My Game Thoughts

Pariah

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I haven't read the board, so forgive me if these are redundant.

Warner: This is the first time this season that he looked like the Kurt Warner that played for the Giants last year. He hung on to the ball too long on a number of occasions and wasn't in sync with his WRs.

That said, the first pick didn't look like it was his fault--it looked like Fitz played the ball lazy because he thought he was all alone due to a fantastic play by Trufant. Also, there were some opportunities for recievers to make plays on balls that they didn't. The rest were all on Kurt. Man, our QB situation is a mess....again.

Wide Receivers: Let's start with the obvious: Bryant Johnson is a liability. How many dropped passes did he have? 5? I saw a stat in the Raiders game that said Lamont Jordan led the NFL this season with 5. I guess Jordan is probably a big fan of Johnson's because he just got his name off the top of that list in a single preformance. But, this is how bad he was today: the dropped passes weren't even his biggest problem; it was the clip that took 4 points off the board. I hope Darnell Dockett boo'd his sorry butt when he came off the field.

Fitz, despite playing the first INT pass lazy, played great, IMO. This was an impressive game for him. Even small stuff like popping right up from a huge hit was impressive today.

And, I thought Newhouse played pretty well for the "new" guy.

Running Backs: Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy that has been critical of Arrington: He should have gotten the ball more. Shipp ran hard, but Arrington ran well.

Also, I was pleased to see that in the 3rd they started giving Arrington the dump-off passes that Shipp usually gets. Here's my one critisism (it's a small, specific one): He needs to be ready for the ball at all times; on the play that Warner was getting sacked and he farve'd it out to Arrington, JJ could have gotten a nice little gain form it if he wasn't so surprised he had the ball in his hands.


The Offensive Line: I think they played their most complete game, yet. That's relative, of course, to the rest of the season so it's not exactly high-praise.

Leckey looked worse than Step at C, but Step looked pretty good at RG. Where does that leave us? With more question marks, unfortunately.

Ross played well. Big played...dare U say...great? Pretty good? He did a good job, today.

Defensive Line: Chike played well. Berry played well (what happened to him? I was watching the game without sound because I would have put my foot through the screen if I heard T-Rock and Pitts make another stupid comment/mistake).

The slanted NT needs to go. It's stupid. Really stupid. Also, in addition to playing DT properly, we need someone who can do it. IMO, Dockett could be really disruptive (ala Sapp) if there's a plugger next to him. Moore and Kolodj. are just keeping a roster spot warm for a real NT.

Linebackers: Dansby was off today. Darling was par for the season (not so great, not horrible). Huff was Huff (generally a non-factor).

Hopefully when Hayes gets healthy we have more options. Really hopefully, Mitchell develops into a legit NFL-MLB and Hayes moves back outside. Really, really hopefully Blackstock AND Mitchell develop into players and we're suddenly deep at the position.

Corners: As I said in the off-season, depth was and is a concern. Without Rolle we're weak at CB. Green is still just a nickelback. Macklin is a good number 2 and a servicable number 1 CB. We need to address this.

An aside: how huge would it have been if Macklin had intercepted the pass to Strong inside the 20 when we where down by 8?

Safeties: Seriously, did Griffith play today? I don;t remeber seeing him.

Wilson had a couple of big hits, and in classic Wilson form, a couple of big wiffs. He had one of the 2 biggest plays when he got the interference call on 3rd down late in the 4th (the other, IMO, being Johnson's clip. Take those penalties away and the game looks a lot different).

Special Teams: Rackers. 'Nuff said.

JJ Moses was a pleasant surprise, IMO. He ran hard on his returns.

Overall, for as bad as we played run defense, we were down by 8 with 5 minutes left. There were positives today, IMO. But, the same negatives (piss-poor run defesne, stupid penalties and suspect QB play) killed us.
 
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Shane

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Berry has a strained pectoral muscle. Per Green.
 
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Pariah

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Shane H said:
Berry has a strained pectoral muscle. Per Green.
A strain? Is that a day-to-day thing? Did they say anything else? As soon as I saw him walking off I thought: "Stupid Pace."
 

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Shane H said:
Berry has a strained pectoral muscle. Per Green.

Not sure I have alot of faith in Greens medical analysis. didn't he say Boldins injury was really bad and yet it was just a bruise?
 

