Interesting morning blogs

[Skkorpion]

First, Darren Urban on Pendergast's contract:
http://azcardinals.com/blog/blog.php?author=1
Tres cool.

Then, Kent Somers on contract talks between Graves and Dansby's agent; on true status of our free agents (which joeschmo knows anyway):
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/KentSomers
Even more tres cool.

Mods -- It's time to re-stickie joeschmo's master cap list so we can refer to it as free agency unfolds. If Dansby or any of the others strike a deal, our numbers will change fast. Please.

 

[Skkorpion]

Oops. didn't see the other thread.

 

[abomb]

Oops. didn't see the other thread.

No worries, I just bumped an old one.

 

[Stout]

Ugh, Pendy really has been retained...why, oh why? I am soooo sick and frakkin' tired of 3-man rushes, 10-yd CB cusions, and painfully predictable blitzes. Ugh.

 

[Pariah]

Count me among those that still likes Pendy. We're woefully undermanned on defense--even if we're at full strength. Add in the injuries to the 2 starting OLBs and it's a wonder the defense ever really even showed flashes of brilliance.

 

[slanidrac16]

Ugh, Pendy really has been retained...why, oh why? I am soooo sick and frakkin' tired of 3-man rushes, 10-yd CB cusions, and painfully predictable blitzes. Ugh.

You have to admit he did a pretty good job considering the games that we played without Dansby, Wilson, Berry, and Green. Thats 4 starters or about 35% of your defense.
I think if we bulk up the defense thru f/a and the draft and with Okeafor returning, it frees Pendy to play it straight up at times instead of trying to scheme and disguise our way thru a game.

 

[joeshmo]

First, Darren Urban on Pendergast's contract:
http://azcardinals.com/blog/blog.php?author=1
Tres cool.

Then, Kent Somers on contract talks between Graves and Dansby's agent; on true status of our free agents (which joeschmo knows anyway):
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/KentSomers
Even more tres cool.

Mods -- It's time to re-stickie joeschmo's master cap list so we can refer to it as free agency unfolds. If Dansby or any of the others strike a deal, our numbers will change fast. Please.

You can resticky it for refrence purposes, but those will be 2007 #'s and not accurate for right now. I probably wont have the 2008 version up until Late Feb. and up before March when free agency starts. Going through a move and most of my internet time is from work.

 

[SuperSpck]

Like the usage of "Tres Cool".

Just being a member of a board where it's used makes me feel fancy.

A special fancy too, the kind where I can pretend I don't eat most meals out of a can.

 

[Pariah]

Like the usage of "Tres Cool".

Just being a member of a board where it's used makes me feel fancy.

A special fancy too, the kind where I can pretend I don't eat most meals out of a can.

Get help.

Or, if it makes you feel even fancier: "Obtenez l'aide."

 

[DaisyCutter]

Like the usage of "Tres Cool".

Just being a member of a board where it's used makes me feel fancy.

A special fancy too, the kind where I can pretend I don't eat most meals out of a can.

Shouldn't it be "tres froid"?

 

[Duckjake]

Count me among those that still likes Pendy. We're woefully undermanned on defense--even if we're at full strength. Add in the injuries to the 2 starting OLBs and it's a wonder the defense ever really even showed flashes of brilliance.

That doesn't speak well for building through the draft since the majority of the starters on the D are Cardinal draftees.

Dockett,Watson,Smith,Pace,Hayes,Dansby,Green, and Wilson, and Rolle is the nickel CB. That's 9 of the first 12.

I think we have really good starters for the most part on defense but a poor scheme for pass defense. That scheme allows the Cards to give up too many short to mid range passes, especially on third down. The number of 20+ and 40+ passes went down last year from 2006 even though our opponents threw the ball more.

Meanwhile our rushing defense improved- based on yards per attempt- from 18th to 10th. The highest the Cards have finished since 1996.*

*We sure got to see a lot of things from our boys in 2007 that we haven't seen in a long time.

