Warner says fumble was his fault

[WisconsinCard]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14991299/



Rams 16, Cardinals 14
By BOB BAUM
Associated Press Sports
Updated: 7:33 p.m. CT Sept 24, 2006
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -Marc Bulger and Kurt Warner took turns trying to fumble the game away Sunday. Warner succeeded.

The Arizona quarterback, who threw three interceptions, fumbled a snap at the Rams 18 with 1:46 to play and Will Witherspoon recovered to allow St. Louis to hold on and beat the Cardinals 16-14.

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Arizona's Antonio Smith recovered Bulger's fumble at the St. Louis 30 with 1:58 to play and Edgerrin James carried three times to the 18. Bulger said he was thinking of how he was going to face his teammates when Warner dropped Alex Stepanovich's snap and Witherspoon jumped on the ball for St. Louis (2-1).

"I feel like I hit the lottery,'' Bulger said.

The Cardinals were stunned.

"I couldn't believe it,'' defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. "I was tapping myself in the head like `Wake up! That's not reality.' That's definitely something you see on a video game - but it happened.''

The game ended strangely with Arizona taking a fair catch on a punt as time ran out. Under an obscure rule, that would have given the Cardinals a free kick, and Neil Rackers was ready to take a shot at a 77-yard field goal.

But Arizona was offsides on the punt. After considerable confusion, the Rams decided to take the penalty and Bulger took a knee to end it.

It was a fitting conclusion for a game that featured six turnovers, four of them by Warner.

"Any one of those four plays, if I don't make them, we probably win this football game,'' Warner said.

"It was a good snap,'' he said of his last play. "I just fumbled it.''One of his interceptions came with Arizona at the Rams 13, another at the St. Louis 1.

Afterward, Cardinals coach Dennis Green was furious.

"I don't think I've been so angry since I've been here, and I've had some (bad) days since I've been here, believe me,'' he said. "But none of them compares to this.''

Bulger was 21-of-31 for 309 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions, and Warner was 19-of-28 for 256 yards and one score.

Torry Holt caught eight passes for 120 yards, including a 9-yarder for St. Louis' lone touchdown.

Coach Scott Linehan said the team used a few plays from the old "Greatest Show on Turf'' offense that Mike Martz used to run.

"I think coach did a good job of going back to some things we hooked up on in the past,'' Holt said. "He (Bulger) can close his eyes and know that I'm there.''

Anquan Boldin had 10 receptions for 129 yards for Arizona.

Warner left the field to more than a few catcalls from fans calling for rookie Matt Leinart to play.

"Kurt's the leader and he's going to continue to do that,'' Boldin said. "He's our guy.''

Down 16-7, the Cardinals (1-2) went 87 yards in 16 plays, using up 8:24 of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 16-14 on James' 6-yard touchdown run with 4:13 to play. The drive included a 7-yard pass from Warner to Fitzgerald on fourth-and-5 from the Rams 38.

James had his best game since coming to Arizona, gaining 94 yards in 24 carries. But he isn't accustomed to these kinds of disappointments.

"It's crazy. It's ridiculous,'' he said. "We've got to do something different. If we want different results, we've got to do something different. There's something we're not doing right. I don't know. I'm just doing my job. We've got to do something different. I don't know what it is.''

He made it clear he wants the ball more.

"I was brought here to run the ball and help, and a lot of times I'm out there and I'm really not part of it,'' James said.

Warner got a nasty helmet-to-helmet hit from Witherspoon in the first half but said it didn't affect his performance.

Warner was picked off on consecutive passes to help the Rams take a 13-7 halftime lead.

Arizona scored first after forcing a three-and-out deep in St. Louis territory. Matt Turk's 31-yard punt gave the Cardinals the ball at the Rams 45. James had runs of 10 and 9 yards and Warner capped the drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald to make it 7-0 with 7:04 left in the first quarter.

After a Jeff Wilkins field goal, Warner was intercepted at the St. Louis 6 and Bulger and Holt went to work on Arizona cornerback Matt Ware. Holt had catches of 42, 14 and 9 yards, the last one for a touchdown, in a five-play, 94-yard drive that put St. Louis ahead 10-7 with 3:20 left in the first half.

