Catfish
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- Joined
- Aug 14, 2006
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- 64
I certainly hope so, because I know that I am very tired of his having fun.
That is why he likes to call his own plays, because he says it is fun. I have had about all this fun that I can stand now, and many of the players and fans must be feeling the same way.
He did a fairly remarkable job of setting this team up during the 'offseason of huge change', to take advantage of an improved defense over last year's version-----and of building an offensive line designed to be a run first group. All along, he was pretty much set in starting Matt Leinart, a journeyman back-up QB, who had pretty much learned from Warner, how to read defenses, and check down to the receiver that the defense gave him, and to manage the game, not trying to force what wasn't there. It is a shame that we did not see that version of Cardinal football here, because it just might have been successfull. We will never know, because during the second to the last week of pre-season, Whiz blew up the whole plan.
He, instead, opted to go for a strong armed gun-slinger at QB, (running off Leinart in the process), and going back to the multiple WR sets of the Warner days accompanied by the pass first philosophy. We were never so poorly constructed to accomodate such a plan. We are stuck with a run-the-ball O-line, who has trouble pass protecting. Then, our receiving corps, became injured, (at least at the top echelon, 1,2 & 3), necessitating the forced use of untried rookies, and practice team castoffs as our WR corps. Then, we topped the offense off by keeping no less than 4 TE's on the roster, apparently none who can either catch or block, because we harldy ever attempt to use them for either. Even when we do try to pass to them, the results are putrid, and I have never seen them become a force at chipping the edge rushers or run blocking successfully in any significant way.
We built a running back corps, based on solid promise by Tim Hightower, which quickly turned to fumblitis, which resulted in his getting benched for Edgarin James during the playoff run of '08. In '09 we drafted Beanie Wells to allegedly subplant James and make a solid tandem or RB's, geared to compete with the best in the league. Beanie was to learn from Hightower, who had learned from James. Apparently they lost interest, during the wide open arial attack under Warner, because about all Beanie learned to do was to fumble like Timmy did, and Timmy was not being held very accountable for it, (though Beanie was). While Warner's offense did not fly quite as high as it had in '08, the running game was never held to really be accountable, because Whiz could rely on Warner's arm and guile.
Not to worry though, because Whiz was 'having fun' calling his own plays again after Haley left for the KC head coaching job.
This year, with emphasis on rebuilding the Defense, we muddled through OTA's, and then TC without a lot of concern about Offense. Whiz proclaimed Leinart the starting QB, and when asked about the Offense, would only proclaim that it would be 'different'. Most people felt that this meant a run first approach with run plays nearing the equal of passing plays. Everything seemed to be set up for that, then something happened. I am not sure just what it was, but suddenly, Whiz hit the panic button, blew Leinart off, and opted for DA and his erratic cannon, and proclaimed that we more likely to win with DA at the helm than Leinart, an mostly accurate passer with a check-down mentality who managed the game and took what was there to be had.
Suddenly Whiz dreamed of going deep to multiple receivers, and passing our way out of the 8 men that most teams put in the box against us. I suspect that this was because of a number of things. 1. Whiz loved the play calling and fast action of a pass first, multiple receiver set package. 2. Whiz began to suspect that he could not rely on his running backs corps to pack the mail for him without fumbling and turning the ball over early, thereby putting us constantly into a hole. 3. He may have even heard rumblings from some of his more 'elite' receivers, that they would not be happy going through the paces while we ran the ball. In any event, we changed to a gunslinger mentality, and promptly shot ourselves in the foot.
The QB stats and results were horrific to say the least with DA at QB. After 3 and a half games, Whiz opted for Max Hall to play QB. The players did seem to gravitate to him after DA's dismal performances, during the second half of the San Diego game on the road. In any event, Whiz proclaimed that he would be starting Max at home against the Saints, and that he gave us the best chance to win. Whis did say, that he would hold DA in reserve though, and would bring him off the bench cold if needed, because he might perform better if he didn't have to worry about being the starter etc.
