Totally_Red
Air Raid Warning!
I watched this week's opponent play host to the Saints in Charlotte. Some observations for what they are worth.
This was one of the poorest games I've seen Drew Brees play. The Panthers pretty much played seven in the box and dared to the Saints to run. Brees finished with a passer rating of 61.0, threw one pick, and could easily have had 2-3 more if the Panthers had held on to them. Colston was playing with some kind of splint on his left hand and dropped two perfectly thrown passes. The Saints lost Reggie Bush on the final play of the first half.
Brian "Baldy" Baldinger had a couple of good observations. After watching a lot of tape of the Saints, he said the New Orleans front four is not nearly as effective on the road as they are in the Superdome. That was apparent in the game, as they seldom got pressure on Delhomme with just their front four rushing. Saints did do a decent job of limiting Williams and Stewart in the ground game, but Steve Smith had a big day.
One of the things Baldy pointed out was how poor New Orleans is on third and short. They are near the bottom in the NFL. He was critical of Sean Payton for always trying to run the ball, instead of occasionally passing. Sure enough, several times in this game, they were stuffed at the line of scrimmage.
John Fox is still John Fox. He berated the officials a couple times for what I thought were legitimate calls. He reminds me of a parent whose kid never does anything wrong. Instead of correcting kid(player), he lambastes the officiating. And Carolina is "who we thought they were." Run first and try to get an occasional play down the field with Steve Smith. They ran the ball 37 times, passed 22 times.
Carolina's defense is pretty good, they play tough. The Cardinals are going to have to earn a victory. Julius Peppers is in a contract year, and played very well on Sunday IMO. He'll be a handful for Mike Gandy and Levi Brown. Also, Brees has several passes batted down. One possible area to exploit in the Panther defense is rookie safety Charles Godfrey. He blew at least one coverage, and drew a tongue lashing from cornerback Ken Lucas.
Conclusion: Carolina bounced back against the Saints. The Saints looked out of rythmn all day, and it was obvious that Shockey and Colston were rusty and not in sync with Drew.
If the Cardinals defense can bring their show on the road, and the offensive line can protect Kurt Warner, and our receivers can win one-on-one battles, there is no reason the Cardinals can't pull the offset. But the Cardinals will need a big game from Q and/or Fitz and some contribution from the ground game.
This was one of the poorest games I've seen Drew Brees play. The Panthers pretty much played seven in the box and dared to the Saints to run. Brees finished with a passer rating of 61.0, threw one pick, and could easily have had 2-3 more if the Panthers had held on to them. Colston was playing with some kind of splint on his left hand and dropped two perfectly thrown passes. The Saints lost Reggie Bush on the final play of the first half.
Brian "Baldy" Baldinger had a couple of good observations. After watching a lot of tape of the Saints, he said the New Orleans front four is not nearly as effective on the road as they are in the Superdome. That was apparent in the game, as they seldom got pressure on Delhomme with just their front four rushing. Saints did do a decent job of limiting Williams and Stewart in the ground game, but Steve Smith had a big day.
One of the things Baldy pointed out was how poor New Orleans is on third and short. They are near the bottom in the NFL. He was critical of Sean Payton for always trying to run the ball, instead of occasionally passing. Sure enough, several times in this game, they were stuffed at the line of scrimmage.
John Fox is still John Fox. He berated the officials a couple times for what I thought were legitimate calls. He reminds me of a parent whose kid never does anything wrong. Instead of correcting kid(player), he lambastes the officiating. And Carolina is "who we thought they were." Run first and try to get an occasional play down the field with Steve Smith. They ran the ball 37 times, passed 22 times.
Carolina's defense is pretty good, they play tough. The Cardinals are going to have to earn a victory. Julius Peppers is in a contract year, and played very well on Sunday IMO. He'll be a handful for Mike Gandy and Levi Brown. Also, Brees has several passes batted down. One possible area to exploit in the Panther defense is rookie safety Charles Godfrey. He blew at least one coverage, and drew a tongue lashing from cornerback Ken Lucas.
Conclusion: Carolina bounced back against the Saints. The Saints looked out of rythmn all day, and it was obvious that Shockey and Colston were rusty and not in sync with Drew.
If the Cardinals defense can bring their show on the road, and the offensive line can protect Kurt Warner, and our receivers can win one-on-one battles, there is no reason the Cardinals can't pull the offset. But the Cardinals will need a big game from Q and/or Fitz and some contribution from the ground game.
