Just got back from the game...

[82CardsGrad]

And I'm still buzzin... What a friggin experience! I LOVE my seats! 11 rows off the field, right at the corner of the SW endzone where the Cards enter and exit the field. After the game, Step threw his glove to my son - blood stained and sweaty! He wants to put it in a glass case!!!!

Things that stood out include:

- Traffic SUCKED! I come in heading south on the 101, and the back ups were daunting to say the least... Will definitely need to get to the game much earlier.

- The lines for food and beer, as well as bathrooms SUCKED! In fact, the lines were so long, I never actually grabbed any grub... Only beers and even then the lines were far too long. What really pizzed me off was that the beer guys never even made it down to my seats! I was told that they got mobbed at the top of my section, and ran out of beer before they could reach us!
Mid-way thru the 4th quarter, I did catch a food stand that had a very short line, but they had run out of burgers and dogs, and had already locked the ice cream cabinet!!! WTF is up with that!!!

- Was surprised by the number of Steeler fans. Way too many yellow towels being waived!

- Sitting at my seats, I thought it was much warmer than I would have imagined it would be. Are they conserving energy??

- Thought the sound system could have been louder...

OK - that's it for the negatives...

- The stadium is beautiful! The drive up, walking into the air conditioned confines, walking down to my seats, the field... it's all amazing!

- Was impressed with the following players:

Warner
BJ (MUCH to my surprise!)
Diamond Ferri (this kid can PLAY!)
Pass Blocking
Berry
Antonio Smith (played extremely well all game)
Huff (seemed faster and was actually tackling!)
Hayes (seemed very strong and very fast!)
Shazor (he is all upper body - my 9 year old has bigger legs than him! But he played very well!)
Watson (what a MOUNTAIN of a man!)
Lewis (looked energized and ready)
Pace (mostly in terms of rushing the passer. While limited, I can't say I was all that impressed with his overall play at LB)
Capshaw (this little dude can BOMB the ball!!!)
Walters (definitely added some much needed ***** on Punt Returns)
Your 2006 Cheerleaders!! God Dammmm did they look AWESOME!!!!

- Was unimpressed with the following players:

Run Blocking (the word SUCKED is about all I can use to describe them)
Bronson (looked totally lost at FB. Whiffed on a number of blocks)
Navarre (uh... he SUCKED big time...)
Edwards (see Bronson...)
Rolle (he seemed very tentative to me. Gave his man way too much space...)
Dockett (did he play?)

- Players who intrigued me:

JJ (not impressive, but definitely appeard to be much more decisive and commited when hitting the holes.)
McCoy
Pope (I can't believe how tall he is! He seemed tentative as well, but I can see him developing into a MAJOR weapon!)
Moore (played a solid game on the line)
Bridges (seemed very athletic today. To me, he showed some flashes that left me wanting to see more from him.)


That's about it... Overall, quite the unforgettable day! I have hopes that the stadium will fix the issues with beer and food. That was truly pathetic!
As for the team - well, the Steelers yanked their first team after one quarter so not much to say about a W. Clearly, we still can't run the ball worth a darn, and that again will be the death of us. The defense looked extremely solid and gave the starting Steeler offense all they can handle.
Would have really liked to have seen Matty out there today!

 

[BigRedRage]

yeah the waiting in traffic and lines for any type of concession were just terrible but the stadium was fantastic! 11th row in the enxzone!

 

[joeshmo]

Rolle (he seemed very tentative to me. Gave his man way too much space...)

Thats not Rolles fault. Thats how Pendy likes to play his CB's for the most part. Pendy likes to use Off Coverage.

 

[Scott MS]

Stadium is awesome. Concessions are horrible. I got in line during halftime for a beer at the hot dog stand. I was served 1:00 minute into the 4th quarter. What happened in the game?

At least they still gave me a beer even though sales had stopped. Concessions lines are horrible.

 

[Scott MS]

By the way I only post this in the hopes that somebody will read, react, and correct the situation. They have lots more concessions and lots more bathrooms than Sun Devil Stadium, but after adding 3x the fans, it seems like the fan to bathroom and fan to concession ratio is about the same as Sun Devil Stadium when 30k people showed up.

Granted, if SDS was ever sold out, it would have been unmanageable.

 

[D-Dogg]

Capshaw has a monster leg. Can we put this dude on the practice squad, PLEASE????

I've never in my life been jazzed about a punter before, but he is the perfect mix of distance and hangtime....I want him in a Cards uni for years....

 

[Shane]

Capshaw has a monster leg. Can we put this dude on the practice squad, PLEASE????

I've never in my life been jazzed about a punter before, but he is the perfect mix of distance and hangtime....I want him in a Cards uni for years....

Then lets just cut Player now. He is nowhere near the punter he used to be and rarely booms anything anymore. New blood at Punter will not hurt.

 

[BIGTONY]

Im in heaven.I feel like Field of Dreams(when he shoeless Joe Jackson)says is this Heaven..My seats are awesome.122 there are 9 seats in my row my family has 3,4,5,6,7. and Im in 7.I think the football gods gave this seat to me.I know its sounds weird,but my seat is all by itself.I have at least 1 foot apart from each seat..The seat is where the stadium curves so they cant put seats together.So my own seat.With lots of dancing room..It perfect.The only thing wrong with my seats is when I got there.There was tons of steelers fans in all our seats taking pics,and huge steelers flags.I wasnt being a jerk but I had to get a security guard to get them out of our area.My uncle couldnt even see in front of him..All these steelers jerks.I made them all move.I said this is my house.Its all stadium to share.But please,Thats why I choose the first row.Was I being a jerk.I hope not..p.s. there were no cup holders in our section.Will call mon and tell somebody.But other then that.I wanted to cry..WE ALL WAITED 18 Years for this special Day..I love everyone in our forums.What a SPECIAL DAY..ALWAYS BIGTONY SORRY FOR BEING SO LONG..

 

[hawaiianjazzfan]

Overall it sounds like it was a good experience.

 

[BIGTONY]

awesome experience..I think after awhile things will smooth out with all the food,and Parking.My uncle said there was problems because the Cardnals never did this type of thing.He said that ASU did everything,Parking Food,and whatever else.So ASU had lots of practice.Im sure the Cardinals will be all right..

 

[SweetD]

awesome experience..I think after awhile things will smooth out with all the food,and Parking.My uncle said there was problems because the Cardnals never did this type of thing.He said that ASU did everything,Parking Food,and whatever else.So ASU had lots of practice.Im sure the Cardinals will be all right..

Good to see you out there and getting your groove on!

 

[BIGTONY]

Thank you.I was really worried that I woudny be able to get my groove on,but there is lots of room for me.Im very thankful everything worked out for.I was really worried that I wouldnt be comfortable in the new seats.They rock,I love how everthing worked out..always BIGTONY..Thanks again SWEETD...

 

[Jay Cardinal]

Thats not Rolles fault. Thats how Pendy likes to play his CB's for the most part. Pendy likes to use Off Coverage.

Yeah but arm tackling and penalties isn't what I was looking for out of Rolle. I'm in the very unimpressed with Rolle category.