Maximus, though he led us to no scores, benefitted fom the relief of both the offense and the defense, at not having to worry about DA throwing the game away and busting their morale. Whiz proudly announced that he would start Max again on the road against Seattle at Quest and their loud environment. Whiz had a make-shift crowd noise machine put together, and put it on the field behind the QB to emulate the Quest crowd. We were thusly, ready to invade the Green horde in the Great Pacific North West---NOT-----. Max was horrible, and DA, subbed for him and gave us a good series, then promptly reverted to going 4 for 16 the ramainder of the game, in a numbing loss.
Sadly, today, must have been the end of the Max experiment, as clearly, he is not ready, or maybe never will be ready, for NFL football. DA came on to bring us back into the game, only to inexplicably throw an interception when trailing 38-35 in the last minutes of the game at home agains Tampa. We had just moved into the red zone, and had two timeouts remaining, and although Beanie had left the game in pain after his last previous carry, we did not attempt to run the ball even once after getting down into the red zone, and needing only a field goal to tie and take it into overtime. The only thing that Whiz proved for sure, was that while he may not have trusted the run game, NOBODY can trust our QB's to throw.
Surely, now that Whiz has run out of options, we will return to some kind of game plan that manages the game, so that we are near enough to strike at the end to win. That may mean force feeding both Beanie and Timmy enough runs that they are too tired to fumble. It may be playing DA much like Whiz would have surely played Leinart, had we not run him off, and merely tried to manage the game, not attempt to gamble for it. Most of all, it will SURELY force Whiz to let Gabe Watson out of the dog house, (for whatever reason he has been regelated there), and having him start at the nose, with Dan Williams spelling him, so that we no longer continue to give up runs, up the middle, on third down and long yardage. Just maybe, Bryan Robinson can mentor him from the bench instead of on the field-----which makes no sense to me anyway, because when Robinson is on the field, Williams is on the bench, and vice versa. It would seem more prophetic to me to have Robby on the bench with Williams to talk about a particular play, and what the nose tackle should have done, or how he should have played that situation. But then-----I am only guessing about all this, because I am not an NFL coach, and I certainly am not an engineer------!!!!!
That is why he likes to call his own plays, because he says it is fun. I have had about all this fun that I can stand now, and many of the players and fans must be feeling the same way.
He did a fairly remarkable job of setting this team up during the 'offseason of huge change', to take advantage of an improved defense over last year's version-----and of building an offensive line designed to be a run first group. All along, he was pretty much set in starting Matt Leinart, a journeyman back-up QB, who had pretty much learned from Warner, how to read defenses, and check down to the receiver that the defense gave him, and to manage the game, not trying to force what wasn't there. It is a shame that we did not see that version of Cardinal football here, because it just might have been successfull. We will never know, because during the second to the last week of pre-season, Whiz blew up the whole plan.
He, instead, opted to go for a strong armed gun-slinger at QB, (running off Leinart in the process), and going back to the multiple WR sets of the Warner days accompanied by the pass first philosophy. We were never so poorly constructed to accomodate such a plan. We are stuck with a run-the-ball O-line, who has trouble pass protecting. Then, our receiving corps, became injured, (at least at the top echelon, 1,2 & 3), necessitating the forced use of untried rookies, and practice team castoffs as our WR corps. Then, we topped the offense off by keeping no less than 4 TE's on the roster, apparently none who can either catch or block, because we harldy ever attempt to use them for either. Even when we do try to pass to them, the results are putrid, and I have never seen them become a force at chipping the edge rushers or run blocking successfully in any significant way.
We built a running back corps, based on solid promise by Tim Hightower, which quickly turned to fumblitis, which resulted in his getting benched for Edgarin James during the playoff run of '08. In '09 we drafted Beanie Wells to allegedly subplant James and make a solid tandem or RB's, geared to compete with the best in the league. Beanie was to learn from Hightower, who had learned from James. Apparently they lost interest, during the wide open arial attack under Warner, because about all Beanie learned to do was to fumble like Timmy did, and Timmy was not being held very accountable for it, (though Beanie was). While Warner's offense did not fly quite as high as it had in '08, the running game was never held to really be accountable, because Whiz could rely on Warner's arm and guile.
