The Cardinals Wanted No Part in This One

[Mitch]

The players looked disinterested on both sides of the ball....save Fitz, JJ, Breaston, and Michael Adams (best special teams plays in weeks).

Even worse, the coaches paved the way for it.

I know I spent two hours this morning praising Whiz and the coaches...but, I don't see how anyone can overlook this clunker on National TV, nor offer excuses for Whiz and the staff.

The coaches were playing with house money on this one (the division is basically wrapped up)...there was absolutlely NO reason to do anything conservatively. Plus, if he told the players they were going to put on a show and they were going to go all out blitzing and passing the ball...the players would have been psyched.

On defense to start the game, knowing that McNabb was in the spotlight, they should have sent 6 rushers at him every play (which also would have made it hard for Westbrook to break loose)...and they should have told the players to let McNabb know this would be a repeat of the Baltimore game...as in throwing relentless pressure at him all night.

Instead...Pendergast comes out in a nickel, soft bubble defense. Are you kidding me? And then it takes him a whole half to make any adjustments. By then it's 24-7.

On offense, instead of putting pressure right on their defense, Haley call sideways run plays for Hightower (which even the announcers called "obligatory")...then, calls FAR more pass plays with Warner under center, not in the shotgun, which with his lack of quickness puts far more pressure on him...and why the roll out play? That's not Warner's strength either. No excuses for Warner either on that one, Fitz was triple teamed and seeing as Warner was way out of the pocket, at worst he should have thrown the ball out of bounds.

When Anquan Boldin plays like he did tonight....and his head and heart aren't into the game...something's wrong. He could have toasted any of those chump Philly CBs (S Dawkins is a stud---and their one great DB in this game...but he's a safety) and should have been happy he wasn't going to have to be dogged by Assante Samuel, who poses problems with his quickness and nose for the ball.

As much as I like Whiz...and my comments still more than stand...he is somewhat quirky at times. Did anyone else find it weird from a preparation standpoint that Whiz had the players practice all week without helmets on?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they are tired after the Giants' game. I get that. But...

I coached high school for 20 years, and I played football for numerous coaches. I have never EVER heard of a coach who allowed his players to practice---even during walk-throughs--without helmets on. Having the helmet on was always the rule, even for players standing to the side.

I also thought it weird that when asked this week whether it would be fine with him if the Cardinals backed into the NFC West title, he said, "I'll take it any way I can get it."

With a national TV game in two days and a chance to clinch the title on their own, the comment seemed strange, even if he was just trying to be funny. Was he after this performance?

Tomorrow I will post about some real changes that need to be made, especially on defense and special teams. So I'll leave it be for now.

Very disappointing...this game was truly an embarrassment and did absolutlely nothing to further erase the national stigma that the Cardinals are impostors, chokers and chumps.

 

[Brewster10]

The defensive gamplan was atrocious..

How could you not get up in McNabb's face? The guy has been ripped all week and the Philly fans were waiting to boo him out of the stadium..

Rather than put him under pressure, we go with our BS four man rush, and soft zone..

Clancy is a moron

 

[arthurracoon]

On defense to start the game, knowing that McNabb was in the spotlight, they should have sent 6 rushers at him every play (which also would have made it hard for Westbrook to break loose)...and they should have told the players to let McNabb know this would be a repeat of the Baltimore game...as in relentless pressure all night.

Instead...Pendergast comes out in a nickel, soft bubble defense. Are you kidding me? And then it takes him a whole half to make any adjustments. By then it's 24-7.

On offense, instead of putting pressure right on their defense, Haley call sudeways run plays for Hightower...then, calls far more pass plays with Warner under center, not in the shotgun, which with his lack of quickness puts far more pressure on him...and why the roll out play? That's not Warner's strength either. No excuses for Warner either on that one, Fitz was triple teamed and seeing as Warner was way out of the pocket, at worst he should have thrown the ball out of bounds.

I was wondering the exact same things.