 

[Pariah]

That doesn't speak well for building through the draft since the majority of the starters on the D are Cardinal draftees.

Dockett,Watson,Smith,Pace,Hayes,Dansby,Green, and Wilson, and Rolle is the nickel CB. That's 9 of the first 12.

I dunno. All 9 of those guys might be capable players. As you know, a football team is the classic example of the "only as strong as your weakest link" saying. When you're exposed in one aspect of the game, you expose yourself in others at various points in the game in order to try to make up for it.

Also, our depth was revealed to be paper-thin--that's a huge part of a successful defense, IMO: quality depth.

But, to take a closer look at those 9 guys: Two of them weren't supposed to be starters this year (Pace and Rolle), Wilson missed 25% of the season.

Our overall CB play will improve greatly with the addition of a single player: a cover corner. Green and Hood are better suited as #2s, IMO.

Our OLB/DE play should improve with Okeafor coming back. But it's still a position that needs to be addressed. This should improve the pass rush AND the coverage.

Also, we'll hopefully be able to find a suitable replacement for Holt in the offseason.

 

[cardsfanmd]

You have to admit he did a pretty good job considering the games that we played without Dansby, Wilson, Berry, and Green. Thats 4 starters or about 35% of your defense.

You are forgetting Chike and Francisco.

 

[football karma]

That doesn't speak well for building through the draft since the majority of the starters on the D are Cardinal draftees.

Dockett,Watson,Smith,Pace,Hayes,Dansby,Green, and Wilson, and Rolle is the nickel CB. That's 9 of the first 12.

I think we have really good starters for the most part on defense but a poor scheme for pass defense. That scheme allows the Cards to give up too many short to mid range passes, especially on third down. The number of 20+ and 40+ passes went down last year from 2006 even though our opponents threw the ball more.

Meanwhile our rushing defense improved- based on yards per attempt- from 18th to 10th. The highest the Cards have finished since 1996.*

*We sure got to see a lot of things from our boys in 2007 that we haven't seen in a long time.

I dont think so much it was poor scheme, but rather two compounding weaknesses --

you can get away with so-so corner/safety play if you have a good pass rush.

You can get away with mediocre pass rushers if you have good secondary play.

When Berry and Green and Wilson all went down, it exposed an aspect of the defense that had been just hanging on with them--- so-so secondary play and a lack of a pass rush.

To make the defense playoff quality, the Cards need a free safety and one of: lockdown corner or threat at edge pass rusher.

 

[lobo]

Count me among those that still likes Pendy. We're woefully undermanned on defense--even if we're at full strength. Add in the injuries to the 2 starting OLBs and it's a wonder the defense ever really even showed flashes of brilliance.

Me too! He had to play a very tough hand and he did it well. Very creative and when we get healthier and after this F/A and draft season I am sure the emphasis will be on D.

 

[Duckjake]

I dont think so much it was poor scheme, but rather two compounding weaknesses --

you can get away with so-so corner/safety play if you have a good pass rush.

You can get away with mediocre pass rushers if you have good secondary play.

When Berry and Green and Wilson all went down, it exposed an aspect of the defense that had been just hanging on with them--- so-so secondary play and a lack of a pass rush.

To make the defense playoff quality, the Cards need a free safety and one of: lockdown corner or threat at edge pass rusher.

The more I look at the numbers and videos from last season the more I'm thinking getting a Safety that can cover is more important than a CB. I just don't know what good a "lockdown" corner is going to do when he's 25 yards downfield covering his guy and 2 other receivers are wide open 10 yards over the middle.

 

[Dr. Jones]

I see Rolle filling that role. (No pun intended) Wiz said that he was really pondering this.

Then replacing him with anoth CB will become more of a priority.

 

[football karma]

The more I look at the numbers and videos from last season the more I'm thinking getting a Safety that can cover is more important than a CB. I just don't know what good a "lockdown" corner is going to do when he's 25 yards downfield covering his guy and 2 other receivers are wide open 10 yards over the middle.

