Mitch
Crawled Through 5 FB Fields
"Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground." - Theodore Roosevelt
What a wonderful mantra this is!
This week BA summoned this mantra in his own way by saying "it's a short elevator ride to the sh%^house"...and later following it up with "You want Joe Buck and Troy Aikman doing your games, no offense to David Diehl, he's a helluva kid...it's a five star game."
The players appear to be very excited about the challenge of trying to win in the Mile High city...Larry Foote calls this a "statement game" and Larry Fitzgerald claims that the Cardinals have yet to put in a signature performance.
BA's preparation for this game began during the bye week when the focus was to have the QB perform slide drills as well as to provide extra coaching and work for players like G Jonathan Cooper and QB Logan Thomas. Both Cooper (who may start the game if Paul Fanaika is out) and Thomas (whom the coaches have confidence in as the backup QB) have seen encouraging progress this week.
The other focus has been improving the offense and Drew Stanton's play in the "tight red zone." As BA said, " He was good inside the 25 last week, but inside the ten we can't go down there and kick field goals in this one."
Perhaps the greatest challenge offensively in this game is to control the Broncos' speed off the edge with Demarcus Ware and Von Miller. Jared Veldheer and Bobby Massie will likely need an adjustment period in order to counter the edge rush because there is no one on the Cardinals' roster who can threaten the edge the way Ware and Miller can.
However, having worked on his slide techniques, Drew Stanton will need to use his legs to avoid pressure---and if he can pose himself as a running threat, it will slow the rush down...and if that happens then Stanton and the Cardinals can take their shots deep versus a Broncos' secondary that is not as fast or seasoned as last year's.
It would be great this week if the Cardinals could finally pull off a few good screen passes---which would slow the rush down---as would some flares to Ellington out of the backfield.
On the other side of the ball, the Broncos want to try to re-establish their running game, so it will be interesting to see how committed they will be trying to run against the stingy front seven of the Cardinals.
Then, of course, there is the business of trying to disrupt Peyton Manning's timing in the passing game, which features a cadre of top-flight receivers, which include Wes Welker, Demaryius Thomas and TE Julius Thomas. The Cardinals' secondary will be put to the test today---it will be interesting to see just how many times they can make plays on the ball.
Up front the Cardinals need to get in PM's face---he sets up in an extra deep pocket, so he can buy that extra nanosecond to throw...so Tommy Kelly and Calais Campbell and crew need to storm the middle and get to Peyton quickly and often.
The kicking game could be huge in this one---it's great to have Dave Zastudil back---and in the Mile High altitude Chandler Catanzaro might have a couple chances to kick 50+ yard FGs.
Speaking of the altitude---the Cardinals seem to be in very good shape, as evidenced by their legs in the second halfs of games. This game will be quite a test of how conditioned they are. This could be a track meet out there---and the Cardinals had better be ready to fly for 60 minutes. As BA avowed at the end of his presser this week: "We are going to go play as hard as we can for 60 minutes and it's been good to us so far."
I think this is the week that Jaron Brown, Chandler Catanzaro and the Honey Badger come up huge.
Can the Cardinals pull of the stunning Arizona upset trifecta this weekend following the Wildcats' and Sun Devils' heroics?
What a wonderful mantra this is!
This week BA summoned this mantra in his own way by saying "it's a short elevator ride to the sh%^house"...and later following it up with "You want Joe Buck and Troy Aikman doing your games, no offense to David Diehl, he's a helluva kid...it's a five star game."
The players appear to be very excited about the challenge of trying to win in the Mile High city...Larry Foote calls this a "statement game" and Larry Fitzgerald claims that the Cardinals have yet to put in a signature performance.
BA's preparation for this game began during the bye week when the focus was to have the QB perform slide drills as well as to provide extra coaching and work for players like G Jonathan Cooper and QB Logan Thomas. Both Cooper (who may start the game if Paul Fanaika is out) and Thomas (whom the coaches have confidence in as the backup QB) have seen encouraging progress this week.
The other focus has been improving the offense and Drew Stanton's play in the "tight red zone." As BA said, " He was good inside the 25 last week, but inside the ten we can't go down there and kick field goals in this one."
Perhaps the greatest challenge offensively in this game is to control the Broncos' speed off the edge with Demarcus Ware and Von Miller. Jared Veldheer and Bobby Massie will likely need an adjustment period in order to counter the edge rush because there is no one on the Cardinals' roster who can threaten the edge the way Ware and Miller can.
However, having worked on his slide techniques, Drew Stanton will need to use his legs to avoid pressure---and if he can pose himself as a running threat, it will slow the rush down...and if that happens then Stanton and the Cardinals can take their shots deep versus a Broncos' secondary that is not as fast or seasoned as last year's.
It would be great this week if the Cardinals could finally pull off a few good screen passes---which would slow the rush down---as would some flares to Ellington out of the backfield.
On the other side of the ball, the Broncos want to try to re-establish their running game, so it will be interesting to see how committed they will be trying to run against the stingy front seven of the Cardinals.
Then, of course, there is the business of trying to disrupt Peyton Manning's timing in the passing game, which features a cadre of top-flight receivers, which include Wes Welker, Demaryius Thomas and TE Julius Thomas. The Cardinals' secondary will be put to the test today---it will be interesting to see just how many times they can make plays on the ball.
Up front the Cardinals need to get in PM's face---he sets up in an extra deep pocket, so he can buy that extra nanosecond to throw...so Tommy Kelly and Calais Campbell and crew need to storm the middle and get to Peyton quickly and often.
The kicking game could be huge in this one---it's great to have Dave Zastudil back---and in the Mile High altitude Chandler Catanzaro might have a couple chances to kick 50+ yard FGs.
Speaking of the altitude---the Cardinals seem to be in very good shape, as evidenced by their legs in the second halfs of games. This game will be quite a test of how conditioned they are. This could be a track meet out there---and the Cardinals had better be ready to fly for 60 minutes. As BA avowed at the end of his presser this week: "We are going to go play as hard as we can for 60 minutes and it's been good to us so far."
I think this is the week that Jaron Brown, Chandler Catanzaro and the Honey Badger come up huge.
Can the Cardinals pull of the stunning Arizona upset trifecta this weekend following the Wildcats' and Sun Devils' heroics?
Last edited:
