What's Wrong With The Offense and How To Fix It

[Mitch]

First and foremost---this offense is having NO fun.

These over-exacting coaches are squeezing the life out of the players---from the prolonged QB competition and all the microscopic attention being paid to the offensive line---it's been a pressure cooker out there and it shows.

You CANNOT coach or play offense this way.

You simply CANNOT.

Offense has to be fun and exhilarating---and the players cannot be asked to be robots---they have to be give the freedom to bring personality to the group.

Look at the QBs---they have the look of QBs who are petrified of making mistakes.

Look at the O-linemen---they aren't being athletic---they are being mechanical---because they are thinking too much and they too are petrified of making mistakes.

Last night I watched two rookie QBs: Russell Wilson and Nick Foles, both of whom started the pre-season games. They looked relaxed and very much in command of what was expected of them.

Wilson played like a 10 year veteran---with the spark of a kid who loves every minute of playing football.

Foles threw up an early interception, but he settled down and started throwing some darts and wound up leading the Eagles to a 17-3 half-time lead. After the game, Foles said: "I was having a blast out there."

Wouldn't it be nice for John Skelton and Kevin Kolb to feel that way?

Skelton is a free spirit on the football field. He has the look of a player who really enjoys the game and the thrilling aspects of the competition. Skelton likes to play free and easy and he needs the coaches to give him that freedom. But, with these coaches he doesn't get that freedom, because seemingly most of what they talk about and harp on is turnovers and missing open receivers.

Give this guy some confidence and a little freedom to make mistakes and he will likely cut down on the turnovers and start hitting more of the open WRs.

But, Whisenhunt even named all the players by name in his press-conference yesterday who committed the turnovers versus the Titans...and then cut one of them.

Kolb looks like he is in pain. He looks as tightly wound as a drum. He looks like he either doesn't understand the offense or like he doesn't feel the offense fits his style. Either way---he is fighting himself out there. It's hard enough to have to fight the oncoming rush---so if you are fighting yourself at the same time, you are not only going to fail, you are going to hate every second of it.

Why do both Skelton and Kolb love the two-minute drill, Whisenhunt? Because it's FREEDOM from the tedium and over-complexity of your offense.

Beanie Wells? Has the look of the guy who agrees to go on a white rafting trip and suddenly finds himself in white water holding the handles of the boat in a death grip. Playing football in the NFL with the Cardinals has never looked like fun to Beanie. He just looks fogged over or fighting for breath out there.

To his credit he runs hard and tough. But is he really having fun?

Looks too like he's afraid to fumble---funny that this has been an issue with him and Tim Hightower, for they too looked tight as drums when they get hit.

What I miss most about Deuce Lutui? Now there's a guy who you could tell was loving every second on the football field. He brought personality and energy and exuberance. He was a spark.

That spark is gone from the offensive line...save from two guys who look like they still are having some fun out there: Lyle Sendlein and Jeremy Bridges.

To me, Jeremy Bridges HAS to start---RG or RT.

This offense needs sparks.

Ryan Williams, Hyphen and William Powell = SPARKS.

Anthony Sherman and Jeff King = SIZZLE.

Larry Fitzgerald = FIREWORKS.

Hey Andre Roberts---pick your head up man---you could be headed for the big-time this year.

Hey Early Doucet---are you EVER going to be there from start to finish?

Hey Todd Heap---how about a big spark from you this time around?

Hey Ken Whisenhunt and offensive coaches---get your death grips off the players' throats---give them the freedom to open the offense up---give them the freedom to have fun---simplify a short list of QB, RB, TE, OL friendly plays for each week and rep them over and over and over in practice---have your trick plays ready too (those are ALWAYS fun)---

LET'S GO WHISENHUNT---FIRE THESE GUYS UP FOR CRYING OUT LOUD---SHOW THEM SOME CONFIDENCE---PUT THEM IN THE BEST POSITIONS TO MAKE PLAYS---LET THE BIRDGANG LOOSE!!! LET THESE REDBIRDS LOOSE!!! BRING THE FUN BACK FOR OFFENSE IN ARIZONA!!! LET THE BIRDGANG ROAR!!!

 

[desertdawg]

Throw some un-needed cuss words in that post and I would call it a perfect post Mitch.
True that about Beanie, last game he wouldn't even take a "hand up" from one of our own after a play, a fellow Cardinal just trying to help the man up. He is looking really yoked though, I hope the buffness=durability.

 

[Jetstream Green]

The QB is the most important cog in the offense. We have not decided on a QB. Both QBs are under tremendous amounts of pressure from the coach, the fans and a OL that lets pressure through. If Whisenhunt were to name the starting QB, all the players would appear to start having more fun. It is that simple in the fun department and when the season starts...fun is only found when you win, it is that simple.

 

[WildBB]

Nice write up. I think the O's got potential, but we seriously need to make positive yards on 1st and 2nd downs. That's key. They've been very inconsistent at it. 3rd and 8-10 with us and 9/10 times it's going to be picked off, sacked or punted.