I agree, its why I put "free safety, and then one of...."

 

[Stout]

You have to admit he did a pretty good job considering the games that we played without Dansby, Wilson, Berry, and Green. Thats 4 starters or about 35% of your defense.
I think if we bulk up the defense thru f/a and the draft and with Okeafor returning, it frees Pendy to play it straight up at times instead of trying to scheme and disguise our way thru a game.

No, I really don't have to agree to it. When something like that happens, that is when a DC earns his salt. Sure, a great DC will take good players and make them great, but it's the direction he takes when he's ravaged by injuries that proves his true worth, IMO. When guys go down, you need to do everything possible to make up for those deficiencies. If you're weak in pass D because you're corners are bad and you cannot rush the passer, you do NOT, DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT, fall back to rushing three and playing 10-15 yards off the ball. Good lord, that is inviting an offense to shred you methodically and systematically. When you finally do find the cajones to call a blitz, you don't simply call a gap-zone blitz. It's predictable and, predictably, usually gets picked up.

Instead of hiding our shortcomings, Pendy laid them out there for other teams to exploit. Now, I'm not saying that a good DC would have kept us together and given us a good defense. He would have kept us from being woefully inadequate, however, which is what we were in key games.

I still fail to see the Pendy manlove. Our defense, for the entire time he's been here, has been horrendous. You can only defend the guy for so long. We don't need to take baby steps in our defensive improvements; we need to take a giant leap forward. Pendy is NOT the man that can possibly get that done.

 

[JeffGollin]

The Secondary

Each year for as long as I can remember, I look at the Cardinal secondary in the offseason and say to myself: "We've got to get better there or we're doomed."

Then I look at what's out there in free agency and the draft and (with the exception of the A-Dub and the Rolle-Green draft) I see slim pickins.

And then we come into training camp with a secondary consisting of A-Dub and a bunch of pretty decent (but not good enough) guys patched together with duct tape.

And then we get gashed during regular season.

Other teams with mediocre secondaries find ways to improve. We tend to remain in the same old, "almost-decent" rut. How come? A couple of thoughts:

1. We're not good at drafting raw talent at corner later in the draft.

2. We're not very good at developing that raw talent.

Which brings us to Tyrel Austin. He's our secondary coach. In all fairness, it's hard for us to know what his impact on developing our young QB talent has really been. But I do think it's fair to hold him under the microscope and start asking questions like how good he is at coaching-up young DB's, whether he can develop Eric Green and Antrel Rolle into really good quality starting QB's and what it will take to acquire and develop what our secondary needs to be a Top 10 unit.

(Note - One thing you hear about the current Seattle secondary is how well its safeties are playing. Both Hamlin and Millkin are gone. They've got new guys back there now. They also no longer have Austin coaching their secondary).

To reiterate - it's hard for us fans to know what's really going on coaching-wise on day to day basis between games and during the offseason. Maybe Tyrel is doing a crackerjack job. (For example, despite Rolle not performing well as a #1 or #2 corner, he sure looked good as a #3 slot-corner - maybe that was Tyrel's doing). But, as fans, we're still waiting to see better results from our secondary and I do think it's fair to ask the tough questions.

 

[CardLogic]

I think Stout's post (#19 above) has some legitimacy.

I can't recall one time, not once, during the season, or last year for that matter that the Cardinals ran a corner blitz. Wasn't that one of Rolle's strengths at Miami?

Pendergast is an enigma as DC. At times the defense looks good, will be playing well and then when the Cardinals have a lead, they go into that soft zone, prevent crap! We all know the outcome of that!

 

[Pariah]

They say blowing top-ten draft picks can set a franchise back years. I think that's what happened to our secondary. The Cardinals were counting on Rolle to solidify the secondary be being that lock-down CB. He's not.

But if he was, I think we might be have a far different conversation about the defense right now.

