take aways: 1-6

[TigToad]

I don't usually start threads like this. However, a few points I want to make.

1. Ouch.

2. Three losses by 3 points to decent teams, all late blown leads. (Redskins, Giants, Ravens). If those are 3 wins, the Cardinals are 4-3 and people are not naysaying Kolb despite identical play.

The Ravens second half plan exposed our defensive weakness; conditioning & preparedness to face a no huddle offense.

We can blame the short off season for both, new defensive plan must have left out some of the no huddle planning during implementation. Conditioning wasn't going to be as good with less time to work out. In fact, looking around the NFL, the scoring is very high this year. I believe this is a league-wide taking advantage of the no-huddle look.

3. We don't run no-huddle very often.

4. Offensive play calling. Wow, the last drive of the game... were we really playing to send it into overtime from that deep in their territory and the Ravens having their time outs? It seemed that way. Terrible, terrible, calling. It was obvious every third and long when we had an empty backfield that a sack was coming. We can't play empty back field, there has to be a blocker to cover the, hopefully, only one blitzer who gets through our O-line.

5. Our defense looked much better with Porter out hurt. Acho did alright.

That is all. I will hold with, if we were 4-3 going into the easier second-half schedule, people would be amped up about this exact same team.

 

[TigToad]

#2 should be three points or less. Sigh.

 

[WarnerHOF]

We lost those games because Kolb is the worst QB in the NFL.

 

[TigToad]

I disagree. All three games had leads that should have held. I contend we lost the game because our defense doesn't stop the no-huddle offense. The offense put us in position to win 3 times. Kolb has happy-feet, which I'm hoping he'll be coached out of and/or our o-line will be replaced.

We lost those games because Kolb is the worst QB in the NFL.

 

[40yearfan]

When Kolb is under that kind of pressure, he needs to throw the ball quicker.

 

[GatorAZ]

We lost those games because Kolb is the worst QB in the NFL.

To put this season squarly on Kolb is ridiculous. Is he a big part yes absolutely, but the defense is bottom in the league and we might have the worst OL in the league.

Combine those 3 together and we are 1-6. Haven't mentioned the coaching yet.

 

[gmabel830]

My take away is this: the highlight of our season is going to be "We got to see Cam Newton play in his first ever real game!" Awesome.

 

[Duckjake]

We lost those games because Kolb is the worst QB in the NFL.

I don't know if he's the worst but he isn't very good. Nothing more than a career back up if that. There's just nothing he does that gives any indication that he's an NFL quality starting QB.

 

[LarryStalling]

I don't remember many qb's taking as many big sack, meaning 8 yards or more, than Kolb does. That plus the inordinate amount of penalties we get make for some huge deficits to over come.

 

[az1965]

And we asked Andy Reid's recommendaton about Kolb... how intelligent is that? What is Andy Reid is going to say? No, do not trade for Kolb, he blows...

 

[nashman]

We get it Warnerhof you dislike Kolb ! Give it a rest Kolb did not lose this game our pathetic coaching staff and lack of quality CB's lost this game as well as most of them. Teams know they can throw on us or get tons of PI calls at anytime so we are gonna see lots of passing on us until we prove we can stop it! Seriously how many interceptions does this D have this season? The answer is not nearly enough considering the passing yardage this team gives up on a regular basis.

 

[CFLredzoned]

It seems like every game, something different gets exposed and then exploited. Sometimes it Kolb, the receivers, or the pass rush. This time, they were pretty solid. This time, it was the protection and the secondary that got exposed. You'd think Q had world class track speed.

 

[titan]

i don't put all this on kolb but i think that one of our biggest prolbems we have is the oline. i'm sorry but with very bad blocking and penaltys and just out musled they just suck. we can't even pull off a screen pass, let alone the qb having time to throw the ball. just sad very sad.

 

[Duckjake]

It seems like every game, something different gets exposed and then exploited. Sometimes it Kolb, the receivers, or the pass rush. This time, they were pretty solid. This time, it was the protection and the secondary that got exposed. You'd think Q had world class track speed.

Right on the money and its not just something different every game its something different every series. That's why it has been such a weird season because guys look like solid pros one snap and jugheads who'd never seen a football before the next. And its not just 3-4 guys its everybody.

The Cardinals 5-11 Excuse book has a lot of extra pages this year as a result.

 

[CHAPTER 7]

My take away is that we won! The first half! Oh wait...we supposed to play and needed to win the second half???

 

[cardpa]

This all can't be placed on Kolb's shoulders. Not when you have tackles who are turnstiles, receivers who can't get open and when they do they drop the ball. A secondary that doesn't know how to turn back to the ball when thrown and grabs the other team's receivers when they get beat.

