Panthers-21 Cards-28: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

[Shane]

THE GOOD:

W - don't care how we got it. It's a W.

Kolb - 300 yards, 1 touchdown, that BEAUTIFUL deep play to Fitz, the scramble 47 yard TD to King. Kid looks like a legit NFL starter. He'll have some bumps in the road, but I think he's got good tools and just needs some experience.

Darryl Washington - HOLY ****. That might have been the best game I've ever seen a Cardinals LBer have.

Peterson the Punt Returner - He's gonna be the scariest special teamer since Devin Hester. He's the first guy we've had back there that is just a NATURAL, from the way he catches the ball, to the way he exploded on his return.

Beanie's first half - Looked like a beast, driving the pile forward, churning for extra yards.

TE - 100 yards combined for the TE? Awesome.

Doucet - Great drive and burst on the TD

Run D - Dan Williams was just blowing **** up.

THE BAD:

The O-line in pass protection - not terrible, but not good and Levi Brown was just putrid in the first half.

Feely - misses a relative chippie, did okay on KO.

Beanie's fumble/inability to cut back - kid just doesn't have that move and seemed to dance in the second half.

THE UGLY:

Secondary + Terrible OLB - Could be the worst combination of pass rushers and pass defenders in the history of the Cardinals. I mean... holy underwear Batman. The Panthers had no off-season, a completely new coaching staff and a rookie who no one thought was really ready to throw the ball and he leads their offense to 500 yards and within 2 yards of pushing us to OT? Sorry guys, while Cam has talent, he's NOWHERE NEAR good enough to put up stats half that good against any defense worth a lick of salt.

And yes, there's only one UGLY spot here, but it's a HUGE one and unfortunately will be for the duration of the season. I think Peterson will eventually be an overall mega-stud, but it ain't gonna be this season and everyone else... well... the less said the better IMO.

Overall, an absolute rollercoaster of a game and just a good old time at the stadium and well worth the flight out this morning and flight back to Cali tonight.

Bring on the Skins.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go pick up Rex Grossman for my fantasy team next week.

Small correction Kolb had 2 TD's..Also had 66.7% comp and 11.3 YPA and 130 QB rating

Agree on DW hope hes OK.

 

[mjb21aztd]

Thank god the Cardinals won will make this week at work a lot easier . Hope we beat the Redskins next week

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

Cornerback Patrick Peterson, a rookie, was beaten for one touchdown, but a mistake by strong safety Adrian Wilson resulted in Smith's 77-yard touchdown.
Peterson blitzed, and apparently Wilson was supposed to be playing behind safety Kerry Rhodes.
"That was me, I got a little bit nosy," said Wilson, who declined to give more details.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/car...rolina-panthers-cam-newton.html#ixzz1XiZ4mSLa​

Wow! That's convenient. I was going to post the link, but it was automatically added when I pasted the quote. Will the wonders of technology ever cease?​

That falls in line with what I was told in Seattle last year about AW. He would freelance and and leave Rolle in a lurch much like he did Rhodes yesterday.

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

This is what an unsound defense looks like. No one anywhere near the receiver. Hopefully Horton learns from his mistakes, because this was awful.

Watch the NFLN network recap show and you'll see alot of blown coverages yesterday.

 

[kerouac9]

But there were no adjustments in the first half. And pretty much all game long Newton ate us alive until the last half of the 4th quarter. And even then it took a great stop to secure the win. And, yes, the pass to Fitz was a good one, however, what happened in the plays directly afterward? Run into the line, run to the outside, incomplete pass. The entire planet saw each and every one of those plays coming. And all we had to do is pick up a first down. And not one slant IIRC.

The one slant that I remembered was the one to Fitz on like 3rd and 5 that Chris Gamble got to first, and Fitz complained that he'd been interfered with.

Watch the NFLN network recap show and you'll see alot of blown coverages yesterday.

I'm not sure why "everybody else was doing it" is an excuse. The Texans didn't get lit up by Kerry Collins that I saw.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

What adjustment? Well for starters, stop blitzing every play. Then focus on coverage. The reason why he was so successful because we had single man coverage most of the time. And I'm don't mean stop blitzing. We were blitzing on nearly every play and it was a disaster.

There's blitzing and there's BLITZING!

We sent an extra man on early downs and full house on third and long. It's the Pitt system and it works.

 

[TheCardFan]

There's blitzing and there's BLITZING!

We sent an extra man on early downs and full house on third and long. It's the Pitt system and it works.

It typically works if you get there (sack) or pressure the QB to throw before routes are ready but if we continue to let the QB sit back and make a good throw...we will get killed all year.

 

[football karma]

There's blitzing and there's BLITZING!

We sent an extra man on early downs and full house on third and long. It's the Pitt system and it works.

only if you get there.

Its easy to say in hindsight -- but here goes:

I think the hardest thing for a rookie qB to figure out is various zones. Yet, with all the blitzing, the Cardinals ended up with a lot of one on one man coverage.

It seemed like it made it easy for Newton to go with a single read and make the throw.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

It typically works if you get there (sack) or pressure the QB to throw before routes are ready but if we continue to let the QB sit back and make a good throw...we will get killed all year.

There are no guarantees on any given play.

Green Bay, recognized as a top 5 "D" capable of pressuring, gave up over 400 yards in the air to NO. They'll adjust... the Cards will adjust.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

only if you get there.

Its easy to say in hindsight -- but here goes:

I think the hardest thing for a rookie qB to figure out is various zones. Yet, with all the blitzing, the Cardinals ended up with a lot of one on one man coverage.

It seemed like it made it easy for Newton to go with a single read and make the throw.

Horton wants to establish in the collective mind of his players that they are an aggressive defence. If you don't go out a try that in game one against a rookie, when do you, I ask?