They'll have fun IF THEY'RE EFFECTIVE.

 

[Mainstreet]

Why do both Skelton and Kolb love the two-minute drill, Whisenhunt? Because it's FREEDOM from the tedium and over-complexity of your offense.

This is it for me. There is only time to execute and not over-think.

 

[Bodha]

Problem: We dont have a franchise QB

Solution: Go get a franchise QB




Oline isnt as big a problem as it seems. Thats on QB again. Peyton and Big Ben have never had stellar Olines.

All boils down to QB

 

[desertdawg]

Problem: We dont have a franchise QB

Solution: Go get a franchise QB




Oline isnt as big a problem as it seems. Thats on QB again. Peyton and Big Ben have never had stellar Olines.

All boils down to QB

So do they just let you out for like 12 hours a day or do they let you have a computer in your padded cell???

 

[Crazy Canuck]

Problem: We dont have a franchise QB

Solution: Go get a franchise QB




Oline isnt as big a problem as it seems. Thats on QB again. Peyton and Big Ben have never had stellar Olines.

All boils down to QB

There is not a QB in the Hall of Fame or on his way, that could have done anything positive with the protection the Cards offered in the first series throughout this preseason. Protect either of these guys adequately and we'll get positive results.

You can't dial up 1-800-QBOF - The Fins are about start the 17th QB since Dan Marino retired.

 

[Bodha]

There is not a QB in the Hall of Fame or on his way, that could have done anything positive with the protection the Cards offered in the first series throughout this preseason. Protect either of these guys adequately and we'll get positive results.
.

Im talking the general sucktitude of the Oline. Your focused on the first 3-4 series of each game where the line is swiss cheese. You cant argue that the line settles down and gets better later in the first and 2nd quarter.

Worst Oline in the NFL? Possibly. But it certainly wont be sack, sack, sack, punt like most games start as. The line will get better with time. Theres no question Kolb and Skelton seem like thier doing mental trigonometry in the pocket they hold the ball so long.



For comparison: I heard an interview a while back of a former all-pro, possibly hofr, retired Olineman who said a 'good' oline will give his QB a solid 3 seconds. After that, all bets are off.

3 seconds. Dont act like the line needs to be able to stop an avalanche in its tracks.

 

[Duckjake]

You cant argue that the line settles down and gets better later in the first and 2nd quarter.

Usually coincides with the other team backing off and/or putting in their 2nd team defense while our first team Oline is still playing. Our Oline is horrible from top to bottom. How many times did Bartel get sacked behind the spares? Five?

15 sacks in the last 3 pre season games. I got it. The Cardinals are hiding their offensive line.

 

[Catfish]

Mitch-----CKW's inability to seem to be able to instill ANY little bit of confidence into ANY QB on his roster is exactly why I have no faith in him or his offense. He IS our HC however, and we have to live with that, so I believe it is imperative that he give Kolb, Skelton, and Lindley as many reps as he can going into this season. With none of them having wrestled the job away from any other, we are going to need all three at some time this year, because injuries are inevitable.

I have often wondered, just how far any of our QB's might have gone, had they simply been given a modicum of confidence in their abilities, and that Whiz had spent at least some time trying to remove hurdles from their path so that they could do their jobs more easily and confidently. He seems determined to place as many obstacles in their paths as possible in order to see how they overcome them, so that he can judge them as fit to run his offense. They all play (scared to make a mistake), with the exception of Warner, who was mentally strong enough to know that he could overcome a bad play. None of these others can do that, and Whiz does not help them to overcome that fear. He seems to go out of his way to create the fear of making a mistake.

 

[Evil Ash]

Problem: We dont have a franchise QB

Solution: Go get a franchise QB




Oline isnt as big a problem as it seems. Thats on QB again. Peyton and Big Ben have never had stellar Olines.

All boils down to QB

On the first play of the game the Cards used a 2 TE set. They were blocking against 4 DLinemen. 7 on 4 and the Dlinemen blew up the play in less than 3 secs

Obviously the QBs fault

 

[Phrazbit]

On the first play of the game the Cards used a 2 TE set. They were blocking against 4 DLinemen. 7 on 4 and the Dlinemen blew up the play in less than 3 secs

Obviously the QBs fault

I dont think Young should count as a lineman...

 

[Evil Ash]

Im talking the general sucktitude of the Oline. Your focused on the first 3-4 series of each game where the line is swiss cheese. You cant argue that the line settles down and gets better later in the first and 2nd quarter.

Worst Oline in the NFL? Possibly. But it certainly wont be sack, sack, sack, punt like most games start as. The line will get better with time. Theres no question Kolb and Skelton seem like thier doing mental trigonometry in the pocket they hold the ball so long.



For comparison: I heard an interview a while back of a former all-pro, possibly hofr, retired Olineman who said a 'good' oline will give his QB a solid 3 seconds. After that, all bets are off.

3 seconds. Dont act like the line needs to be able to stop an avalanche in its tracks.

