Week 3 Prep for Seattle

[Cards_Campos]

I think it is really simple guys. Mitch you always bring up great points but I think the way the Cards lose...Whiz thinks it isn't broken. He got here and his 1st year we went 8-8 and we lost 3 games by 2 points or less and 2 in OT against a bad 49ers team where Rackers missed fg's to win. So he sees...Heck we were 2 unfortunate plays away from being 10-6. I am doing everything right. His next year he goes 9-7 and we get to the SUPERBOWL. He DEFINITELY thinks he is doing everything right. We were 1 stop away from being Champions. We did dominate the 2nd half against the number 1 ranked defense of ALL TIME! (Stat based) Then his 3rd year he wins another NFC WEST Title and wins a playoff game. We lose Warner and the QB situation is really messed up but we still manage to win 5 games and could have won 2 more (Tampa and Minn) so he thinks get a QB and we will be as good as we were...When we went to the SUperBowl. WHiz sees nothing is wrong...things just need to be tweaked. Easy for us to see, but I dont think Whiz sees it. He sees if Stuckey doesnt fumble or we stop 1 play(the 4th down) we would be 2-0. He thinks everything is Okay. He doesnt look outside the box...he hides under it.

 

[Catfish]

I think it is really simple guys. Mitch you always bring up great points but I think the way the Cards lose...Whiz thinks it isn't broken. He got here and his 1st year we went 8-8 and we lost 3 games by 2 points or less and 2 in OT against a bad 49ers team where Rackers missed fg's to win. So he sees...Heck we were 2 unfortunate plays away from being 10-6. I am doing everything right. His next year he goes 9-7 and we get to the SUPERBOWL. He DEFINITELY thinks he is doing everything right. We were 1 stop away from being Champions. We did dominate the 2nd half against the number 1 ranked defense of ALL TIME! (Stat based) Then his 3rd year he wins another NFC WEST Title and wins a playoff game. We lose Warner and the QB situation is really messed up but we still manage to win 5 games and could have won 2 more (Tampa and Minn) so he thinks get a QB and we will be as good as we were...When we went to the SUperBowl. WHiz sees nothing is wrong...things just need to be tweaked. Easy for us to see, but I dont think Whiz sees it. He sees if Stuckey doesnt fumble or we stop 1 play(the 4th down) we would be 2-0. He thinks everything is Okay. He doesnt look outside the box...he hides under it.

I believe that is about as well put as I have ever seen it Campos. I believe you nailed it !!!

 

[40yearfan]

I think it is really simple guys. Mitch you always bring up great points but I think the way the Cards lose...Whiz thinks it isn't broken. He got here and his 1st year we went 8-8 and we lost 3 games by 2 points or less and 2 in OT against a bad 49ers team where Rackers missed fg's to win. So he sees...Heck we were 2 unfortunate plays away from being 10-6. I am doing everything right. His next year he goes 9-7 and we get to the SUPERBOWL. He DEFINITELY thinks he is doing everything right. We were 1 stop away from being Champions. We did dominate the 2nd half against the number 1 ranked defense of ALL TIME! (Stat based) Then his 3rd year he wins another NFC WEST Title and wins a playoff game. We lose Warner and the QB situation is really messed up but we still manage to win 5 games and could have won 2 more (Tampa and Minn) so he thinks get a QB and we will be as good as we were...When we went to the SUperBowl. WHiz sees nothing is wrong...things just need to be tweaked. Easy for us to see, but I dont think Whiz sees it. He sees if Stuckey doesnt fumble or we stop 1 play(the 4th down) we would be 2-0. He thinks everything is Okay. He doesnt look outside the box...he hides under it.

I believe that is about as well put as I have ever seen it Campos. I believe you nailed it !!!

If he's right, then I agree with Wiz. He has a plan and he's sticking to it. Just because some on here don't agree with it doesn't mean it's wrong. Woulda, coulda, shouldas are always perfect in the mind of the implementer because there is no way of proving if they are right or wrong. Just supposition.

Every time someone is released from another team, someone on this board is hollering about bringing him in. It's obvious we can't get every player that has been released just as it should be obvious we have no idea how they would fit into our team scheme wise and personality wise. Don't you think our FO/coaching staff take these items into consideration before making a move to get a particular player?

In a sport as intricate as NFL football is, it's hard to just look at one position and try to improve it with what you think is the best player at that position. He may be great at Atlanta and a dud at Baltimore. Just too many variables to make any kind of a judgement and be sure you are even 80% correct. If it was as easy as some on this board would have us believe, we'd all be working in the NFL.

