Vance lost us that game

[CardNots]

We have the talent

yes, when they they aren’t injured. We don’t have talented replacements without a huge drop off. This loss doesn’t register on my meter. 5-3 at the halfway point, serious improvement in my book.

 

[BritCard]

yes, when they they aren’t injured. We don’t have talented replacements without a huge drop off. This loss doesn’t register on my meter. 5-3 at the halfway point, serious improvement in my book.

It registers deeply in mine. The 3 loses are all teams we should have beat. We could quite easily be 8-0. We aren't an 8-0 team, but we are better than the Lions (3-5), Panthers (3-6) and Miami.

And just when you think we are on to something, that the coaches and team have it figured out, they go and lay and egg. A self inflicted one at that.

Because that was the easiest stretch of our schedule. Before you know it we will be 5-5 and things will feel very different.

 

[CardNots]

We could quite easily be 8-0

no seasoned football fan would say there is anything easy about an 8-0 start in the NFL.

I get and somewhat agree with your thoughts but adding hyperbole statements take away from what credibility you have on this board.

 

[Chopper0080]

It registers deeply in mine. The 3 loses are all teams we should have beat. We could quite easily be 8-0. We aren't an 8-0 team, but we are better than the Lions (3-5), Panthers (3-6) and Miami.

And just when you think we are on to something, that the coaches and team have it figured out, they go and lay and egg. A self inflicted one at that.

Because that was the easiest stretch of our schedule. Before you know it we will be 5-5 and things will feel very different.

The NFL is a league where the gap between the best teams and the worst teams is not as large as you think it is. That is why teams like the Bengals beat teams like the Titans. Why the Packers get housed by the Vikings. KC loses to the Raiders. It happens. The difference is almost all of our games have been close so we feel like we had a chance to win every one. This is why no team has gone undefeated over a season in 40 years (outside of the regular season Pats).

 

[BritCard]

The NFL is a league where the gap between the best teams and the worst teams is not as large as you think it is. That is why teams like the Bengals beat teams like the Titans. Why the Packers get housed by the Vikings. KC loses to the Raiders. It happens. The difference is almost all of our games have been close so we feel like we had a chance to win every one. This is why no team has gone undefeated over a season in 40 years (outside of the regular season Pats).

I'm not saying going 8-0 is easy. The Steelers haven't been awesome but are still there because they beat the teams they should beat.

Now, I know that in any game things don't always break your way. A bad spot, an INT off the receivers hand, a muffled punt. These things happen.

What disappoints me is our tendency to beat ourselves. Especially from coaching.

The Lions game I can put down to just one of those games. We weren't awful, they had a good D scheme and Kyler had some bad throws. Although it wasn't helped by Kliff not running Kyler.

But the Panthers. Both Kliff and Vance were awful. And Miami was all Vance with a dash of Kliff at a crucial moment.

 

[GimmedaBall]

BritCard---What were your expectations regarding the Cards final record for this season?

I looked at the schedule and had us down for 8-8. I thought we would lose both games to the Whiners but now that they have a roster full of injuries, I can see us going 10-6.

That would be a very successful season, especially since we have a 2nd year QB and a 2nd year HC who came in with zero Pro-level experience. In fact, Kliff had a losing record in college. 10-6 would be up there with our best performances.

For your continued sanity, you must understand that you have selected the historically single worst NFL team to become a fan of. Our record is 558-763-41 for 122 years of existence. We have only two league championships and we are considered by many to be one of the most woeful franchises in U.S. sports history. We earn that with each loss.

So, adjust your expectations, cheer hard for the Cards, and get some sleep.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I just rewatched all 60 minutes and came away with a different take:

The missed FG cost us the game. (Spin it any way you want - the points don't lie)..

The "scoop & score" 1Q takeaway put us in a hole we couldn't dig our way out of.

KK wound up in a play calling rut (How many times did he follow up an unsuccessfult running play with another unsuccessful running play)?

All of these problems had to do with the offense. But cut the offense some slack - they scored more than 31 pts against the Leagues top defense.

We didn't play as sucky as I originally thought.

This is literally incorrect as we tied it up at 7-7, again at 14-14, and again at 21-21. And we eventually took a lead at 31-24. So we repeatedly dug ourselves out of that hole and actually created a hole for Miami.

 

[Krangodnzr]

This is literally incorrect as we tied it up at 7-7, again at 14-14, and again at 21-21. And we eventually took a lead at 31-24. So we repeatedly dug ourselves out of that hole and actually created a hole for Miami.

I watched that game and I saw a very mediocre offense carve up VJs defense.

He just rarely ever calls anything that forces mistakes by the offense. When the Cardinals had Bowles, there were many games that it felt like the offense was scared of the Cardinals defense...VJ just doesn't call a good game.

 

[BritCard]

BritCard---What were your expectations regarding the Cards final record for this season?

I looked at the schedule and had us down for 8-8. I thought we would lose both games to the Whiners but now that they have a roster full of injuries, I can see us going 10-6.

That would be a very successful season, especially since we have a 2nd year QB and a 2nd year HC who came in with zero Pro-level experience. In fact, Kliff had a losing record in college. 10-6 would be up there with our best performances.

For your continued sanity, you must understand that you have selected the historically single worst NFL team to become a fan of. Our record is 558-763-41 for 122 years of existence. We have only two league championships and we are considered by many to be one of the most woeful franchises in U.S. sports history. We earn that with each loss.

So, adjust your expectations, cheer hard for the Cards, and get some sleep.

Well, it keeps changing. This team is all over the place.

Pre season I had us down for 8-8 tops. Right now, with the schedule we have left I can still see us finishing 8-8. Miami with a 2nd game rookie was one of the easiest games we have left.

I thought if we beat the Fins it might show us finally hitting some consistency and we could go 10-6 but the coaching laid an egg again.

Sadly, I see enough ability in the roster that we should be challenging, that's continually let down by bad coaching. Almost always from Vance, and in the clutch with Kliff. We just can't get out of our own way.

Sadly, this is the perfect recipe for perpetual anger

 

[BritCard]

I watched that game and I saw a very mediocre offense carve up VJs defense.

He just rarely ever calls anything that forces mistakes by the offense. When the Cardinals had Bowles, there were many games that it felt like the offense was scared of the Cardinals defense...VJ just doesn't call a good game.

This.

The whole point of a defense is to force mistakes. One way or another. Vance's soft man, occasionally rush 5 crap is just meat and drink for any offense. I finally thought with his 0-6-5 formation he was getting to grips with the roster and was ready to step up, but then went right back down to his usual garbage level vs Miami. In the one game where the game plan practically wrote itself and Vance just didn't get he memo.

 

[GimmedaBall]

no seasoned football fan would say there is anything easy about an 8-0 start in the NFL.

I get and somewhat agree with your thoughts but adding hyperbole statements take away from what credibility you have on this board.

BritCard is bleeding Cardinal Red with each loss. A comment about us going 8-0 is something an overly-optimistic fan sees when they look at the 'games we should have won' and calculates the 'what if we made the one-yard on 4th down.' Getting to an 8-0 start is a tough accomplishment but calculating how we should be there is something fans do on behalf of their team---that 'what if' is usually easy to accomplish. 8-0 is rare and when teams do it, it makes national media mention. The 'we could be 8-0' is less rare and is something fans of 2-6 teams do all the time.

I don't see it as taking away from anyone's credibility that they analyze our W-L record and figure out how we should have more W's than L's. I just wish that BritCard would find peace-of-mind from the calculation instead of staying up all night.

