Palmer

[Russ Smith]

I seem to remember a point where the game wasn't completely out of hand, and Johnson was starting to crack the Carolina D..... Then we went all "chuck and duck".

That's when PP fumbled the punt though.

 

[Russ Smith]

We all believe that the finger was an issue.

CP should have adjusted his game and worked the middle of the field, sidelines and short passes to open up the big plays. He was trying so hard to force the ball into tight situations and with the finger he wasn't able to do that. No QB can go deep on every other throw and not have the D all over the WR's requiring a perfect throw.

Didn't his coach spend all last week telling us Palmer was too conservative against GB and needed to push the ball downfield?

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Didn't his coach spend all last week telling us Palmer was too conservative against GB and needed to push the ball downfield?

In his first scripted plays.

 

[Chopper0080]

The biggest worry for me is how many years does BA have left. If you look at the team, there is an interesting group of windows that are closing in the near future. Fitz. Palmer. BA. They have a short period of time to figure it out if they all want to get a shot. Drafting a QB at 29 next year doesn't help that even if it might be the best for the long term.

 

[conraddobler]

Everyone needs to get on the Palmer train because it's the only train coming through the next couple years.

Arian's too but if they win it all it'll be lucky that it all held together for enough of a season to make it work.

 

[TJ]

The biggest worry for me is how many years does BA have left. If you look at the team, there is an interesting group of windows that are closing in the near future. Fitz. Palmer. BA. They have a short period of time to figure it out if they all want to get a shot. Drafting a QB at 29 next year doesn't help that even if it might be the best for the long term.

IMO, the window is 1-2 years with this current group. After that, I think Palmer and Fitz begin a sharp decline in production or retire.

 

[Chopper0080]

IMO, the window is 1-2 years with this current group. After that, I think Palmer and Fitz begin a sharp decline in production or retire.

I agree regarding Palmer and Fitz.

 

[Iceman]

No one feels worse than Palmer right now. He stepped up and put this loss on him. I feel for him because anyone who played organizational sports knows the feeling. I know he's a professional athlete and getting paid big $ to play, but he was pressing so hard. It's not like he was wanting to throw interceptions. He admits forcing balls and trying to make plays that weren't there. I'm happy to have Palmer as our QB. He got us to this point and he will do it again. Hopefully he doesn't let the mind get in the way of his performance. I stand behind him even though he has the worst game of his career

 

[Beaver]

Wife and I were discussing naming our son (due in a few months) Carson. Not sure I could do it now

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Wife and I were discussing naming our son (due in a few months) Carson. Not sure I could do it now

Ouch !!

 

[cardpa]

No one can argue that Palmer laid an egg last night. It doesn't matter how whether it was the finger or mental. What comes into question is what does the future hold for this team? Can Palmer recover from this? Where will he be next year in terms his mental state and physical state? It seems the team certainly has to figure out who is replacement will be. Either by trade or draft or FA his replacement needs to be found sooner rather than later.

Why could the team (coaches in particular) not find a way to compensate for losing the Badger? Every team suffers from injuries to key players. The coaching staff had more than enough time to figure out a way to make adjustments in the secondary and it seems none were made. Is the quality of the depth that bad that it just couldn't be done?

The Dline was decimated far beyond anyone realized with the loss of Redding and Peters. Bryant was not able to compensate for those loses. Was losing Oakafor a bigger loss than realized? Rucker didn't look like the same player as earlier in the year. Can they continue to plug in veterans at the end of their career to shore up the Dline?

If you are going to play a 3-4 defense, you need 2 quality ILBs not a safety converted to LB to stuff the run inside.

After watching how some teams used their TE so successfully in the passing game it might be prudent to get the TEs more involved instead of just being blockers. Teams don't seem to worry much about Cardinal TEs catching the ball.

Which Veldheer will show up next season. The 2014 version that did a good job at LT or the 2015 version that was adequate at best and down right awful at times.

Center is an enigma.

DJ seems to be the RB of the future but who joins him in the backfield? Ellington is more miss than hit with the number of injuries he's had. Does CJ have any more gas left in the tank? Will he even sign a team friendly contract?

What is the future of Cooper on this team? Does he become a RG or does he become an official bust? Will Humphries step up next season and replace Massie?

Bethel's game is all over the map right now. How do you trust a guy who makes a great play on one down then looks like a DIV 3 rookie the next?