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Pariah said:
A strain? Is that a day-to-day thing? Did they say anything else? As soon as I saw him walking off I thought: "Stupid Pace."
Cubbie has a good point. But on the radio he said day to day till he knows more. Thats the preliminary diagnosis.
 

Chopper0080

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I agree with you that our QB problem needs to end at the end of this year. Draft Leinart, or sign somebody worth a damn who can lead this team.

Arrington looked good...really good. As expected though in some situations he looked like he hasn't played much...go figure.

Defense wasn't all that good. Just not very stout up the middle with Dockett and Kolodj and Morre getting driven into the dirt.

Man Steve Hutchinson is awesome.
 

conraddobler

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Chopper0080 said:
I agree with you that our QB problem needs to end at the end of this year. Draft Leinart, or sign somebody worth a damn who can lead this team.

Arrington looked good...really good. As expected though in some situations he looked like he hasn't played much...go figure.

Defense wasn't all that good. Just not very stout up the middle with Dockett and Kolodj and Morre getting driven into the dirt.

Man Steve Hutchinson is awesome.


I am all for drafting a leader, that's an awesome idea but it's not by itself the problem.

QB leadership isn't what's wrong now, the abomination that our O line is making of the concept of blocking is what is wrong.

Our D line has similar problems.

Fix those two areas and turn them into strenghts and Warner would be fine at QB.

He's not going to be around the league that long but the lack of a QB leader isn't priority number one too me right now.

Warner flat out told the announcers in his interview that no QB is going to excell behind this line.

Drafting a great QB is always a good idea. If that is what you think Leinart is then you are right.

I just don't know if it's worth the picks it might take to get it done and then find out he isn't that good.

That's always the chance you take with guys like that. If we can draft him at our normal spot then go for it.

Giving another first round pick for him starts to make it less than thrilling of a concept to me.
 

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conraddobler said:
I am all for drafting a leader, that's an awesome idea but it's not by itself the problem.

QB leadership isn't what's wrong now, the abomination that our O line is making of the concept of blocking is what is wrong.

Our D line has similar problems.

Fix those two areas and turn them into strenghts and Warner would be fine at QB.

He's not going to be around the league that long but the lack of a QB leader isn't priority number one too me right now.

Warner flat out told the announcers in his interview that no QB is going to excell behind this line.

Drafting a great QB is always a good idea. If that is what you think Leinart is then you are right.

I just don't know if it's worth the picks it might take to get it done and then find out he isn't that good.

That's always the chance you take with guys like that. If we can draft him at our normal spot then go for it.

Giving another first round pick for him starts to make it less than thrilling of a concept to me.

Nearly all the complaints or suggestions gets back more to the coaching or lack of and player selection over the recent past drafts. That leads to one man and it is the head coach.
 

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Wow, Dockett is terrible. I mean he is just bad. JJ was great, give him more touches. Why not? Our O-Line looked good. We lost again, it sucks.Those are my thoughts.
 

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I was surprised that JJ didn't get more touches. It seems we never give the guy who is being effective enough carries.
 

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Redsz said:
I was surprised that JJ didn't get more touches. It seems we never give the guy who is being effective enough carries.

He didn't even get a touch inside the 5... I thought the drive when BJ got the TD would have been a perfect time to punch in a run TD for once...
 

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conraddobler said:
I am all for drafting a leader, that's an awesome idea but it's not by itself the problem.

QB leadership isn't what's wrong now, the abomination that our O line is making of the concept of blocking is what is wrong.

Our D line has similar problems.

Fix those two areas and turn them into strenghts and Warner would be fine at QB.

He's not going to be around the league that long but the lack of a QB leader isn't priority number one too me right now.

Warner flat out told the announcers in his interview that no QB is going to excell behind this line.

Drafting a great QB is always a good idea. If that is what you think Leinart is then you are right.

I just don't know if it's worth the picks it might take to get it done and then find out he isn't that good.

That's always the chance you take with guys like that. If we can draft him at our normal spot then go for it.

Giving another first round pick for him starts to make it less than thrilling of a concept to me.


How many years do we keep thinking to ourself that a great QB is going to
fall in our laps. If you see someone you believe in, roll the dice!!! This franchise has been around for what...85 years? In that span we have had just
3 quality QB's in our history, Charlie Johnson, Hart and Lomax. Last season,
didn't everyone question Eli playing behind the bad Giants oline. Maybe the
will get better with time and the changes made today. They played pretty
decent today.
 