 

[slanidrac16]

That doesn't speak well for building through the draft since the majority of the starters on the D are Cardinal draftees.

Dockett,Watson,Smith,Pace,Hayes,Dansby,Green, and Wilson, and Rolle is the nickel CB. That's 9 of the first 12.

I think we have really good starters for the most part on defense but a poor scheme for pass defense. That scheme allows the Cards to give up too many short to mid range passes, especially on third down. The number of 20+ and 40+ passes went down last year from 2006 even though our opponents threw the ball more.

Meanwhile our rushing defense improved- based on yards per attempt- from 18th to 10th. The highest the Cards have finished since 1996.*

*We sure got to see a lot of things from our boys in 2007 that we haven't seen in a long time.

En Fuego said it before I could. This defense would improve tremendously with 1 lock down CB. A guy like that takes away half the field. It's damn near impossible to have a great defense with an average pass rush AND average CB's.

 

[slanidrac16]

No, I really don't have to agree to it. When something like that happens, that is when a DC earns his salt. Sure, a great DC will take good players and make them great, but it's the direction he takes when he's ravaged by injuries that proves his true worth, IMO. When guys go down, you need to do everything possible to make up for those deficiencies. If you're weak in pass D because you're corners are bad and you cannot rush the passer, you do NOT, DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT, fall back to rushing three and playing 10-15 yards off the ball. Good lord, that is inviting an offense to shred you methodically and systematically. When you finally do find the cajones to call a blitz, you don't simply call a gap-zone blitz. It's predictable and, predictably, usually gets picked up.

Instead of hiding our shortcomings, Pendy laid them out there for other teams to exploit. Now, I'm not saying that a good DC would have kept us together and given us a good defense. He would have kept us from being woefully inadequate, however, which is what we were in key games.

I still fail to see the Pendy manlove. Our defense, for the entire time he's been here, has been horrendous. You can only defend the guy for so long. We don't need to take baby steps in our defensive improvements; we need to take a giant leap forward. Pendy is NOT the man that can possibly get that done.

It was not ALL doom and gloom this season. We had to be near the top of defensive scoring. We did set a modern day record holding Detroit to -18 yards rushing.
I'm not saying that Pendy is the God of all God's DC. But we have to at least understand you can't spin gold out of yarn.
I just think we don't have to blow up the whole defense to get to where we want to go.

 

[jmr667]

Other teams with mediocre secondaries find ways to improve. We tend to remain in the same old, "almost-decent" rut. How come? A couple of thoughts:

Which brings us to Tyrel Austin. He's our secondary coach. In all fairness, it's hard for us to know what his impact on developing our young QB talent has really been. But I do think it's fair to hold him under the microscope and start asking questions like how good he is at coaching-up young DB's, whether he can develop Eric Green and Antrel Rolle into really good quality starting QB's and what it will take to acquire and develop what our secondary needs to be a Top 10 unit.
To reiterate - it's hard for us fans to know what's really going on coaching-wise on day to day basis between games and during the offseason. Maybe Tyrel is doing a crackerjack job. (For example, despite Rolle not performing well as a #1 or #2 corner, he sure looked good as a #3 slot-corner - maybe that was Tyrel's doing). But, as fans, we're still waiting to see better results from our secondary and I do think it's fair to ask the tough questions.

I remember after one of the games later in the season (Atlanta or New Orleans), Whiz was quoted saying something to the effect of our DB's need to be more aware of what the defense is doing. He gave an example of the CB's backing off too far on third down when the defensive play call was for a blitz and leaving slants or short outs open.
The pass defense seemed to work fairly well against the Rams. Hopefully this is a sign someone sorted out the communication between the secondary and the rest of the defense. Who knows if the blame is on Pendergast or if its on Austin as the DB coach. I was just happy someone on the coaching staff spotted the obvious problem with the DBs lining up 5-10 yards past the 1st down marker on 3rd downs. Gives hope that they'll have it corrected for next year.