Where does the team find a legit pass rusher? Can they find one in FA or will they move up to snag one in the draft?

As this team closes out it's 2015 season there seems to be more questions than answers. Can even half of these problems be fixed and/or corrected? Will SK try to hit the home run in the draft or will he continue to play it safe? Who will they identify as a core member and resign to a new contract, especially the one year contracts? The one year contracts may be team friendly for CAP purposes but how does it affect continuity? This will be a very interesting off season needless to say.

 

[DeAnna]

I thought it was obvious I was referring to his mental state come playoff time.

Choker is such a harsh word.

I really believe he was mentally scarred by his first playoff appearance where he shredded his knee. Will always be in the back of his mind.

He may have one more shot at it next year, but the Cards should really be looking for a QB of the future.

 

[TheCardFan]

Carson had the greatest year of his career and the greatest of any Cardinal QB in our history. We are lucky to have a QB like him right now.

There is no doubt he blew it last night but you can't blame the entire loss on him...its also on the coaches and other players just like any other loss.

This team will be back and so will Carson. To turn on our own players because of one loss, especially after the season we just had doesn't seem right. We lost...we sucked and everyone is disappointed but there has never been a better time to be a Cardinal fan.

 

[Homer Simpson]

When you really think about it, and look deeper into the game and not just the final stats, this thread is absolutely ridiculous.

First, the interceptions. There's no denying that the first interception was absolutely horrible. PP had just semi-redeemed himself and the Cards had a legitimate chance to go into half only down 10, or, at the very least 14. And Palmer tries to force a TD on the first play even though there was still a minute to go. Horrible, horrible, decision, nothing can justify that.

But the other three were thrown in the fourth quarter - a quarter which started with the Cardinals trailing 34-7. Consider that the Jets overcoming a 30-7 deficit at the start of the 4th quarter in 2000 is referred to as the "Monday Night Miracle" then you can kind of see the futility of the situation. In fact, the largest 4th quarter deficit overcome in NFL history was 25 points. So three of Palmer's interceptions came after the game was over, historically. If Palmer doesn't throw those picks, it doesn't really give the Cardinals any better chance of winning the game, but people probably aren't questioning him as much.

Now, he did have the two fumbles, but neither of them really cost the Cardinals anything. The first one just cost them yards, since it came on third down and they weren't going to try a 55 yard field goal. And they stopped the Panthers on 3 and out anyway. The second one seemed devastating, but since PP intercepted a pass right away, it only cost them time. (And it led to the aforementioned horrible pick)

Russell Wilson threw four picks in last year's NFC Championship game. And all of his came when it mattered. The difference was, the rest of the team kept them in the game, and then Morgan Burnett at Bostick made two of the biggest boneheaded plays in NFL history. Does anyone think Wilson is a mental midget?

Point being, Palmer was bad, but even if he had played well, the Cardinals still probably lose this game.

 

[sunsfan88]

Palmer is just garbage in the playoffs. Seriously, even last week when they beat the Packers, Palmer had like 6 balls that should have been picked off but the Packers dropped it. One of Palmer's TD passes was a fluke lucky tip pass.

Those passes that the Packers DBs dropped, were all picked off yesterday by the Panthers.

Arizona will not get very far with Palmer in the playoffs. Hell can you believe that even Ryan freaking Lindley performed better than this guy against the Panthers??

 

[Mitch]

Cardpa---I will attempt to answer these---everyone feel free to chime in as Cardpa's questions are at the crux of what needs to be addressed during the off-season.

No one can argue that Palmer laid an egg last night. It doesn't matter how whether it was the finger or mental. What comes into question is what does the future hold for this team? Can Palmer recover from this? Where will he be next year in terms his mental state and physical state? It seems the team certainly has to figure out who is replacement will be. Either by trade or draft or FA his replacement needs to be found sooner rather than later.

Steve Keim said today, "Carson will bounce back." This was his first time playing in a Championship Game. Clearly, he wasn't himself, physically and mentally, although physically can affect the mentally.

As for a replacement---I can virtually guarantee that when BA&SK know that Carson's time is up, they will make a trade (as they did for Palmer), sign a FA whom they like, or draft a QB in the first round. To do so right now does not make sense because that player isn't going to get the necessary reps.

Why could the team (coaches in particular) not find a way to compensate for losing the Badger? Every team suffers from injuries to key players. The coaching staff had more than enough time to figure out a way to make adjustments in the secondary and it seems none were made. Is the quality of the depth that bad that it just couldn't be done?