 

[BritCard]

BritCard is bleeding Cardinal Red with each loss. A comment about us going 8-0 is something an overly-optimistic fan sees when they look at the 'games we should have won' and calculates the 'what if we made the one-yard on 4th down.' Getting to an 8-0 start is a tough accomplishment but calculating how we should be there is something fans do on behalf of their team---that 'what if' is usually easy to accomplish. 8-0 is rare and when teams do it, it makes national media mention. The 'we could be 8-0' is less rare and is something fans of 2-6 teams do all the time.

I don't see it as taking away from anyone's credibility that they analyze our W-L record and figure out how we should have more W's than L's. I just wish that BritCard would find peace-of-mind from the calculation instead of staying up all night.

Thank you. It's not as if saying "We shouldn't have lost to these 3 inferior teams, which means we *could* be 8-0 isn't something that happens 1000 times a week on every fan board.

And I'm fine. I normally sleep fine. The Miami loss was a surprise to me too, I don't normally get THAT bothered. It was just such a self inflicted loss on so many fronts that my mind was like Doctor Strange in Avengers, except instead of finding the one possible way they could win I was wondering how we found the one possible way to lose in a game where we made the worst decisions at every key moment.

The main issue is the timing, try having a nap after a close game and see how that works out The blowouts are easier.

 

[GimmedaBall]

Three things have made the NFL an exciting league for fans.

(1) The annual draft of new players is done in reverse order to the W-L from the year before. The worst team in the league gets the first overall pick and so-on down the worst-to-first list. Provided team management has a minimum of skill in picking college players, the worse team gets the pick of the litter. It is the big reason you can see a team like the Cards have the worst record in 2018 (3-13!), get the #1 pick (KM), and then be at 5-3 in 2020. Of course, there are exceptions to that general rule with some teams forever at the bottom of the final standings and then making bad picks at the top of the draft year-after-year.

(2) The league has a salary cap. This has been one of the biggest moves toward making every team competitive with one another. In the past, teams in large markets with plenty of TV money coming in could easily outbid the small market teams for players. This is one reason the old St. Louis Cardinals were forever at the bottom—the OG Bill Bidwill was in a small market town, did not own the stadium and got minimum revenue from anything other than ticket sales, did not have any other business in addition to the football team, and was in competition with the very successful St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. All of those reasons had him moving to AZ. Now, every team has the same budget to spend on players. The large market team can no longer horde all of the better (and more expensive) players since every team has to budget out of their salary cap to bring in FA and add to the roster during the season.

(3) The league has a rookie salary cap. Teams with high picks used to be penalized when the top picks could negotiate their salary. If a team could not afford a #1 pick at QB, that team would often trade away their top pick—that negated the team building advantage of having the top pick.
The last big payday #1 pick at QB was Sam Bradford. He was selected No. 1 overall by the Rams in 2010, and he signed a six-year, $78 million contract containing $50 million in guaranteed salary before ever stepping foot on an NFL field (note that was in 2010). Here for the Sam Bradford contract history:

https://overthecap.com/player/sam-bradford/1349/

Bradford’s Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bradford

Bradford had a rifle arm and his future looked bright—injuries in college and then pros cost him (and fans) from seeing a great QB. He finished at 34-48-1. Those were some very expensive wins.

By contrast, Murray signed a fully-guaranteed four-year, $35,158,645 million contract with a signing bonus over $23 million. Of course, when KM hits free agency (if he ever does) he’ll approach the half-billion contract of Patrick Mahomes provided he keeps putting up the stats.

The outcome of all the structural changes to contracts and drafting is that team talent is much more uniform across the entire league. Every team has a core of great players—some by talented management, some by sheer luck in the draft and FA. It adds to the meaning ‘On any Given Sunday.’ Games are supposed to be competitive—a large number of games come down to one or two plays that turn the tide—the league wants games to end with the narrowest of margin. It keeps fans tuning in and keeps hope alive for every fan of every team. We beat the SeaTurkeys by 3 in OT; we lose to Miami by 3 by a weak FG kick.

It also causes fans to lose sleep when their team loses by a missed field goal in the final seconds.