Pendy must go

[Totally_Red]

And a few more facts to date, I posted on another thread where someone was comparing us to the Eagles:

Philly-D - has given up 49 points in 3 games

Ariz-D - has given up 47 points in 3 games

Philly gave up 41 points to Dallas.

Dallas was held to 28 points scored by Cleveland - 27 by Green Bay

San Fran scored 13 points at home against Cards. They've scored 64 points in last two games.

Miami scored 10 points against the Cards. They scored 38 yesterday on the road against the vaunted New England Patriots.

Stop being rational! The vocal minority in the fan base wants to lynch Pendy and you present the cold, hard facts. Stop that!

 

[vince56]

Best D-coordinator we've ever had and some Cards fans want to run him out of town. Unreal.

We threw kitchen-sink blitzes at the Redskins this week and almost all of them were perfectly picked up. Face it, the Redskins have a killer pass protecting O-line.

As for corners, until DRC is really ready to step in and start, we'll be playing off-man coverage and zone coverage. Green and Hood simply are better at zone covg than man-to-man. I'd love to see more up-close man coverage, but Eric Green man covering Santana Moss = FAIL. It's not going to work.

It's the players. Our OLBs do not play contain enough, Laboy really tried but he was hurt and not at 100%, plus he's not going to tail down the much faster Clinton Portis. Our DL do not get enough of a push, mainly because our starter is still out injured and his main backup has been a disappointment and barely sees the field. So we have a journeyman at nose. Dockett's been a decent tackler this year, but neither he nor Smith nor Campbell have really gotten much of a rush in either game.

Is Pendy perfect? No, but I think once we get DRC really in the mix and he plays well, we'll see a lot more man coverage. Until then, yeah our DBs are pretty suspect.

 

[earthsci]

Best D-coordinator we've ever had and some Cards fans want to run him out of town. Unreal.

I don't know about best...Fritz Shurmur was pretty damned good.

I think that Pendy has done a decent enough job though.

 

[Totally_Red]

Best D-coordinator we've ever had and some Cards fans want to run him out of town. Unreal.

We threw kitchen-sink blitzes at the Redskins this week and almost all of them were perfectly picked up. Face it, the Redskins have a killer pass protecting O-line.

As for corners, until DRC is really ready to step in and start, we'll be playing off-man coverage and zone coverage. Green and Hood simply are better at zone covg than man-to-man. I'd love to see more up-close man coverage, but Eric Green man covering Santana Moss = FAIL. It's not going to work.

It's the players. Our OLBs do not play contain enough, Laboy really tried but he was hurt and not at 100%, plus he's not going to tail down the much faster Clinton Portis. Our DL do not get enough of a push, mainly because our starter is still out injured and his main backup has been a disappointment and barely sees the field. So we have a journeyman at nose. Dockett's been a decent tackler this year, but neither he nor Smith nor Campbell have really gotten much of a rush in either game.

Is Pendy perfect? No, but I think once we get DRC really in the mix and he plays well, we'll see a lot more man coverage. Until then, yeah our DBs are pretty suspect.

And that doesn't even include the reality that Antrel Rolle is learning a new position on the fly. Sometimes the opponent, is just better on a given Sunday.

I really hope Gabe Watson is back this week, he's sorely missed.

 

[Stout]

our defense is,
8th in total yards, (Bucs 26th, Packers 27th)
11th in passing yards, ( BUcs 27th, Packers 22nd)
14th in rushing yards, ( Bucs 20th, Packers 27th)
9th in sacks, ( Bucs 9th, Packers 7th)
6th in td's allowed, (Bucs 5th, Packers 15th)
and most impotant of all,
4th in points allowed. ( Bucs 9th, Packers 23rd)

That's not the rankings in the NFC. That is the rankings of the entire NFL. Every catagory is above average. I chose to compare us to the Bucs and Packers who are considered to have good defenses and both are 2-1 in first place.

Players miss tackles. Players blow assignments. Coaches call wrong defenses. Players drop would be interceptions, Coaches call for a blitz at the wrong time and don't blitz when we should at times. Players make great plays. Players make not so great plays.
And sometimes the ball bounces 20 feet in the air off your opponents helmet and into a defenders hands.

It's a chess game except the peices are moving all the time. Everything we try to do the other team tries to counteract and vice-versa.

The defense allowed 2 long drives vs the Skins and 2 times the Skins got a gift inside our 30 yards line. HAs this defense played better than it did Sunday? Yes. Does it need to play better than it did Sunday? Undoubtedly. But the same could be said for the offense. Should Haley be fired?

Relax guys. Look around the league. We are not terrible. Nobody needs to be fired.

And who did we play? Nobody. I give a damn what the 'Fins did to the Pats because the Pats aren't very good (could barely beat the juggernaut Chiefs, if you recall). So we played decent defense against bad teams. Okay, that's good. You need to be able to do that. You also need to be able to play good defense against mediocre teams. Washington is no juggernaut; they're middle-of-the-pack. If you can't even play good defense against them, you're out of luck. I'd type more here, but I need to respond elsewhere, and that will answer more.

 

[Stout]

Why bring up stats when you could simply rely on the amatuer kneejerk opinions of Stout?

Our defense has been just fine this year.

Ooh, aren't we an insulting Snippy McGee now? Kneejerk? Hardly. You've been aruond this board for a while, Mao, so shame on you for not recalling that I ALWAYS go hard after Pendy, because Pendy has not been good for a loooooong time, if ever. I look at how predictable our defense and how soft our defense is coached, and I dream of what an aggressive DC could do with it.

 

[Stout]

I still like Pendy. He runs a pretty complex defense, so I expect the team to get better.

If he's replaced in the offseason (let's be realistic--if he's replaced at all it's not going to be mid-season), then we need to find a 3-4 coordinator because that's the type of personnel we've been building for the last couple of years and likely the type of personnel that's currently being scouted. Rivera is a 4-3/4-6 guy. I can't think of a 3-4 guy out there that's going to come available next year...it'd likely be a coordinator stepping into the role (either from the cards or another 3-4 team...fortunately, there are more and more of them these days).

But, I think that the reason we'll lose Pendergast isn't because he'll be fired, he'll be released from his contract so he can take a head coaching position in 2010.

JMHO

Um, wow, massively disagree. He'll not sniff a HC job. He just isn't that good. The problem is that he was good for about 5 minutes with a little smoke-and-mirrors, but when is schtick became predictable, he suddenly failed to adjust. Sure, he brings blitzes, and if I can sit at home and say exactly what blitz is going to happen, I can damn sure guarantee that the blocking package can do so too. He doesn't call enough blitzes, and he isn't even moderately creative with them. He signals to defenses, 'here we come...RIGHT HERE...stop us if you can.' Wonder of wonders, they usually do.

To combine posts, I want to tip my cap to Russ for pointing this out already, but the fact has clearly been missed by some on this board. P is for Pendy is for Predictable.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Best D-coordinator we've ever had and some Cards fans want to run him out of town. Unreal.

We threw kitchen-sink blitzes at the Redskins this week and almost all of them were perfectly picked up. Face it, the Redskins have a killer pass protecting O-line.

if those blitzes didn't seemingly get picked up all the time I'd agree with you, but they do.

Pendy should have been thrown out with the rest of the DG trash two years ago. I love the offensive staff Wiz brought in and I'll be happy when he can pick his own defensive staff next year.

 

[PACardsFan]

if those blitzes didn't seemingly get picked up all the time I'd agree with you, but they do.

Pendy should have been thrown out with the rest of the DG trash two years ago. I love the offensive staff Wiz brought in and I'll be happy when he can pick his own defensive staff next year.

I still don't know why this guy was retained. Whiz wants a similar D that he had in Pittsburgh & once Pendergast is gone, we'll start resembling a real NFL defense.

 

[slanidrac16]

And who did we play? Nobody. I give a damn what the 'Fins did to the Pats because the Pats aren't very good (could barely beat the juggernaut Chiefs, if you recall). So we played decent defense against bad teams. Okay, that's good. You need to be able to do that. You also need to be able to play good defense against mediocre teams. Washington is no juggernaut; they're middle-of-the-pack. If you can't even play good defense against them, you're out of luck. I'd type more here, but I need to respond elsewhere, and that will answer more.

I'm not saying we should be compared to the 85 Bears. But our field position sucked all day and we had 2 turnovers inside our own 25 yard line. It's a team game and sometimes the D has to pick up the O and somrtimes the O has to pick up the D.

