Tom Brady strikes me as a wuss too! never stopped him from being an all time winner. The team rallied around him cause the coach told them to rally around him. Many were loyal to bledsloe.
There might be something wrong with our fan base but in the Cards site poll 85% of Cards fans wanted Matt to start, right when Whiz cut him.
I think Matt's recent and prior treatment is as relevent to our future as it is to our recent and distant past. but thats just me I respect others opinions.
as far as the run game, this is the first time The Bean got 20 carries and he had them beat down in the 4th quarter, 1st down for 5, 2nd for 3 1/3 Max Hall dead duck pass on 3rd and 1! thats on Whiz!
against a stacked box, defense knew we were going to run to keep the clock going, The Bean imposed his will on them Saints. I think that will happen 90% of the games if Whiz wasn't allergic to running the ball with balance.
We were closer but still pass heavy and won. UFA QB or pro bowler, we won games early in 08 and 07 with a pounding Edge for few yards.
take that away and we collapsed late in the reg season until guess what, Edge was featured again in Seattle and the playoffs,
took it away for the SB and we lost a close one. We can win every time against bad teams and many times against good teams if we just had the saints or Vikings play selection. regardless of the QB.
I am not sure why the team didn't buy into Matt Leinart. It may be that he was accustomed to throwing money at things to make it work-----and that may have been because that's what his folks did with him. I'll try to explain.
Many parents of people Leinart's age did the same thing. They couldn't be bothered with their kids, due to both of them trying to get to the top of thier jobs and excell. Many parents both had jobs, and when they got off work, they didn't want to be fixing dinner or watching kids. They wanted to eat out, and have coctails-----consequently they gave their kids money to go and do things so they didn't have to be bothered with them. Matt may have done what he knew,
Leinart tried to rally his offensive line around him by taking them to Hawaii. Many of them may have resented this act, though they certainly went along for the ride. He may have actually alienated his O-linemen by doing so. He might have been better off doing something on the field that they respected, or even having them and their families over for bbq and beers. I hope this is making sense to you. I guess I'm trying to say that he might have been better off doing something much more simple and less costly to endear them to him. Not everybody can throw that kind of money around, and some might resent that.
So far as the running game is concerned, I agree with you that much of our lack in this effort is because of Whiz's choices. We have an O-line coach who wants to run to impose our will on the opponent, and has built his line to do that. We have two strong running backs who can work in tandem to accomplish that, (and I agree that BEanie did in the Saints game). That third and one pass was a terrible call, after the two runs that Beanie had just put on the board. I also think that Whiz tips off much of our run game by the personnel packages he uses when he wants to run. Beanie or Timmy alone in the backfield, (early in the game on 1st or 2nd down), almost always a running play. Timmy and LSH in the game together, almost always a pass play.
We really don't run the ball enough to cause the defense to defend play action passes. We always pass in those situations and the defense knows it. We really need to run at least as much as we throw, probably more. I would like to see us running slightly more than we pass the ball. I would also like to see us change up our personnel packages. Could you see Beanie and Timmy together in the backfield? What would happen if we had that situation and play actioned to one of them then threw to the other one out of the backfield? Think the defense might be caught off guard?
I guess that I would REALLY like to see Whiz give up play calling after this season, and bring in another OC like Todd Haley, who did us one tremendous job, and allowed Whiz to do his HC duties.