After the kickoff, Warner was picked off again, and Jeff Wilkins kicked a 47-yarder as the half ended to make it 13-7.

His 21-yard field goal put St. Louis ahead 16-7 with 8:08 left in the third.

Notes: Boldin had his 16th 100-yard reception game. ... St. Louis was without defensive end Anthony Hargrove, who failed to show up for two practices last week. His agent cited family problems. ... After being named NFC offensive player of the week in the season opener, Warner has fumbled the ball away twice and thrown four interceptions in two games.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I wonder where D-Dogg is to tell me that Warner's fumbling won't be a problem. Absolutely pathetic, I'm still in shock.

 

[moklerman]

"Kurt's the leader and he's going to continue to do that,'' Boldin said. "He's our guy.''

Quan, you've become my 2nd favorite player in the league because of your kickass play on the field, burning desire to win and now your attitude. Kurt's still my guy and you have the stones to stick up for him unlike me who ripped him. Thanks for the lesson.

Speaking of Warner, I'm beginning to see a strong similarity between him and Plummer. I didn't get to watch a whole lot of Plummer but I know he made similar types of mistakes while a Cardinal. Kurt's trying to do too much at this point and I think Plummer fits that category as well. Warner will have to re-learn to just manage the game. Rowen and Green need to reign him in as well as protect him with some more running.

The running game did look better yesterday. Silver lining?

 

[Big T]

I actually think, as with last week, that Kurt is taking the heat upon himself, publically.

From what I saw that WAS a bad snap.

Now I'm not a Warner apologist, by any means.

And I think these last two games, his game has left a lot to be desired.
But I also think too many people are blaming him for more that is justifiied.

Nothing new there, for any QB. Too much credit when the team wins, too much blame when they lose.

 

[SoCal Cardfan]

Hmmm, if it was his fault, why was Warner screaming at Step on the sidelines right after the play?

 

[devilfan02]

I may be wrong but it looked like in the replay that the RG knocked the ball out of kurts hand. I only saw the replay while at the game so I'm not all that confident. After that play Warner was screaming at Step about 30 yds away from me. He was going off, f bombs and the whole deal

 

[Big T]

I wathed it several times on replay, and with stop action.

It looked to me like Step's snap was short and didn't get to Warner's hands like it should.

 

[john h]

I wonder where D-Dogg is to tell me that Warner's fumbling won't be a problem. Absolutely pathetic, I'm still in shock.

Warner had a very bad game but our corner back had a worse game. Torry Holt ate him up on every play. He was had for lunch and was as much a reason for losing this game as anyone. I think nearly everyone on this board was screaming for Ty Law or some cornerback to be added to the roster back when. It is now coming home to haunt us and we have no answer as we cannot cover a team who has a pair of receivers like St. Louis.

 

[DieHardFromMO]

I don't really care what they say about the fumble for public consumption, but I certainly hope the Cardinals realize that Milford Brown helped knock the ball out. This is at least the second time in 3 games that Milford Brown has knocked the ball out of Kurt's hands. How his hand gets involved in the Center/Qb exchange in this instance is beyond me. This problem needs to be corrected pronto.

 

[Pariah]

I don't really care what they say about the fumble for public consumption, but I certainly hope the Cardinals realize that Milford Brown helped knock the ball out. This is at least the second time in 3 games that Milford Brown has knocked the ball out of Kurt's hands. How his hand gets involved in the Center/Qb exchange in this instance is beyond me. This problem needs to be corrected pronto.

This isn't Brown's problem, it's Warners. He needs to put put the ball in the position to be knowck out of his hand by a lineman.

 

[D-Dogg]

I wonder where D-Dogg is to tell me that Warner's fumbling won't be a problem. Absolutely pathetic, I'm still in shock.

Nope, that was his fault. There are no excuses for Warner's game because he had protection and rarely got hit.

My point last week was that the fumbling wasn't the problem...him getting hit from all three sides was the problem.

I even said (please just remember it and agree that I said it, because i don't want to go search for it) that when the fumbles are Kurt's fault because he's getting protection, then we can worry about the fumbles and until then we have bigger fish to fry. Well, those fish were fried...prior, the line was the issue but the line played very well yesterday (and I think they will continue to), and Kurt singlehandely (and multiple times) blew the game for us.