The D kept us in the game and shouldn't have been counted on to stop the Skins at the end of the game. That burden should have fallen on the Offense.

 

[Stout]

I'm not saying we should be compared to the 85 Bears. But our field position sucked all day and we had 2 turnovers inside our own 25 yard line. It's a team game and sometimes the D has to pick up the O and somrtimes the O has to pick up the D.

The D kept us in the game and shouldn't have been counted on to stop the Skins at the end of the game. That burden should have fallen on the Offense.

Agreed on the last point. As to some key stops on short fields, though...how many were the defense and how many were Washington stopping themselves? I know of one definite first down catch that was dropped, and I think there was at least one more. The big problem, though, is you can't give up a long, grinding, demoralizing drive that eats the clock. We not only gave up one of those, but two of them.

 

[slanidrac16]

Agreed on the last point. As to some key stops on short fields, though...how many were the defense and how many were Washington stopping themselves? I know of one definite first down catch that was dropped, and I think there was at least one more. The big problem, though, is you can't give up a long, grinding, demoralizing drive that eats the clock. We not only gave up one of those, but two of them.

And you can't give up two TO's inside your own 25 yard line. Many games in todays NFL come down to be 1 or 2 plays better than your opponent. Sunday the Skins were better than us. If we played them again it could be the other way around.
I sure hope the next time we play these guys it's in Arizona.

 

[Duckjake]

Agreed on the last point. As to some key stops on short fields, though...how many were the defense and how many were Washington stopping themselves? I know of one definite first down catch that was dropped, and I think there was at least one more. The big problem, though, is you can't give up a long, grinding, demoralizing drive that eats the clock. We not only gave up one of those, but two of them.

The problem is just that the defense is making the same mistakes they've made the last 2-3 years.

The proof is that we had this exact same discussion about the D last season.

 

[Cheesebeef]

The problem is just that the defense is making the same mistakes they've made the last 2-3 years.

The proof is that we had this exact same discussion about the D last season.

and the season before that and before that. I was a big fan of Pendy his first year, but it's now apparent to me that without an absolute dominating pass rusher (which is what Berry was that first year), Pendy's just SOL on scheming his way out of a paper bag.

 

[Pariah]

It's just a little early to be on him et this season, IMO. The stats are the stats; he can't help who he's played on the schedule.

What will it take to convert some of you "haters?" (I say that without malice) Top half defense? Top 10?

I think it's a given he probably won't be replaced mid-season, so let's see where we net out.

Skipping ahead, If he's not satisfactory, who would you like to see brought in (realistically: let's not hear the Dick Lebeau or Jim Johnson responses)?

 

[black]

After just 3 games I notice we have a better defense than last year. Thats all we need. If our defense was as good last year, we would have went to the playoffs. But, this is a make or break year for the defense as a whole. Many one year contract players with a DC with a short leash.

 

[O]

As I said earlier in this thread.
A little contain goes a long way.

 

[Cheesebeef]

It's just a little early to be on him et this season, IMO.

I just see the same problems we've had for years... biting bad on misdirection, blitz packages that are seemingly always picked up, poor tackling and the inability to get consistent pressure on the QB. Is it early in the season? Sure, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't see progress in those areas.

The stats are the stats; he can't help who he's played on the schedule.

What will it take to convert some of you "haters?" (I say that without malice) Top half defense? Top 10?

with the amount of depth, size and speed we supposedly have, yeah, I would think a top 10 defense would shut all of us up, or a D that didn't continually bite on misdirection, get their blitzes picked up ad naseum, etc. etc.

I think it's a given he probably won't be replaced mid-season, so let's see where we net out.

Skipping ahead, If he's not satisfactory, who would you like to see brought in (realistically: let's not hear the Dick Lebeau or Jim Johnson responses)?

don't know.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Man,, for the last 2 years or so, it's been the same old story... People ranting about a player or a coach, or the defense or the offense - only to have others chime in with, "well, our pass defense hasn't let up a plpay over 40 yards thus far", or some other rationale to argue away the reality...