It was like the game against the eagles some years back where McNabb beat us on a broken ankle

 

[Mitch]

I was wondering the exact same things.




It was like the game against the eagles some years back where McNabb beat us on a broken ankle

Exactly right, Arthur. Great point.

I honestly wondered whether the Cardinals were fixing the game...their game plans could not have been more vanilla than if it was a pre-season game.

 

[Shane]

Cant agree with Breaston Mitch. He had a good stat line overrall but he dropped 3 balls himself.

 

[PJ1]

Totally agree they wanted no part of this game. Didn't know about the Whis comments or practicing without helmets.

I was hanging this on the players(other than Clancy's poor plan) but it sounds like they all quit. I really did not expect this so it has me reeling.

 

[ajcardfan]

Totally agree they wanted no part of this game. Didn't know about the Whis comments or practicing without helmets.

I was hanging this on the players(other than Clancy's poor plan) but it sounds like they all quit. I really did not expect this so it has me reeling.

Whis' attitude towards this game bothered me all week. I was hoping something else was being said in the meeting rooms, but it sure doesn't look like it.

 

[conraddobler]

The only good thing about this is that it's so embarrasing Whis might actually get it through his thick head he's the HC and act like one.

It usually takes something like this to steam a guy up to convert them to the HC not just an OC playing one.

Whis is a smart, tough guy but he's got to make the leap from OC to HC and he hasn't yet.

When I see him fire a DC or OC over stuff like this then he's gotten the point.

It's you or them son, if you keep it up on this path you're going straight into the Cardinal hall of frustration.

Whis is not the type of guy to accept losing, only way he converts over to a true head coach is to have him run into a wall of losing and have him figure it out IMO.

 

[CHAPTER 7]

I agree 100%. When will Pendy ever learn? God i hope someone will take him as a HC somewhere next year so we can find someone else in this spot. I couldn't believe we didn't bliz enough...How many times do we bliz in a game now? Peny, you really suck.

 

[Brewster10]

Ive seen more than a couple people talk about demoting or firing Haley..

Um, we're like 3rd in the league in scoring or something.. Haley is doing a good job

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Very disappointing...this game was truly an embarrassment and did absolutlely nothing to further erase the national stigma that the Cardinals are impostors, chokers and chumps.

And that really hurts. I was totally ashamed of the teams performance tonight.

 

[Unsterblich856]

Ive seen more than a couple people talk about demoting or firing Haley..

Um, we're like 3rd in the league in scoring or something.. Haley is doing a good job

With a passing corps like ours, it's not hard to do. We need to completely scrap and reshape the running game to something that isn't a pathetic joke, i.e. the end of shotgun draws.

 

[NeverSayDieFan]

I Agree...

For those of you who follow hockey this was like back-to-back games on the road. The Cards just seemed a step behind all nite. The Philly "D" was FEROCIOUS but it was clear early on that the Cards were going thru the motions. Now, it would be easy to pile-on and talk about all that's wrong but that's not my way, so I'll point out something encouraging. I consider the Giants & the Eagles to have (2) of the BEST "D"'s in the league. The last (2) games they have successfully game-planned to take away our strengths. While that, in and of itself, is not good it did give give us a glimpse of what we'll see in the play-offs. Once the hurts have subsided we'll have (10) days to figure out ways to deal with their pressure. It may also give us time to work on the running game, and see if we can't make it better. It wasn't long ago that the general consensus on here was that we were a 9-7 or 10-6 team. Well, we're (7-5) and pretty much on course to achieve that record. So, cheer up a little. Losses suck but there's STILL alot of football to be played. One other thing, we are NOW definitely well below the radar and the vegas "odds" will go back up. Ca-CHING!!

 

[DeAnna]

I saw this blow-out coming

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1881437&postcount=3

..and people wonder why the Cards get no respect? It's games like this one.