Man---tackling is contagious---every team needs a catalyst and Honey Badger is the Cardinals' bell cow. But, when Rashad Johnson was also hurt, D.J. Swearinger played very well in the Green Bay win (Week 16) and made the tackle of the game when he stormed down the alley and jarred the ball loose from James Starks. However, Swearinger was relatively new and Johnson is better in coverage and in being a coordinator on the field. But, Johnson was still playing hurt, as he played two steps behind versus Seattle and in the two playoff games.

The Dline was decimated far beyond anyone realized with the loss of Redding and Peters. Bryant was not able to compensate for those loses. Was losing Oakafor a bigger loss than realized? Rucker didn't look like the same player as earlier in the year. Can they continue to plug in veterans at the end of their career to shore up the Dline?

Okafor was having a down year---something is the matter there and needs to get fixed in a hurry. Rucker, Redding and Mauro were all injured. This team was a lot more banged up than what people realize.

Stinson came on late which is good. Gunter shows good progress. Xavier Williams, with a great off-season, could make a splash next year---and Campbell, Rucker, Redding, Mauro and Peters all return. But what SK will be looking for is a rush DT who can collapse the pocket and/or thrive on penetration.



If you are going to play a 3-4 defense, you need 2 quality ILBs not a safety converted to LB to stuff the run inside.

Minter played aggressively well and physically tough last night. Bucannon has natural ability and instincts. He's staying put with the hope that he will get a little stronger and bigger each year, without losing any of his quickness. The coaches really like Alani Fua and Gabe Martin, both of whom could find a niche next year in sub packages.

After watching how some teams used their TE so successfully in the passing game it might be prudent to get the TEs more involved instead of just being blockers. Teams don't seem to worry much about Cardinal TEs catching the ball.

Darren Fells took some big steps this year, literally and figuratively. But, when you have all the options the Cardinals have at WR and RB, TE is never going to be a focal point of this offense.

Which Veldheer will show up next season. The 2014 version that did a good job at LT or the 2015 version that was adequate at best and down right awful at times.

He wasn't consistently awful, imo. He is good at steering the DE wide of the back edge of the pocket, but he needs to improve his ability to sustain blocks, both in pass pro and in the running game. He showed some improvement as a run blocker this year.

Center is an enigma.

Now---I know this will be unpopular---but I think Lyle Sendlein did a very solid job in the middle this year, especially after being signed well into TC. Carson Palmer raves about him and with good reason---for most of the season Carson was able to avoid the edge rush and step into the pocket, thanks to solid pass pro up the middle with help from the RB. That said, Sendlein is getting older, and it may be time to get younger at the position. Let's not forget that the Cardinals posted the #1 offense in the NFL for yards, and #2 in points. You don't do that without a solid center. You just don't.

DJ seems to be the RB of the future but who joins him in the backfield? Ellington is more miss than hit with the number of injuries he's had. Does CJ have any more gas left in the tank? Will he even sign a team friendly contract?

Here's the enigma---Andre Ellington. Never sure of what you are getting with him. The talent is there---the will? The desire? The toughness? I think they will try to sign CJ as a dual RB to share the load with the multi-talented David Johnson. And it wouldn't surprise me if they drafted a RB on Day 3.

What is the future of Cooper on this team? Does he become a RG or does he become an official bust? Will Humphries step up next season and replace Massie?

Today, BA said Humphries was playing well enough to start by mid-season...hmmm. And that Cooper "will be fine." Was this classic coach speak? Or was this a true indicator of what the plan is for next year? I think the latter---the plan is to start both of them on the right side.

Bethel's game is all over the map right now. How do you trust a guy who makes a great play on one down then looks like a DIV 3 rookie the next?

Bethel has to play long enough to be able to play without thinking too much. This was good experience for him and this off-season should be a turning point for him.

Where does the team find a legit pass rusher? Can they find one in FA or will they move up to snag one in the draft?

SK had made this his priority, as he said today. There could be a trade, a FA deal or two and another draft pick. It should be interesting to see what SK can accomplish in addressing this glaring need.

As this team closes out it's 2015 season there seems to be more questions than answers. Can even half of these problems be fixed and/or corrected? Will SK try to hit the home run in the draft or will he continue to play it safe? Who will they identify as a core member and resign to a new contract, especially the one year contracts? The one year contracts may be team friendly for CAP purposes but how does it affect continuity? This will be a very interesting off season needless to say.

