoy or Westbrook, but I know that’s a long shot. Like you it’s his durability that’s the biggest question for me.
This is why I let out my annoyance in a rather jerkish manner yesterday:

YES there were a lot of "ifs" on the roster, but quite a few posters stretched situations to make them MORE negative than they really were. This is the most talented Cardinals team since 2015, easily, and if you look at some of the comments on this board, you'd assume it wasn't.

Chase Edmonds is a good NFL running back. He hasn't had a ton of opportunities, but when he has been called on, he has played pretty well for the most part. Some posters acted like Chase is a total scrub and that's just blatantly false.

Edmonds and Conner are average NFL RBs and you can win with average RBs.
 

Jetstream Green

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Game balls offense:

Murray. Probably his best game yet. The Cardinals rarely win when Murray doesn't put up big rushing numbers, but he rarely ran yesterday. He also completed a few throws while scrambling which he has struggled to do in the past.

Hopkins. DHop is the rock in which this offense is built on. Did anyone notice that he ran routes from different positions? Looks like Kingsbury did a proper post mortem last season. Hopkins will have another monster year.

Kirk. I said it all offseason, Kirk was going to be much better in the slot and it proved true.

Honorable mentions: Rondale and Chase. Both made plays. Chase had over 100 yards total offense. He will easily go over 1000 yards this year. Rondale makes a good offense even better. He was the missing piece to run WR screens, though Kirk can be good running screens too so it shouldn't be too predictable.

Jones. I think most of us were sleeping on Jones. He looks better than ever and he beat up a damn good LT.

Simmons. He has gotten a lot of negativity from fans on this board, but he is a great player when he is able to have simple keys to read. Simmons should post a lot of splash plays this year.

Murphy. It was always fake news that Murphy was a bad player. His statistics showed he was an average corner last year. Its not crazy to expect a 2nd year corner to improve going into year three, which is when alot of NFL players really take off. Murphy made a few big PBUs and it didn't look like he will struggle as the #1 guy.

Honorable mentions: Watt, Wilson/Alford, and Hicks. Watt was sucking up blockers and make nice trench plays. He will make the rest of the DL better. Wilson and Alford quietly played well. Hicks will play a lot of snaps this year against run heavy teams and he will be a steady player.

Shout out to Kingsbury. He calls a much better game than fans give him credit. His game management undermines him at times, but he calls as good and offensive game as any Cardinals playcaller has.
Shout out to freaking Vance Joseph too... first game, East Coast on the road, against a recent playoff team with high expectations, media ramming it down everyone throats not giving us a chance, welcome to the NFC West Titans and have fun with the other three games :)
 

jf-08

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Murphy

A decent player who has been much maligned by darksiders, but not based on actual performance.

Cardinals 1 - Darkside 0
Please don't call out others for being darksiders. This schtick is getting old.
 

Krangodnzr

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Shout out to freaking Vance Joseph too... first game, East Coast on the road, against a recent playoff team with high expectations, media ramming it down everyone throats not giving us a chance, welcome to the NFC West Titans and have fun with the other three games :)
His game plan was great. First and foremost stop the run on your way to QB. Pressure on Tannehill was the reason the Titans offense imploded.

One of the keys to stopping Henry is to hit him early in his carries and the Cardinals did a great job of that early in the game, didn't allow him to get a head of steam.
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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This is why I let out my annoyance in a rather jerkish manner yesterday:

YES there were a lot of "ifs" on the roster, but quite a few posters stretched situations to make them MORE negative than they really were. This is the most talented Cardinals team since 2015, easily, and if you look at some of the comments on this board, you'd assume it wasn't.

Chase Edmonds is a good NFL running back. He hasn't had a ton of opportunities, but when he has been called on, he has played pretty well for the most part. Some posters acted like Chase is a total scrub and that's just blatantly false.

Edmonds and Conner are average NFL RBs and you can win with average RBs.
But the truth was none of had a real idea what chase would be as a more primary back. I can see both sides of the coin with him. In limited action he’s looked good. But he is smaller and when he’s had bigger loads it hasn’t always been great. He’s now venturing into unexplored territory for his NFL career, so I think it was reasonable for people to see both potential scenarios play out.
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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Kyler Murray

Chandler Jones

C. Kirk

D. Hop

Isiah Simmons

The whole secondary against those two WRs. Which admit we were all shaking in our boots about.
9 game balls seems like they are participation trophies. Fight me.
 
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