 

[Garthshort]

Mitch, thanks. I'll add my two cents.
1. I'm hoping that the crowd (Seattle) won't be as loud this week, as I think their fans realize their team is TERRIBLE.
2. The Republic is reporting that our defense is going to be more vanilla this week. Will it help or hurt? I'm waiting to see.
3. I like your idea of benching BOTH starting tackles, but, imo, it will never happen. So I'll settle for Bridges replacing Keith, and also starting Deuce. Deuce and Bridges played together all preseason.
4. Like most people, I think that we have more talent on the offensive side of the ball, but feel, unlike Whiz, that the offense cost us the Washington game. The defense held the Skins to two TD's, and 22 points. The offense has to win when that happens, and their two TO's were very costly.
5. That said about the offense, KW has to realize that we can't milk the clock when we have a late lead, and start our possessions with a two yard run, as we did late in both our two games. Game plan like were losing.
6. I'll close by saying that we are one draft and free agency away from being a pretty good team, but even this year we have a GOOD shot at earning a playoff spot, thanks to the other three NFC WEST teams.

 

[spanky1]

Gallery is out for Seattle for some time. This helps.

 

[Duckjake]

Amazing how quickly things have changed from just blaming everything on Dereck Anderson.

 

[slanidrac16]

Mitch, thanks. I'll add my two cents.
1. I'm hoping that the crowd (Seattle) won't be as loud this week, as I think their fans realize their team is TERRIBLE.
2. The Republic is reporting that our defense is going to be more vanilla this week. Will it help or hurt? I'm waiting to see.
3. I like your idea of benching BOTH starting tackles, but, imo, it will never happen. So I'll settle for Bridges replacing Keith, and also starting Deuce. Deuce and Bridges played together all preseason.
4. Like most people, I think that we have more talent on the offensive side of the ball, but feel, unlike Whiz, that the offense cost us the Washington game. The defense held the Skins to two TD's, and 22 points. The offense has to win when that happens, and their two TO's were very costly.
5. That said about the offense, KW has to realize that we can't milk the clock when we have a late lead, and start our possessions with a two yard run, as we did late in both our two games. Game plan like were losing.
6. I'll close by saying that we are one draft and free agency away from being a pretty good team, but even this year we have a GOOD shot at earning a playoff spot, thanks to the other three NFC WEST teams.

I disagree with #4. We have got to be able to give our offense the ball. We can't continue to let the other team dominate time of possesion. The offense is going to have some 3 and outs but when the other team has the ball for 8 minutes, then we have a 3 and out only to see their offense control the ball for another 8 minutes, well we're not going to win many games like that.
Basically this defense put a lot of pressure on the offense. If our offense has 12 possesions in a game they are likely to have a bit more success than if they only have 9 possesions.

 

[conraddobler]

Seattle is terrible IMO.

We can't be trusted to dominate anyone so anything can happen but even if we win this game as we should, that dosen't mean a whole lot.

We need to balance out the run pass ratio, we don't have Kurt Warner, everyone is new to our defensive scheme, running the ball is CRITICAL to our success at least while our defense learns.

We should be scripting run plays, we should be focusing on flawless execution of screen passes, we should do a lot of things we don't seem to do.

We shouldn't be defering the kickoff so we can run some scripted plays.

I firmly disagree with a lot of things we do, we should be a more balanced run / pass team.

 

[Garthshort]

Slanidrac16, you make a good point about #4. My point is that when our shaky defense holds the opponent to two TD's we have to find a way to win. And to me that means not sitting on an eight point lead. All we needed was a FG out of our final two possessions and the offense came away empty. And they weren't gasssed because it was the defense that was on the field so much. Because they couldn't stop the Skins was a contributing factor, but also we weren't able to run the clock. At this point in their development, I expect more from the O than the D.

 

[CardLogic]

5. That said about the offense, KW has to realize that we can't milk the clock when we have a late lead, and start our possessions with a two yard run, as we did late in both our two games. Game plan like were losing.

Wrong. The problem wasn't the first down run (three yards, btw), the problem was not having faith in the running game and rushing it again on second and third downs! Wells averaged 6.64 yards per carry in that game. So they limited him to a 3 yard gain on first down; they should have run again and could have gotten or been close to a first down! Instead, with 5:17 left on the clock and the lead the Cardinals pass on second and third only to punt the ball back to Washington (at 4:20 remaining), having consumed less than a minute of clock time. The Cards didn't run the clock because they didn't run the ball.

Wells is averaging 5.7 yards per carry after two games - give him the damn ball in that situation!