Russ Smith

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wierwolf said:
He didn't even get a touch inside the 5... I thought the drive when BJ got the TD would have been a perfect time to punch in a run TD for once...

he didn't get a single carry in the 2nd half did he? Just catches.
 
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Pariah

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Buckybird said:
How many years do we keep thinking to ourself that a great QB is going to
fall in our laps.
The problem isn't that they don't fall into our laps--it's that we keep standing up when they do! We could have drafted Leftwich and Roethlisberger in recent years.

Yes, that's right, I keep brinig that up. Because it still stings this Cardinals fan. I'm sensitive. So sue me.
 

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Not that I recall. Who ever calls the subs for the RB's needs to get a clue.
 

Russ Smith

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Pariah said:
The problem isn't that they don't fall into our laps--it's that we keep standing up when they do! We could have drafted Leftwich and Roethlisberger in recent years.

Yes, that's right, I keep brinig that up. Because it still stings this Cardinals fan. I'm sensitive. So sue me.

yep and we could have had Rodgers this year although I know most people don't put him in the same class. So far he's done nothing, I read the other day mortenson said he hadn't really impressed anybody in practice and was unlikely to play this year, then I read another story that word was rodgers was playing well and the problem was taking Favre out of games is such an emotional thing for the coach that they would only do it in blowout wins, and when you suck, there are no such games. Rodgers wouldn't be helping us at all this year of course he wasn't going to be ready to start.
 

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Pariah said:
The problem isn't that they don't fall into our laps--it's that we keep standing up when they do! We could have drafted Leftwich and Roethlisberger in recent years.

Yes, that's right, I keep brinig that up. Because it still stings this Cardinals fan. I'm sensitive. So sue me.


The Chiefs do well with Trent Green, Brett Farve can't help the Packers on his own.

Drafting O linemen and aquiring them to me is the first priority but that dosen't mean I wouldn't take Leinhart if I'm there when he's on the clock I would.

Just wouldn't sell the farm to do it.

It's now a race with the Texans and the Packers because one of which we can for sure lose too and help ourselves out against. The other we have no control over and may not win another game but then again they do play in a horribly weak division.

Even if we do lose to them though it wouldn't cinch it for us, didn't this come up with the Cowboys one year? The tiebreaker is streght of schedule and ours is so tough that we will never win that.
 
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Pariah

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Russ Smith said:
yep and we could have had Rodgers this year
I don't think I would have jumped for joy if we drafted him, but I certainly wouldn't have critized the pick. I was on the fence...one day saying we should take him, the next saying Rolle or a RB.
 

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Leftwich? What has this guy done apart from prove that he can take a beating?
 
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Pariah

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Redsz said:
Leftwich? What has this guy done apart from prove that he can take a beating?
Passed the ball well.


...and wouldn't "able to take a beating" be a plus on a Cardinals QB resume when paired with "passes the ball well"?
 

Russ Smith

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Pariah said:
I don't think I would have jumped for joy if we drafted him, but I certainly wouldn't have critized the pick. I was on the fence...one day saying we should take him, the next saying Rolle or a RB.

Well if we wanted Aaron we could have moved down, I recall posting that during the draft after SF took Smith. Every sign at the time was Rodgers was going to fall to at least Green Bay's pick so we could have moved down, got more pick(s) and taken him but I'm sure he was never on our radar and I'm fine with Rolle(I still would've picked Derrick Johnson myself).

But that's 3 QB's in the last 3 drafts we had every chance to get and passed, 2 are solid starters, one has a chance to be.
 

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The way it going, we're going to get a high draft pick. Unless Leinart is available, I go for Rodrique Wright, DT Texas, or the best OT available (Ferguson, Va. or Scott, Texas). In the third round, I'd hope Ryan Cook, a monster Center from New Mexico (6-7, 320), drops. I watched him in the Wyoming game this year - he was blowing bigholes right through the Wyoming line.
 
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Pariah

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Redsz said:
But I haven't seen anything that makes me think he is going to be elite.
Admittedly, I've taken a liking to the Jags and Leftwich, so maybe I'm biased, but I also catch a fair number of thier games.

Leftwich is a very good QB and he can throw the ball with the best of them.
 

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Ah, so your viewing him with black and teal glasses? :D

I, too, like the Jaguars. But alot of people bring up that we should of drafted Leftwhich and just I don't see what makes it such a crime for passing on him.

He kinda reminds me of Steve McNair. He is tough and will take a beating for the team but only really put up modest numbers.
 
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