Brian: “When we sat down with Ryan Lindley and the Cardinals coaches, they talked about his calm. There is a fine line between being calm and being so new that you don’t know just how bad things are.” (REMEMBER THIS; it may come up later.)
14:54 — As Ryan Lindley takes the field, Fox puts up this graphic:
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I'm guessing there aren’t many Lindley family members in the production truck.
14:21 — Lindley connects on a deep sideline pass to Fitzgerald. Perfect throw. (Lindley confidence building ...)
13:05, Thom — “Lindley throws too high and too firm for Stephens-Howling.” (This was probably his seventh-best throw of the day.)
10:53 — Lindley nearly intercepted on batted pass.
10:47 — Lindley not intercepted, or even nearly intercepted, on a handoff to Beanie Wells.
10:01 — Lindley intercepted.
This graphic goes up to summarize the offensive efforts:
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1:11 — Lindley’s play inspires Brennaman to finally break down and stop making excuses for him: “I gotta be honest with you, Brian, and Lindley is only a rookie so it is not taking him to task — Sanchez is in his fourth year — but this is about as ugly and as inept a game offensively as I can recall in a long time." (As he is saying this, Cardinals fake punt for a 40-yard gain.)
Brian: “Well, here is your chance. This is what you have to do ...”
:33, Thom — “Well, I gotta tell ya, Brian, they are nowhere within even five yards of completing a pass on the last five to seven attempts that they have made throwing the football.” (Brennaman is broken at this point. There is a 75 percent chance he is shirtless and chugging a bottle of Wild Turkey in the booth, calling the game while he gets a tattoo.)
Brian (attempting to maintain some sort of professionalism) — “Yeah, I feel your pain.” (I think he's talking about the tattoo.)
0:00, Thom — “We have actually a scoring chance for the Cardinals. First of the game. Aaaaand whaddya know? We go to halftime with POINTS ON THE BOARD.”
13:53, Thom, as Lindley takes the field — “You heard Laura relaying her conversation with Ken Whisenhunt, and he was saying, ‘You know, we will find some of the things that Lindley is comfortable with.’
Is there anything that you saw from this Arizona offense that you think Lindley is comfortable with?”
Brian — “Yeah, turning around and handing the ball off.” (Yes, he really said that. I can’t write jokes that funny.)
13:53-4:48, Thom, after another errant Lindley pass — “And this is back to what we saw in the first half. I mean, the Cardinals are five to seven yards away from completing a pass…”
Brian — “Ryan Lindley doesn’t even know what he is seeing. We talked about earlier. It is one thing to have calm in the face of pressure. It is another thing to be oblivious to everything around you in the fog of war.” (OBLIVIOUS TO EVERYTHING AROUND YOU IN THE FOG OF WAR!!!!! Is this Hemingway?)
10:51 — Lindley throws 15 yards away from a wide-open Fitzgerald.
There is a pause because this is normally where Billick adds analysis. There is silence for 10 seconds. It has to be noted here just how badly Lindley is missing throws. You honestly wonder if he slipped, or if he was targeting someone else, or if this is some sort of performance art.
10:39 — Cardinals kick a field goal. It’s a one-point game.