 

[Osbern61]

Worst game of the year, IMHO. It was made worse by having to listen to the Eagles radio coverage at work. Hearing Eagles play by play guy Merril Reese say over and over again that he'd like to see the Cards come back to the NFC East so the Eagles could win some games was annoying. Even color man Mike Quick told him to shut up about it after the 15th time.
I think I hate the Eagle franchise more than anything in the universe and to see the Cards go down to them without a fight when the Eagles were about ready to climb into their own graves, hurts bad.
I almost want to see the Eagles make a great run to squeak into the playoffs so we can crush them at Arizona in the playoffs now, but... no.

 

[NYCARDS]

I really hope the 49ers win this weekend. Winning the division after this beating wouldnt feel right.

 

[TigToad]

Very good post.

We played sloppy and I was often confused with the play calling on both sides.

I disagree about Haley having problems... Haley is doing an outstanding job considering he doesn't have anything vaguely like a running game to work with. We need upgrades on the O-line. The unit is playing well in the pass defense, but clearly they aren't getting it done on the run blocking portion... so there is a weakness or weaknesses there that has to be addressed.

I've been a Clancy supporter, but this game confused me bad. The Cards defense creates turn overs and applies pressure. We fail at stopping some big plays and we tend to give up more first downs that I would approve of... but coming out in a defense that is not designed to apply pressure to a quarterback the fans are waiting to turn on is confusing. We weren't even focusing on stopping Westbrook at all cost. I would have understood that plan, too.... honestly, I'm not sure what we were trying to stop.

Boldin just made me sad. 3 drops (though 2 of them ended up not costing us - as Fitz got the TD on that drive).. and a fumble that killed anything like momentum we were trying to build.. down by 14 and a big first down would have at least kept us in it down by 14... instead a redzone turn over and a 21 point game.

Good news is, 3 of the last 4 are at home and we can win all 3 of those. Bad news, our chances at a first round bye are quickly disappearing.

All I can do is go cheer louder on Sunday and hope they listen.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

There is a lot of good stuff in the thread.

Nothing in here that is just crazy venting.

A lot of the complaints are more of the same. No run game, bad play calling, bad defensive game plan, and a lack of motivation on a east coast trip.

All justifiable IMO.

Very embarrassing to have this game happen now, and on a national stage.

This squad has 10 days to walk around with this deserved bad taste in their collective mouths.

The coaches, the team, and even us the fans.

This is a challenge to this organization to stand up and see they must get better as a team. How much more symbolism do you need when the face of your team, Boldin, turns in his worse game ever and the team follows him into the abyss for the worse game on the year. At least in the Jets game we turned it around a little bit.

If this team doesn't come out a week from Sunday and blow out the Rams then there are more problems going on than we think.

 

[phillycard]

If Dirk Johnson is still on this roster by the end of this weekend, I will never forgive Whis for talking a good game, yet not backing it up. He has cost us time and time again sir!!!!!!

 

[Shane]

If Dirk Johnson is still on this roster by the end of this weekend, I will never forgive Whis for talking a good game, yet not backing it up. He has cost us time and time again sir!!!!!!

He needed to be cut thre effing weeks ago. We have 10 days to find a punter. GET IT DONE!

I dont care how well he holds the dam ball.

 

[phillycard]

He needed to be cut thre effing weeks ago. We have 10 days to find a punter. GET IT DONE!

I dont care how well he holds the dam ball.

And Whis keeps saying "Dirk has to punt better". Even Andy Reid would have cut his azz by now. Damn bum!

 

[redheat]

If I was Bidwill i would have waited in the locker room and personally handed them they're game checks. Face it, they could care less about that game and know the division is wrapped up.

 

[Metcalf Rules]

The players looked disinterested on both sides of the ball....save Fitz, JJ, Breaston, and Michael Adams (best special teams plays in weeks).

I really wish they'd give JJ more carries. He seems like the only running back who is running with decisiveness. Its something he lacked his first few years, but now he looks like he gets it.