Look, for so many reasons, this team continues to lose and play poorly on the road... 15 & 51 since 2000 on the road... I don't care where our defense is ranked. Couldn't care any less about how many plays we keep under 40 yards... It's all about the W, period... And for reasons that continue to haunt this team, road W's are as difficult to come by as a winning Lotto ticket... It's beyond pathetic...

And - while I'm ranting... I have ZERO confidence that this team will go into the Meadowlands and come out with a W. In fact, I think the chances are pretty damm good that the Jets and Favre bounce back from a spanking on Monday night...
If we can't get pressure on Favre - he will slice up our defense like a meat butcher from The Bronx. It could get very, very ugly...

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[Pariah]

I just see the same problems we've had for years..

Yet, at this point in the seaoson, the defense overall is performing very well. Yes, there are isolated incidents of the same old problems, but the stats say they're a better defense.

You can say we haven't played anyone, but even that is too early to say. SF seems to be playing better than expected, miami just beat last years' regular season's undefeated team and outside of a stinker to the champions the Skins look to be pretty good. Your gut tells you those teams aren't that impressive, but their performance says otherwise (so far).

Look, all I'm saying is that it's something for Whiz/the Bidwills to keep their eye on--but so far, the defense has done a pretty good job stopping the opponents put in front of them. Have they been perfect? No. But they have done a good job.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Yet, at this point in the seaoson, the defense overall is performing very well. Yes, there are isolated incidents of the same old problems, but the stats say they're a better defense.

You can say we haven't played anyone, but even that is too early to say. SF seems to be playing better than expected, miami just beat last years' regular season's undefeated team and outside of a stinker to the champions the Skins look to be pretty good. Your gut tells you those teams aren't that impressive, but their performance says otherwise (so far).

Look, all I'm saying is that it's something for Whiz/the Bidwills to keep their eye on--but so far, the defense has done a pretty good job stopping the opponents put in front of them. Have they been perfect? No. But they have done a good job.

the D's first big test was last week and they failed to get any pressure, any turnovers or any stops when they needed to. Was it a one week blip? I think we'll know more this weekend. I'm not ready to banish this D to the cellar, but Pendy doesn't give me much confidence. Hasn't for three years.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

You heard it here first. If we don't make the playoffs this year the new defensive coordinator will be .....

Dom Capers

I wish we could clone Jim Johnson - He is the best defensive coordinator IMO and especially with our personnel.....ooooh weee

 

[john h]

My take is we blitzed all game. The oline picked up every single one. I put the blame ont he players not the coach last Sunday.

With our current crop of defensive players I do not think Vince Lombardi could do much. We are going to have to address our defensive needs in the FA market and draft. We have plenty of needs but mostly on the line. Please do not draft another DB this year. Pende probably has something to do with this but I put it mostly on the guys who are supposed to tackle and rush the QB. We just do not have them. I do not think we have many sacks this year but do not know?

With this defense just how far can we go this year? I think the offense is just going to have to outscore the opposition which means turning Warner and our receiver loose and stop trying to win with a running game. We spend 10 minutes running the ball hopefully to score a TD only to have the opposition score in about 4-5 minutes with long runs and passes. Hopefully the defense wakes up this week and shows they can play defense.

I am concerned at this point if we can go 8-8. Three games is still to early to make a definitive judgement but by 4 games we should have a good idea of just where this team is.

 

[Pariah]

We have plenty of needs but mostly on the line. Please do not draft another DB this year.

Wow. I don't know that I could disagree more. We have two big fellas for the middle of the 3-4 line, and between Smith, Dockett and Campbell on the outside I think our starters on the line are pretty well set.

Yet, at CB we're desperately thin. Hood and Green are no better than #2s and DRC is completely untested and hasn't been able to beat these guys out.

I think our needs are at CB and possibly another OLB for depth because outside of LaBoy, our OLBs are looking pretty old and slow.

JMHO

 

[Crazy Canuck]

Pendy is a disaster and must go, and the stats absolutely support this view.

After 3 games the Cards are:

5th in points allowed
8th in total yards allowed
2nd in fumbles created
7th in sacks
20th in interceptions.

With all the talent he has at his disposal, it is a crime against the football Gods, that he isn't number one in all these categories.

(Even though SF scored 64 points in the two games after losing to the Cards, he should have held them to nothing, nada. And there's no reason why the Dolphins who put up 38 points on the Patriots were not also held to a goose egg.)