My 2 pennies... FWIW.

[82CardsGrad]

I'll try to be as concise as possible and try not to repeat so much of what has already been said on this board:

- I'm pissed... Make no mistake, the Cards blew a HUGE chance to not only open up a comfortable lead in the west, but if ever there was a step to be taken toward grabbing the national respect so many fans and players desire, yesterday was it. Unfortunately, the Cards one again proved they are who everyone across the country believes they are... a nice team that plays in a crappy division, that isn't worth the time to talk about...

- The defense, to a player, took the game off... There is not one player who came to the stadium yesterday with the mindset of kicking ass and taking this game. Not one. In particular, guys like Wilson, DRC, Rolle, Campbell, Watson, Branch, Dockett, Robinson, Hayes, Okeafor... all were major disappointments. All missed more tackles in this game than I can ever recall...

- The offense suffers from the loss of Haley and with Whiz as the OC. They are entirely out of sync. It's amazing to me that at this stage of the season, we still have very little, if anything in the way of consistency/continuity... nothing to bank on from an offensive perspective. Yet, we have perhaps some of the best talent on the offensive side of the ball. Both Boldin and Breaston are less than 100% and this is really hurting us. We simply can't get the ball downfield, period... Fitz's lack of downfield production is really bothering me. I know defenses are scheming to take that away as much as possible, but I also know that Fitz was double-teamed a lot last season too, and yet we were able to find ways to get the ball into his hands downfield...

- Peppers was a one-man wrecking crew yesterday... Yet another stud DE who the Cards didn't properly address. Amazing. The one INT from Warner on the little dump-off to Hightower was pathetic in the attempt to cut down Peppers...

- Kick-off and Punt coverage???? WTF? They were non-existent yesterday! Several times Graham BOOMED kicks with tons of carry time, and yet no Cards players were anywhere to be found... Yet, every time Breaston touched the ball he was immediately swarmed. We SUCKED in coverage yesterday...

- Warner is indeed out of step... Something is amiss... or perhaps it's a collection of crap that is causing Kurt to perform so far below last season. I certainly didn't expect a repeat performance from 2008, but his drop-off is far greater than it should be. Maybe it's the injuries to Boldin and Breaston? Maybe it's the continued crappy performance of the o-line. Maybe Edge meant more to this team than we all thought? And maybe Whiz just shouldn't be the OC... Last season, Kurt would take those 5 and 7 step drops and the ball was coming out... This year, he has nobody to throw to, and is left double and triple clutching, only to maybe dump the ball to Hightower or worse, get POUNDED... Something is very wrong here...

- Lastly, I hope we don't see anymore threads bitching and moaning about the lack of respect this team gets. Please people. Don't be so ignorant. Don't sell the media that short. The Cards do not belong on the front burner of any media talking points. ESPN is right to stiff-arm the Cards. The Cards haven't proven they are worthy of national respect. IMO, they are years away from doing so. Years...

 

[az jam]

Hard to argue with your point of view. Kurt isn't the same since he had his off season hip surgery that has been posted elsewhere and is indeed a fact. We don't get respect because as you said we don't deserve it.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

- Lastly, I hope we don't see anymore threads bitching and moaning about the lack of respect this team gets. Please people. Don't be so ignorant. Don't sell the media that short. The Cards do not belong on the front burner of any media talking points. ESPN is right to stiff-arm the Cards. The Cards haven't proven they are worthy of national respect. IMO, they are years away from doing so. Years...

I am in on that.

The avatar and sig stays for the next six weeks, and then I will re-evaluate.

This team does more to convince me they are a FLUKE than they do in the fact they have "turned the corner".

 

[Doug]

Warner can't play with two crippled wide recievers.They may be the best we have but they can't get open.We run a lot of pick plays to get Fitzgerald open,since he's double covered and we can't do that with the two injured guys now.

Lets get some healthy guys in to play.Breaston has'nt had one day of full practice since the season started.Thats one major reason he is not in sinc with the offense.(duh)

Boldin is a grown arse man but he needs to sit and lets see what Doucet and Sean Morey can do in Chicago.I liked the route Morey ran and caught the ball nicely.I think we were also holding on that nice pass by Warner.As usual.

My opinion on this HIP thing that people want to use as an excuse.Kurt Warner had the same labrum surgery a week after A-Rod of the Yankees had it by the same doctor and A-Rod looks fine and I don't see any of the ghost things people say they see with his hip.I do see that he may be favoring that shoulder from all the hits he takes.Warner is a grown arse man too with the punnishment his lineman let him take.He needs to take them out to eat more often or something.We must use more tight ends chipping on blitzers and our front 3 Wells,Sendlein,Latui got a bunch of big pushes against them yesterday that normally does'nt happen and it did'nt allow Warner to step up and throw normally too.

The batted passes that come from DT's being in the throwing lanes are also part of our lineman not chopping these guys down but playing the roll of statues.I think Jerheme Urban needs to stay after and catch about 3000 footballs this week.We can't have the threat of an interception everytime we throw to him anymore.I like using the Howler as a pass catcher until he proves he can't catch.He can be elusive sometimes.Beanie is still too hesitant and won't use the vision he was known for at OSU and just be himself.Other rookies like the Iowa kid Shonn Greene is busting loose and are we holding Beanie back? He has to learn to catch to play in the NFL.I'm sorry about that.Especially on our team.

Do you blame Warner for not wanting to throw up that hail mary stuff to Fitzgerald this year after the stuff he's dropped in his hands so far? I would'nt feel confident in doing so myself.The longball is gone until we get someone with speed on the other side.The eagles got some major speed in their wide recievers its amazing.

 

[mrbyte]

IMO we are the exact same team we were last REGULAR season with one difference we are not as healthy, but other wise we are just as inconsistant, we are up and down like a *****'s draws.
I think they should sit Q for a week or two and let his ankle settle down and lets see what Doucet has to offer.
My biggest concern is the blocking. until we can consistantly block on the edge nothing much will change.
But

 

[conraddobler]

Other teams have caught onto our schtick and IMO we not being pushed by a team breathing down out necks in our own division.

These players nowdays aren't stupid, they're very savy, they'll do enough in their minds to win this division an in their minds I think they believe that's easier done than I do.

They might be right but it's really a terrible attitude to have on a team you root for.

 

[AZ Native]

Nice post 82, not what I want to hear, but I can't disagree either.

 

[PACardsFan]

Our OL is well below average & even with a ton of talent at the skill positions, we will be an inconsistent football team. We will need to replace 2-3 starters on that line next year.

 

[Catfish]

Great Post 82: You have captured everything I would have wanted to say in this one. I have nothing that I would add or detract from it. Well done.

 

[Cardiac]

Our OL is well below average & even with a ton of talent at the skill positions, we will be an inconsistent football team. We will need to replace 2-3 starters on that line next year.

I believe we need to upgrade the OT's. It would be nice to have at least one pro bowl type player on the line.

Games are won in the trenches and while our D-line is very solid to getting very good our O-line is the weak link on this team.