 

[clif]

I don't really care what they say about the fumble for public consumption, but I certainly hope the Cardinals realize that Milford Brown helped knock the ball out. This is at least the second time in 3 games that Milford Brown has knocked the ball out of Kurt's hands. How his hand gets involved in the Center/Qb exchange in this instance is beyond me. This problem needs to be corrected pronto.

It's called depth perception. From the screen it looked as though Brown was in there to knock the ball out but he actually no where near the ball. When you see the two together it would appear that Milford was basically in Kurt's lap, but that would be impossible. Kurt simply dropped the ball.

 

[Pariah]

It's called depth perception. From the screen it looked as though Brown was in there to knock the ball out but he actually no where near the ball. When you see the two together it would appear that Milford was basically in Kurt's lap, but that would be impossible. Kurt simply dropped the ball.

Actually, what you described is not called depth perception. It's called perspective.

 

[moklerman]

I don't really know what the deal is with Warner at this point. I know that he said he was going to focus more on ball security and it's always a problem when a player has to think about something that's supposed to be natural. That's probably the biggest part of it.

However, most defenses are more than happy to take a 15 yard penalty early in a game to put a shot on Warner. Who was it yesterday that got 15 yards for a helmet to helmet on Warner. It's like that every game so if...I guess that should be "IF" Warner starts anymore, the playcalling, protection or whatever needs to be changed to protect him from such instances. There seem to be fewer and fewer short, quick passes and that is leading to these high risk situations.

Leinart, if he is indeed starting, will almost surely be throwing only quick, short passes and handing the ball off. I never have understood why teams won't protect their veteran the same way that they'll protect a rookie. Look at Minnesota right now. Johnson looks pretty darned good with the running game(threat of), short passing and no pressure of making big plays. Ball control and no turnovers is their philosophy and if not for a very Bulger-esque, Warner-esque finish, they would have beaten Chicago yesterday.

 

[speedy]

Hmmm, if it was his fault, why was Warner screaming at Step on the sidelines right after the play?

when isnt he screaming at someone? Really, I dont know Kurt, I am not going to try to lay any claim to this being fact, but he does seem to have a knee jerk reaction toward blaiming or critisizing other people, a lot.

Last year we were discussing the possibility of the team performing better for Josh than they did for Warner. I think Boldins statement "He's our guy" is more of a reflection on the type of team player that Q is, than a peek to what the team really feels about this situation. Kurt just strikes me as a little bit of an individual, a little more concerned with proving people wrong where he is concerned, rather than being concerned with how this team is performing.

I feel that there is a couple of characters on this team that fit this same mold, a me first attitude. I mean, have you ever had a job where someone was really a pain in the a$$ to work with, really wasnt the most reliable cat, but always seemed to make it out when the boss or owner was around to suck up? This world is really no different than the one we live in. I worked construction for a while, the super's son-in-law to be would be sittin there makin 2 or 3$/an hour more, jerkin off all day or not pulling his wieght. This had an effect on the entire crew...

I'd like to be wrong, but when you have guys droppin what I call hints about what is going on, it makes me double take...

 

[moklerman]

I don't know, people. Let's not confuse on the field performance with speculation. I know Warner's an easy and deserving target right now but I don't agree with the me-first, team cancer opinion of him. I think a lot of the guys are frustrated but Warner hasn't shunned the responsibility for his mistakes or blamed anyone for the team's struggles so I think it's a reach to say that Quan was saying something he didn't mean.

 

[jenna2891]

 

[speedy]

I don't know, people. Let's not confuse on the field performance with speculation. I know Warner's an easy and deserving target right now but I don't agree with the me-first, team cancer opinion of him. I think a lot of the guys are frustrated but Warner hasn't shunned the responsibility for his mistakes or blamed anyone for the team's struggles so I think it's a reach to say that Quan was saying something he didn't mean.

I was'nt talkin about what Q said, it was what Rolle said that raised an eyebrow

 

[Russ Smith]

I was'nt talkin about what Q said, it was what Rolle said that raised an eyebrow

I missed that what did Rolle say?

 

[abomb]

 

[speedy]

I missed that what did Rolle say?

Rolle made statements in relation to "we need to make changes" on the "other" side of the ball...