I agree---and was thinking a lot about the direction SK will take. My guess is that we will see a good deal of action (with some surprises about guys with existing contracts that SK will try to pare from the salary cap)---that he will continue to try to identify and lock up the team's core players, but that he will try to add some key pieces---as he said today, pass rushers, a CB and a big, fast safety are at the top of his list...with the caveat that good ones are hard to find.The thing is---SK knows now more than ever the kind of players his coaches want as in system fits and he will do his best to stick to the criteria.

 

[TRW]

Palmer is just garbage in the playoffs. Seriously, even last week when they beat the Packers, Palmer had like 6 balls that should have been picked off but the Packers dropped it. One of Palmer's TD passes was a fluke lucky tip pass.

Those passes that the Packers DBs dropped, were all picked off yesterday by the Panthers.

Arizona will not get very far with Palmer in the playoffs. Hell can you believe that even Ryan freaking Lindley performed better than this guy against the Panthers??

Yeah, they will never get to the NFC Championship game or anything like that...

 

[Russ Smith]

No one can argue that Palmer laid an egg last night. It doesn't matter how whether it was the finger or mental. What comes into question is what does the future hold for this team? Can Palmer recover from this? Where will he be next year in terms his mental state and physical state? It seems the team certainly has to figure out who is replacement will be. Either by trade or draft or FA his replacement needs to be found sooner rather than later.

Why could the team (coaches in particular) not find a way to compensate for losing the Badger? Every team suffers from injuries to key players. The coaching staff had more than enough time to figure out a way to make adjustments in the secondary and it seems none were made. Is the quality of the depth that bad that it just couldn't be done?

The Dline was decimated far beyond anyone realized with the loss of Redding and Peters. Bryant was not able to compensate for those loses. Was losing Oakafor a bigger loss than realized? Rucker didn't look like the same player as earlier in the year. Can they continue to plug in veterans at the end of their career to shore up the Dline?

If you are going to play a 3-4 defense, you need 2 quality ILBs not a safety converted to LB to stuff the run inside.

After watching how some teams used their TE so successfully in the passing game it might be prudent to get the TEs more involved instead of just being blockers. Teams don't seem to worry much about Cardinal TEs catching the ball.

Which Veldheer will show up next season. The 2014 version that did a good job at LT or the 2015 version that was adequate at best and down right awful at times.

Center is an enigma.

DJ seems to be the RB of the future but who joins him in the backfield? Ellington is more miss than hit with the number of injuries he's had. Does CJ have any more gas left in the tank? Will he even sign a team friendly contract?

What is the future of Cooper on this team? Does he become a RG or does he become an official bust? Will Humphries step up next season and replace Massie?

Bethel's game is all over the map right now. How do you trust a guy who makes a great play on one down then looks like a DIV 3 rookie the next?

Where does the team find a legit pass rusher? Can they find one in FA or will they move up to snag one in the draft?

As this team closes out it's 2015 season there seems to be more questions than answers. Can even half of these problems be fixed and/or corrected? Will SK try to hit the home run in the draft or will he continue to play it safe? Who will they identify as a core member and resign to a new contract, especially the one year contracts? The one year contracts may be team friendly for CAP purposes but how does it affect continuity? This will be a very interesting off season needless to say.

I think that because of how we play defense a position like what HB plays is vital. We routinely play 5 or 6 DB's, that means we either carry extra DB's, or they have ot play more than one spot for some of them. That's what HB does so well, he can play like a safety, he can play like a CB. That's very rare to be that good at both spots.

when he got hurt it put us in a situation where we had him out, Powers recently back, Rashad recently back, and Bethel playing CB regularly. Everyone targets the other CB against us and now they had 2 other CB's to target Bethel and Powers. Bethel played so poorly it forced us to start rolling a S over there which impacted other parts of the defense and illustrated all the people blasting Powers didn't know more than the coaches did. The reason he was playing was he was better than Bethel.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Carson Palmer feels like he let his fans and teammates down

Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer had a terrible performance in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, and today he feels miserable about it.

Palmer, whose six turnovers in Sunday’s loss to the Panthers were the most any player has had in any NFL game in the last three years, said he feels that he’s let everyone down.