Not to worry though, because Whiz was 'having fun' calling his own plays again after Haley left for the KC head coaching job.
This year, with emphasis on rebuilding the Defense, we muddled through OTA's, and then TC without a lot of concern about Offense. Whiz proclaimed Leinart the starting QB, and when asked about the Offense, would only proclaim that it would be 'different'. Most people felt that this meant a run first approach with run plays nearing the equal of passing plays. Everything seemed to be set up for that, then something happened. I am not sure just what it was, but suddenly, Whiz hit the panic button, blew Leinart off, and opted for DA and his erratic cannon, and proclaimed that we more likely to win with DA at the helm than Leinart, an mostly accurate passer with a check-down mentality who managed the game and took what was there to be had.
Suddenly Whiz dreamed of going deep to multiple receivers, and passing our way out of the 8 men that most teams put in the box against us. I suspect that this was because of a number of things. 1. Whiz loved the play calling and fast action of a pass first, multiple receiver set package. 2. Whiz began to suspect that he could not rely on his running backs corps to pack the mail for him without fumbling and turning the ball over early, thereby putting us constantly into a hole. 3. He may have even heard rumblings from some of his more 'elite' receivers, that they would not be happy going through the paces while we ran the ball. In any event, we changed to a gunslinger mentality, and promptly shot ourselves in the foot.
The QB stats and results were horrific to say the least with DA at QB. After 3 and a half games, Whiz opted for Max Hall to play QB. The players did seem to gravitate to him after DA's dismal performances, during the second half of the San Diego game on the road. In any event, Whiz proclaimed that he would be starting Max at home against the Saints, and that he gave us the best chance to win. Whis did say, that he would hold DA in reserve though, and would bring him off the bench cold if needed, because he might perform better if he didn't have to worry about being the starter etc.
Maximus, though he led us to no scores, benefitted fom the relief of both the offense and the defense, at not having to worry about DA throwing the game away and busting their morale. Whiz proudly announced that he would start Max again on the road against Seattle at Quest and their loud environment. Whiz had a make-shift crowd noise machine put together, and put it on the field behind the QB to emulate the Quest crowd. We were thusly, ready to invade the Green horde in the Great Pacific North West---NOT-----. Max was horrible, and DA, subbed for him and gave us a good series, then promptly reverted to going 4 for 16 the ramainder of the game, in a numbing loss.
Sadly, today, must have been the end of the Max experiment, as clearly, he is not ready, or maybe never will be ready, for NFL football. DA came on to bring us back into the game, only to inexplicably throw an interception when trailing 38-35 in the last minutes of the game at home agains Tampa. We had just moved into the red zone, and had two timeouts remaining, and although Beanie had left the game in pain after his last previous carry, we did not attempt to run the ball even once after getting down into the red zone, and needing only a field goal to tie and take it into overtime. The only thing that Whiz proved for sure, was that while he may not have trusted the run game, NOBODY can trust our QB's to throw.
Surely, now that Whiz has run out of options, we will return to some kind of game plan that manages the game, so that we are near enough to strike at the end to win. That may mean force feeding both Beanie and Timmy enough runs that they are too tired to fumble. It may be playing DA much like Whiz would have surely played Leinart, had we not run him off, and merely tried to manage the game, not attempt to gamble for it. Most of all, it will SURELY force Whiz to let Gabe Watson out of the dog house, (for whatever reason he has been regelated there), and having him start at the nose, with Dan Williams spelling him, so that we no longer continue to give up runs, up the middle, on third down and long yardage. Just maybe, Bryan Robinson can mentor him from the bench instead of on the field-----which makes no sense to me anyway, because when Robinson is on the field, Williams is on the bench, and vice versa. It would seem more prophetic to me to have Robby on the bench with Williams to talk about a particular play, and what the nose tackle should have done, or how he should have played that situation. But then-----I am only guessing about all this, because I am not an NFL coach, and I certainly am not an engineer------!!!!!
Cardinals, and am not at all happy with the thought of returning to the ways of those
Cardinals!