 

[conraddobler]

Wrong. The problem wasn't the first down run (three yards, btw), the problem was not having faith in the running game and rushing it again on second and third downs! Wells averaged 6.64 yards per carry in that game. So they limited him to a 3 yard gain on first down; they should have run again and could have gotten or been close to a first down! Instead, with 5:17 left on the clock and the lead the Cardinals pass on second and third only to punt the ball back to Washington (at 4:20 remaining), having consumed less than a minute of clock time. The Cards didn't run the clock because they didn't run the ball.

Wells is averaging 5.7 yards per carry after two games - give him the damn ball in that situation!

^

Thank you.

 

[Cardiac]

Wrong. The problem wasn't the first down run (three yards, btw), the problem was not having faith in the running game and rushing it again on second and third downs! Wells averaged 6.64 yards per carry in that game. So they limited him to a 3 yard gain on first down; they should have run again and could have gotten or been close to a first down! Instead, with 5:17 left on the clock and the lead the Cardinals pass on second and third only to punt the ball back to Washington (at 4:20 remaining), having consumed less than a minute of clock time. The Cards didn't run the clock because they didn't run the ball.

Wells is averaging 5.7 yards per carry after two games - give him the damn ball in that situation!

With five minutes left, the playbook still has to be wide-open — you can’t just grind the clock and punt. Not when a field goal beats you. Could a Beanie second-down run made it third-and-2? Sure. It could have also been stoned (and the Redskins were looking run-first at that point) and you’d be faced with third-and-7 anyway.

http://blog.azcardinals.com/2011/09/19/beanie-and-the-five-minute-mark/


Then there are those who blast Whiz/Miller for not running the ball and going to the pass while Beanie was running rampant during the 3rd QTR.

The Skins had 2 CB's go down during the game and the Cards starting using 4 WR sets and we gashed the Skins in both passing and running the ball. Genius play calling with running Wells with the Skins spread out trying to cover 4 WR's. Then one of the CB's comes back in (I think he had leg cramps) and more adjustments need to be made.

It was actually top notch coaching from both teams.

We do need to increase the number of run plays per game but we need the D to force the other team to punt once in awhile. Riddle me this; which team besides the Jets win a most of their games because they run the ball about 45/50% of the time. Point is it's a passing league and the top teams pass the ball a LOT more then they run it.

 

[JeffGollin]

I want to see the Game 2 stats and injury list before I'd do any prep thought for Seattle.

But based on the Week 1 results, there appear to be weaknesses throughout their lineup.

After reading up on the Seahawks and taking a walk thru the Pro Football Focus (PFF) cumulative stats. I came away with the following:

- T. Jackson and his WRs aren't clicking yet & S Rice has been shelved (but that can change).

- Their running attack hasn't gotten untracked (but let's not forget how Lynch and Forsett gashed us last year).

- With the exception of Okung, Seattle's O-line play (both run blocking and pass pro) has flat-out sucked. And now Gallery is out.

- Their TEs (Miller and McCoy have done OK as receivers but their run blocking ratings are negative).

- Clemons and Brock aren't getting to the QB (yet) but Clemons has a +3.7 overall rating and +3.7 rushing the passer.

- Our (formerly) very own Alan Branch is racking up positive ratings of +6.5 defending the run and +5.1 overall.

- Curry has a negative -2.9 in pass coverag and is minus-2.1 overall. Hill's ratings are generally "average."

- Inside, McCoy and Wright have +2.0 and +1.9 ratings respectively defending the run and +2.9 and +2.2 ratings overall.

- While Trufant is OK at one corner, Browner (from Canada and learning how to play in the NFL) was lit up big time by The Steelers. 10 of 10 passes thrown his way were completed for approx 196 yards. His overall rating is minus-5.1 (minus-4.5 in pass coverage). Carroll wants Earl Thomas to help Browner out over the top. Chancellor is outstanding vs the run and good in coverage.

- Leon Washington has been strangely silent, and that scares me.

Strategically: If Thomas has to support Browner, it should open up our passing to our TEs and 3rd or 4th receivers. While we may have trouble running inside vs. Branch and the Seattle ILB's, we need to do so often enough so as to present enough of a run-threat to sell our play action fakes.

Defensively, we should definitely exploit the Seattle OL by stifling their RBs and putting pressure on Jackson - But we'd be well-advised to adhere to "Cam Newton Rules" (i.e. Put a spy on Jackson, stay in the right gaps and maintain outside contain).

And also - deal with the so-called "intangibles" (i.e. crowd noise and our penalty "issues").

 

[Duckjake]

Somebody edit that for him.

 

[CardLogic]

With five minutes left, the playbook still has to be wide-open — you can’t just grind the clock and punt. Not when a field goal beats you. Could a Beanie second-down run made it third-and-2? Sure. It could have also been stoned (and the Redskins were looking run-first at that point) and you’d be faced with third-and-7 anyway.

http://blog.azcardinals.com/2011/09/19/beanie-and-the-five-minute-mark/

Did you read the responses to that blog of Darren's - I'm not buying it any more than the majority of those guys!