“It comes as such an abrupt ending,” he said. “To be so excited, and have so much going for you, and all of a sudden it just stops. It’s tough on us, it’s tough on our fans, and I think that’s the part that hurts the most. You just feel like you let your fans down, you let your teammates down. We want to keep playing and we can’t.”

 

[Jetstream Green]

Palmer is just garbage in the playoffs. Seriously, even last week when they beat the Packers, Palmer had like 6 balls that should have been picked off but the Packers dropped it. One of Palmer's TD passes was a fluke lucky tip pass.

Those passes that the Packers DBs dropped, were all picked off yesterday by the Panthers.

Arizona will not get very far with Palmer in the playoffs. Hell can you believe that even Ryan freaking Lindley performed better than this guy against the Panthers??

Serious dude ,your opinion and those of others in the 'self appreciation age' of drama and hyperbole have confirmed to just stay of this forum for a couple of months... comparing Lindley to Palmer and siding with Lindley in an attempt to be a wise ass sums up all one wants to hear in bunches on this forum right now

 

[cardpa]

I think that because of how we play defense a position like what HB plays is vital. We routinely play 5 or 6 DB's, that means we either carry extra DB's, or they have ot play more than one spot for some of them. That's what HB does so well, he can play like a safety, he can play like a CB. That's very rare to be that good at both spots.

when he got hurt it put us in a situation where we had him out, Powers recently back, Rashad recently back, and Bethel playing CB regularly. Everyone targets the other CB against us and now they had 2 other CB's to target Bethel and Powers. Bethel played so poorly it forced us to start rolling a S over there which impacted other parts of the defense and illustrated all the people blasting Powers didn't know more than the coaches did. The reason he was playing was he was better than Bethel.

The thing that really worries me about Bethel is if he can't stay focused or is too up and down with his play you end up with other guys starting to look over at him and trying to do more to cover him and then you end up with a mess because now you have players not doing their job because they don't trust the guy next to them to do his consistently. The guys in the back end of the defense is not really any different then the Oline in which you have to trust the guy next to you to do the right thing. If he doesn't do that on a consistent basis then the level of trust drops dramatically and you end up with blown coverage and mistakes.

You are spot on with your assessment Russ. What I wondered about is it didn't seem like the defense made adjustments to compensate for losing HB. Losing HB created a hole and nothing was done to cover up the hole or patch it up. Maybe they felt that they didn't have the personnel to do so. I don't know what their thinking was. It seemed that they just kept trying to play the same schemes as if HB was still back there instead of making adjustments to compensate for his loss. No other player was going to be able to do the things HB could do so you would think that coaches would make changes to fix the hole left by the HB injury especially when they had two weeks to do so. Maybe they thought they did and it didn't work.

 

[juza76]

This season all the players were extremely confident palmer was their leader and able to lead them to the superbowl.
Next year they will have the same kind of trust on him?

 

[sunsfan88]

Yeah, they will never get to the NFC Championship game or anything like that...

Palmer has 1 career win in the playoffs. He's 1-3 in the playoffs for his career and has a 66.9 QB rating in the playoffs.

So please tell me again about how far Carson Palmer is gonna take the Cardinals again.

 

[sunsfan88]

Serious dude ,your opinion and those of others in the 'self appreciation age' of drama and hyperbole have confirmed to just stay of this forum for a couple of months... comparing Lindley to Palmer and siding with Lindley in an attempt to be a wise ass sums up all one wants to hear in bunches on this forum right now

I'm not the one who brought it up, BIM already did it in this thread or the other one so perhaps your barking up the wrong tree here. And there's nothing wrong with what's said, it's an actual statistical fact that Lindley played better against the Panthers last season than Palmer did this year against the Panthers.

 

[Cardiac]

Palmer has 1 career win in the playoffs. He's 1-3 in the playoffs for his career and has a 66.9 QB rating in the playoffs.

So please tell me again about how far Carson Palmer is gonna take the Cardinals again.

To be fair he is 1-2. One of those losses he got his knee destroyed on the first play of the game which was actually a completed bomb into scoring position.

I am a huge fan of Carson the man and also the player. Is he Peyton lite in that he killed it during the regular season and then wasn't all that in the playoffs?

To small a sample size with too many circumstances/excuses to fully know if he has the mental make up to win the big ones.

I do concede he can be a bit of a gun slinger and does try to force the ball and does at times make poor decisions. Part of that is how BA's offense scheme and mind set.

Carson is our QB for the next year or four barring injury.