Lucky Streak

Harry

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Last season when I criticized Murray & Kingsbury I received limited support. The worst came when I said they were fortunate to be 5-0. Here’s what I wrote, “Let’s not yet canonize it as a great team. They beat Tennessee, which subsequently appears mediocre. They should have lost to a mediocre Vikings team. They failed to dominate Jax. The LA win was a classic and showed how good this team could be if they played consistently at that level. Finally they beat the Niners but struggled against a one-dimensional backup QB. Still they are 5-0 and you can bank those wins.” The cards pushed it to 7-0 against 2 mediocre teams.

I was told I was ignoring the season to season improvement. I was ignoring improved play calling by Kingsbury. I was ignoring improved technique by Murray. Soon those improvements disappeared and the team regressed to losing. On January 11th I wrote, “You’re correct to say you can’t ignore the Cards’ record. Kingsbury will definitely be the coach next year. I’m saying be cautious. There are serious flaws in the coaching scheme. Can they be corrected? Sure! I just warning I’ll be betting the under on whether the Cards win as many next year, though lots can happen between now and then.”

Gradually I relented somewhat and predicted a 9-8 record. That looks far away now. Part of this involves the basis for change. Did Murray do the work to learn how to read defenses? Did he accept his flaws and work continuously to change the technique of a lifetime? Did Kingsbury accept his red zone calls were poor? Did he work to produce a sense of urgency in the 2 minute drill? Did he take control of Murray and insist on discipline? Did he interact with Murray between drives to make certain Murray understood what needed to be changed and what defenses were trying to do? It’s easy to make changes when everything is working. However, when issues arise the tendency is to revert to old habits. It‘s easy to see Murray this year differs little from the QB when he was drafted. As for Kingsbury, it’s true his plays might work for a solid O-line and a veteran QB, but is he a fit for the player development this team needs?

Can Hopkins and Anderson save this season? They should help, but the O-line has broken down. I can’t envision them making the playoffs, but since they’re in this for the long haul, can they improve fundamentals and move this team forward?
 

kerouac9

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There are lots of threads here that dispute your assertion that there are fatal flaws in Kingsbury's scheme. You continually harp on the supposed lack of hot reads or sight adjustments that are obviously there when you look at the tape.

The reality is that if there's a problem with the coaching, it happened when Kingsbury arrived and has only festered -- he doesn't have credibility with his quarterback.
 
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Harry

Harry

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There are lots of threads here that dispute your assertion that there are fatal flaws in Kingsbury's scheme. You continually harp on the supposed lack of hot reads or sight adjustments that are obviously there when you look at the tape.

The reality is that if there's a problem with the coaching, it happened when Kingsbury arrived and has only festered -- he doesn't have credibility with his quarterback.
“A hot route is a pattern that’s run by offensive players to take advantage of an aggressive defense or a defense that shows a weakness in coverage. Hot routes are usually called at the line of scrimmage as an audible when the quarterback senses pressure and wants to get rid of the ball quickly.” This should pop up about 3 times in a game, like Seattle’s, where they blitzed often. The simplest read is a WR notes a secondary blitzer coming usually just runs to where they just vacated. I’m not saying with total certainty I didn’t miss it, but maybe someone could show clips of the audibles or even just the plays where Kyler quickly looked to the read and dumped the ball. Since Murray is contact adverse I find it hard to believe he’d resist any technique that would quickly dump the ball if pressured.
 

kerouac9

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“A hot route is a pattern that’s run by offensive players to take advantage of an aggressive defense or a defense that shows a weakness in coverage. Hot routes are usually called at the line of scrimmage as an audible when the quarterback senses pressure and wants to get rid of the ball quickly.” This should pop up about 3 times in a game, like Seattle’s, where they blitzed often. The simplest read is a WR notes a secondary blitzer coming usually just runs to where they just vacated. I’m not saying with total certainty I didn’t miss it, but maybe someone could show clips of the audibles or even just the plays where Kyler quickly looked to the read and dumped the ball. Since Murray is contact adverse I find it hard to believe he’d resist any technique that would quickly dump the ball if pressured.
Just because Kyler doesn't throw it doesn't mean that the routes aren't there.

Funny story though. Seattle blitzed exactly twice on Sunday.

Otherwise you can look back through the many, many plays that BritCard did an exceptional job dissecting on this thread and pick out the places where multiple receivers are running wide open and Kyler just isn't finding them.
 

BigRedRage

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I think you are ignoring the season to season improvement and ignoring improved play calling by Kingsbury. Also ignoring improved technique by Murray.
 
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Harry

Harry

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Harry, at least I didn't mention your forecast that Arizona might go the entire year with zero interceptions. :)
I actually made fun of it on the Saints game thread. “Okay so it won’t be zero interceptions.” I make it a point to be accountable even when I’m being factious.
 

Garthshort

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I actually made fun of it on the Saints game thread. “Okay so it won’t be zero interceptions.” I make it a point to be accountable even when I’m being factious.
Actually, my take from your initial post was that you thought that the Arizona DB's were pretty poor. I admit that was my greatest position of concern, but have come to believe that they are better than I thought they would be.
 

LarryStalling

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Actually, at the end of the game, I was ready for Kliff to set KM on the bench and see someone else at qb.
 

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