Put this together with the inability of the coaching staff to put a system in place that matched the strengths of the team and will not replace veteran players who can't get the job done and you have the perfect formula for failure.

 

[Totally_Red]

This all can't be placed on Kolb's shoulders. Not when you have tackles who are turnstiles, receivers who can't get open and when they do they drop the ball. A secondary that doesn't know how to turn back to the ball when thrown and grabs the other team's receivers when they get beat.

Put this together with the inability of the coaching staff to put a system in place that matched the strengths of the team and will not replace veteran players who can't get the job done and you have the perfect formula for failure.

Baltimore's tackles have also been horrible all season in pass protection, but somehow Cam Cameron was able to come up with a no-huddle quick pass to overcome that weakness and help Flacco to succeed after half-time.

The Cardinals coaching staff seems incapable of doing anything to help Kevin Kolb succeed. IMO, he's an average quarterback with a good arm who is not going to take the Cardinals on his back and carry them to success like Kurt Warner did. The Cardinals desperately need a franchise quarterback, because I really don't think their defense will ever be good enough to win games on their own. Fortunately there should be more good quarterbacks than usual available next April. Whether Whis and company will be able to coach them up is another question.

 

[kerouac9]

If Kolb manages to do anything offensively during this game when he's not given the ball with only 20 yards of grass in front of him we win this one going away. People are needlessly blaming the OL here. Kolb actively runs into sacks.

If Kolb were a good QB we WOULD be 4-3 right now, but he's not. He's a bottom 5 starter in the NFL. Glad we don't have a second round pick next year.

 

[Sunryze88]

If Kolb would step up in the pocket our Tackles wouldn't look so bad. What do you expect when our tackles push the rusher to the outside and Kolb scrambles to the outside?

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

Right on the money and its not just something different every game its something different every series. That's why it has been such a weird season because guys look like solid pros one snap and jugheads who'd never seen a football before the next. And its not just 3-4 guys its everybody.

Exactly. I went from thinking the Cards look pretty good and maybe they could end up winning 8 of their last 9, to wondering if they could get Luck within the span of 1 quarter of football. It's amazing how they can look so good and so bad, like you said, in consecutive series.

 

[Dayman]

My takeaway is that the offense is flawed on every level. Yes, Kolb is terrible, but he wasn't alone in his futility yesterday. Especially in the first half.

I've never seen so many receivers run 5 yard routes at once, no matter what the down and distance. As an added bonus, the receivers, minus Fitz, take forever to get into these 5 yard routes because they're mediocre at best. Combine that with a bunch of blown O-line assignments/horrible blocking schemes and there's little chance of being productive. Kolb missed a couple plays in the first half, but for the most part he was battling team-wide ineptitude. If I believed Miller wasn't merely carrying out the orders of Whis, I'd say he should be canned today.

The second half, however, was more on Kolb. He stopped trying to move up in the pocket and missed multiple open receivers. That interception was sickening to watch on replay. He stood still instead of moving five feet to his left, where he had plenty of room to work. Then he fell down like he got shot when Suggs hit him in the arm. It was a microcosm of the rest of the half for him.

Kolb also seems to struggle at adjusting plays pre-snap. I guess there's a chance Whis is restricting his freedom at the line, but he always seems to be fooled by late blitzers. It's yet another sign that awareness isn't his strong point.

In summary, this offense is in serious trouble.

 

[az jam]

Ravens had 6 sacks and 8 QB hits. Cards have worst offensive tackles in the NFL. Until that is fixed no qb will look any good.

 

[dogpoo32]

If Kolb would step up in the pocket our Tackles wouldn't look so bad. What do you expect when our tackles push the rusher to the outside and Kolb scrambles to the outside?

Bingo. How many times did he waltz right into the arms of a defender? Kolb is a bonehead and will not win games. He compounds the problems, and makes an already bad OL worse. Have we seen him manage a game this year?

 

[Chopper0080]

You can put this loss on every aspect of the offense other than Wells and maybe Fitzgerald. Baltimore is good defensively, but we have to get points when we start around the 50.

 

[slinslin]

1. Kolb is horrible, worse than many rookie QBs actually.
2. The OL is terrible, we know that for years. The Cards OL has been bad for the last decade pretty much.
3. The defense is the worst in the league, Rhodes is injured, we have no decent linebackers except for Washington and Acho and Schofield are just rookies. The cornerbacks are basically all rookies and a scrub in Marshall.
4. We have no receiver that can separation, Fitzgerald hasn't played like the best in the game the last 2 years either.
5. While most good teams have absolute offensive threats at TE the Cardinals have ignored the position for a long time.

The only bright spot is Beanie Wells but he is always injured and Ryan Williams well also injured.
Basically the Cards need help at all positions except RB.