Washington's defense hadn't "stoned the run" at any point in the game thus far, so what makes one conclude they would have done so in this instance?

 

[Cardiac]

Did you read the responses to that blog of Darren's - I'm not buying it any more than the majority of those guys!

Washington's defense hadn't "stoned the run" at any point in the game thus far, so what makes one conclude they would have done so in this instance?

I don't know what to tell you. I find most of those responses moronic and typical clueless fan venting. To be clear I find most of your posts on point and making a great amount of sense. The avg. NFL fan is clueless IMWO.

The Skins D did stone the running game in the 1st half, even if it was only 3 rushes none of them had positive results. It's fairly late in the 4th QTR and the Cards have a lead so conventional "wisdom" says run the ball and drain the clock. Well guess what the Skins are going to do, that's right, put 8 men in the box. What was working so well in the 3rd and early 4th QTR with the run game wasn't going to work late in the 4th Qtr because Hasslett had made adjustments to the adjustments Whiz had made.

People bash Whiz for bringing in two TE's for that 1st run and yet they want the Cards to run the ball. Once again, the Skins had made adjustments and gotten a CB who was out back into the game so the 4 WR sets with Wells getting a hand off from the shotgun wasn't going to work. Which by the way was brilliant play calling and a fantastic adjustment by the O coaches that few if any fans give credit.

Fans talking about how the Cards O needs to punt less but ignoring that our D doesn't force near enough punts. I could go on but I'm guessing most people have stopped reading this post due to is't length etc.

 

[SuperSpck]

The Skins D did stone the running game in the 1st half, even if it was only 3 rushes none of them had positive results.

It's fairly late in the 4th QTR and the Cards have a lead so conventional "wisdom" says run the ball and drain the clock. Well guess what the Skins are going to do, that's right, put 8 men in the box.

What was working so well in the 3rd and early 4th QTR with the run game wasn't going to work late in the 4th Qtr because Hasslett had made adjustments to the adjustments Whiz had made.

I could go on but I'm guessing most people have stopped reading this post due to is't length etc.

I like to use spaces between paragraphs to make them bitesized.
I also agree, good between series adjustments in the second half of the game.

 

[Mitch]

Mike Sando's (ESPN NFC West Blogger) Week 3 Predictions:

SFO 23 CIN 17
SEA 20 ARZ 19
STL 19 BAL 17

Sando's Standings Going Into Week 4

SFO 2-1 (1-0 NFC West)
SEA 1-2 (1-1 NFC West)
STL 1-2 (0-0 NFC West)
ARZ 1-2 (0-1 NFC West)

 

[JeffGollin]

In any game-situation, a coach (& then the QB) has several options to choose from - each with its upside and downside risk scenarios.

Do I run Beanie off RT (with a 60% chance of picking up 5 yards and a 40% possibility it won't)? Impact on the clock?

Or do I go with a dig-route to Fitz (with a 70% certainty it will work and 30% chance it won't)? Impact on the clock?

Or if I'm about to go with Beanie over RT and the defense is stacked up against that play, does Kolb have a better running play to check down to? Or does a pass play with Fitz going long, Heap down the seam and Doucet cutting toward the left sideline have a better chance of working than simply having Wells run into the teeth of the defense? Impact on the clock?

This is but an oversimplified version of what coaches and QB's have to think about before each play.

The only way to make this process much simpler is for Beanie to make the coaches confident that, regardless of the game-situation and defense we face, they can count on him to deliver the goods (including impact on the clock) than any alternative play we might be considering.

The Giants did that to us a few years back with Brandon Jacobs - Coughlin simply took the position of "I don't care what the Cardinals do; I'm going to punch you in the mouth" (& it worked). But that's the point - the Cardinal coaches have to feel that, if they do that with Beanie, they're sure "it'll work."

 

[Cardiac]

Mike Sando's (ESPN NFC West Blogger) Week 3 Predictions:

SFO 23 CIN 17
SEA 20 ARZ 19
STL 19 BAL 17

Sando's Standings Going Into Week 4

SFO 2-1 (1-0 NFC West)
SEA 1-2 (1-1 NFC West)
STL 1-2 (0-0 NFC West)
ARZ 1-2 (0-1 NFC West)

Sando does know the NFC West very well so I'm not thrilled to see him pick against us.

On the other hand the CBS "experts" (all 5 of them) pick the Cards to win the game and only Judge picks the Seahawks to cover the points.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/features/writers/expert/picks

Every year I've been following their picks (3 to 4 years) Judge is the top at making the correct pick.