As said... they'll adjust to the circumstances in the weeks to come.

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

I'm not sure why "everybody else was doing it" is an excuse. The Texans didn't get lit up by Kerry Collins that I saw.

Tell me where I said it was excuse??????? I said there were alot of blown coverages in the NFL yesterday. Logic dictates that maybe not having an off season and a new system to learn leads to mistakes occurring the first real game of the season. And, on other hand, Kerry Colling had less than 3 weeks in a completely new system ran by Peyton Manning. I would expect him to struggle.

 

[football karma]

Adrian Wilson admitted after the game that he blew the assignment on that play. Wilson was supposed to be deep.

I am a guy who wears a #24 jersey to the game

But this is getting old. Adrian has a long history of peeking into the backfield and getting burned deep.

Its one thing to be doing one's job and just getting beat by Steve Smith. It happens. Its another however to freelance and just giftwrap a TD.

 

[TheCardFan]

There are no guarantees on any given play.

Green Bay, recognized as a top 5 "D" capable of pressuring, gave up over 400 yards in the air to NO. They'll adjust... the Cards will adjust.

The difference is talent. We don't have the talent of GB, the Steelers, or the Jets who all do a very good job of pressuring the QB and not giving up huge plays.

Keep in mind, we were playing the Carolina Panthers (1-15) last year, with a rookie QB in his first game...not Drew Brees and a top 5 offense from the last few years in a row.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

The difference is talent. We don't have the talent of GB, the Steelers, or the Jets who all do a very good job of pressuring the QB and not giving up huge plays.

Keep in mind, we were playing the Carolina Panthers (1-15) last year, with a rookie QB in his first game...not Drew Brees and a top 5 offense from the last few years in a row.

What I try to keep in mind is last year is last year.

I'll venture that Carolina, which is not without talent, will surprise more than a few supposedly better teams this season.

 

[football karma]

I'll venture that Carolina, which is not without talent, will surprise more than a few supposedly better teams this season.

Not keeping up with all of Carolina's moves in the offseason, at the game I was surprised by that fact that they have a pretty solid group of skill people-- Williams / Stewart at RB, Steve Smith at WR, Shockey and Olsen at TE. Add a solid LT in Jordan Gross.

It seems like competent QB play is all they need to have a really good offense.

 

[MadCardDisease]

I'm not sure why "everybody else was doing it" is an excuse. The Texans didn't get lit up by Kerry Collins that I saw.

For the most part I agree.

However when you consider that the Cards have a rookie DC installing a new system in a shortened offseason with essentially two rookies playing at CB and a SS that missed the entire preseason. I think we should expect some errors to occur on defense.

The key is to see an improvement as the season progresses.

 

[Russ Smith]

What adjustments did you expect? Its all about personnel and we don't have the personnel to get the necessary pressure consistently. What adjustment would you have made to keep Cam from air mailing it everywhere?

Exactly, my favorite analogy is a relay race. It doesn't matter what order the 4 guys run if they're not fast, you're going to lose.

We had to blitz to get pressure, and we have 2 very young CB's a one armed SS who plays like a LB and Rhodes had his worst game of his cards career. It didn't matter what adjustment we made. if we backed off the blitz, he'd have all day to throw.

 

[crisper57]

Can't shake this thought:

Last year, the Cards faced a rookie QB in his first game and he gave us all we could handle. Cards pull out the victory, but then the wheels fell off for pretty much the rest of the season.

This year, the Cards faced a rookie QB in his first game and he gave us all we could handle. Cards pull out the victory...

How will the last sentence end?

 

[Shane]

Can't shake this thought:

Last year, the Cards faced a rookie QB in his first game and he gave us all we could handle. Cards pull out the victory, but then the wheels fell off for pretty much the rest of the season.

This year, the Cards faced a rookie QB in his first game and he gave us all we could handle. Cards pull out the victory...

How will the last sentence end?

Not rest of season right away.. We were 3-2 at one point and in complete command of division

 

[AzStevenCal]

Can't shake this thought:

Last year, the Cards faced a rookie QB in his first game and he gave us all we could handle. Cards pull out the victory, but then the wheels fell off for pretty much the rest of the season.

This year, the Cards faced a rookie QB in his first game and he gave us all we could handle. Cards pull out the victory...

How will the last sentence end?

With a period? I agree there's reason for concern but I'm pretty sure we weren't the only team to struggle against a rookie QB in the past and I doubt that they all finished with 5 wins like we did. We were horrible on both sides of the ball last season and this year there is reason to hope that we are at least average on offense. That alone should lead to some improvement. Not much mind you, but I think we'll show a 2 or 3 game improvement this year.

Steve

 

[Treefiddy]

Also: we successfully defended a halfback screen! Great work, guys!

Dockett seems to be really good at sniffing these out. There was one play where he had a free run at Newton, and turned around to go tackle the HB before Newton even threw the ball.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

Not keeping up with all of Carolina's moves in the offseason, at the game I was surprised by that fact that they have a pretty solid group of skill people-- Williams / Stewart at RB, Steve Smith at WR, Shockey and Olsen at TE. Add a solid LT in Jordan Gross.

It seems like competent QB play is all they need to have a really good offense.

.... and, despite the record, their "D" last year was not bad at all. We know that the Cards had better than 5 win talent last season, and much the same could be said for Carolina. Both teams plagued with horrible QB play. As said: they'll surprise more than a few this season.

 

[NJCardFan]

.... and, despite the record, their "D" last year was not bad at all. We know that the Cards had better than 5 win talent last season, and much the same could be said for Carolina. Both teams plagued with horrible QB play. As said: they'll surprise more than a few this season.

A couple of analysts said that if Newton pans out, the Panthers will be a threat to their division. If this is the case, the NFC South will be a very tough division.