General rule is 4 sec and there have been plenty of instances where they didn't give them that long especially with camp fodder like DJ Young. Hard to tell how well a QB can read a defense when he doesn't have time to get to his second read. If you watch any other football besides the Cardinals you can see how laughable our line is

This team hasn't picked an Olineman in the top 3 rounds for the past 5 years and its biting us in the ass

 

[Evil Ash]

I dont think Young should count as a lineman...

The truly frightening thing about the play in question was that it we had Jeff King one-on-one with their best pass rusher. Its awe-inspiring levels of stupid

 

[Phrazbit]

The truly frightening thing about the play in question was that it we had Jeff King one-on-one with their best pass rusher. Its awe-inspiring levels of stupid

Yeah, there are some really confusing choices being made in those spots. How could they have honestly thought DJ Young was their best option? I dont recall him being considered our 2nd best tackle at any point previously. Did they just want to see what he would do out there out of morbid curiosity?

On most of the replays it looked like he couldnt be worse at the job. Literally moving out of the rushers way on several occasions.

 

[JeffGollin]

I agree with Bhoda's pinpointing the problem, but I see a different solution.

If you're a QB, you can't have fun when opposing rushers are in your face practically before you get the ball. If you're a RB, you can't have fun when your first step with the ball is into a defender's numbers. If you're a WR, you can't have fun if the QB has no time to discover that you're open. And if you're Batiste, Snyder, Sendlein or Colledge, it's no fun dealing with repeated jail-breaks created by a cardboard cutout of your left tackle.

The fun will begin when the O-line blocks better, and that seems to be happening when Batiste replaced Young at LT.

The solution, therefore, doesn't lie with complaining about the entire O-Line; just slotting In Batiste at LT and moving ahead from there.

We'll run better, our QB's will have time to pass better, and the offense will be able to enjoy themselves and have more fun.

 

[PJ1]

I was at the game and it certainly was a comical performance for a team that wasn't having fun. Larry, Curly and Moe couldn't have done better than the first quarter performance.

I have no problem with Whis holding the players accountable for their play on the field. He did blast the offensive line after an early series but he also got the team together for a little rally and Kolb took them in for a TD right after that.

Agreed on Lutui. I miss his enthusiasm before and during the game. I believe it was catching too.

If you have success everyone appears in good spirits. When you are getting your arse handed to you nobody looks happy.

If we can get this offensive line to be just somewhat respectable our offensive talent will show up. We have plenty of it in my opinion.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

I dont think Young should count as a lineman...

I believe Colledge blew the block on the play in question. The "best" lineman we have.

 

[27Veer]

I dont think Young should count as a lineman...

This, Young has to go, we should be looking at the cuts from other teams very closely, a well muscled cheerleader with some guts would do better than Young.

 

[Mitch]

I went back and studied the tape---Colledge was almost as bad as Young---and Young actually made some nice blocks---it wasn't like he whiffed every down, although it sure seemed like it.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I went back and studied the tape---Colledge was almost as bad as Young---and Young actually made some nice blocks---it wasn't like he whiffed every down, although it sure seemed like it.

You're right, Colledge was horrible. I think Young is drawing too much of the blame here. He was lost out there but unlike Colledge, he has a pretty good excuse. And they weren't the only guys getting manhandled on our line. We're going to have to give these guys help every down. The word is out and unless something drastic occurs we're going to see more pressure this year than we've ever faced before.

Steve

 

[Darkside]

Yeah, there are some really confusing choices being made in those spots. How could they have honestly thought DJ Young was their best option? I dont recall him being considered our 2nd best tackle at any point previously. Did they just want to see what he would do out there out of morbid curiosity?

On most of the replays it looked like he couldnt be worse at the job. Literally moving out of the rushers way on several occasions.

I can't figure this out either. My only conclusion is that they know what they have (or think they know) with the other players and weren't exactly sure with him.

There were two plays where he went inside to help Colledge while his man rushed outside and totally beat his ass. It makes no sense at all, since the man he was going to help defend was perfectly blocked. Even when he was blocking he was horrible.

DJ was literally the worst LT I can remember ever seeing. He was that bad. I honestly felt bad for the dude.

Massie concerns me though man because I think he's going to get some real playing time, and on the replays they showed of him getting sh*t-stomped he doesn't look good at all to me. He has no low center of gravity. He pulls up (and back) as if his head is attached to some guy pulling on it with a string behind him. I can't even describe it. Even in pass-pro you gotta be low and have good feet. His weight is shifted all wrong in pass pro and he's going to get jack-stomped that way.

 

[Darkside]

I went back and studied the tape---Colledge was almost as bad as Young---and Young actually made some nice blocks---it wasn't like he whiffed every down, although it sure seemed like it.

I don't think DJ made any good blocks. When I went back and looked at it earlier today, what appeared as good blocks initially were twists by the lineman or linebackers shedding him and DJ got caught up in his own olineman trying to recover. He wasn't just busted on jailbreak speed rushes (nobody tried to bull-rush him even one time) but he got busted when engaging because the defender was able to shed him and twist inside (down the middle). He also got beat on every stunt I saw. He ran into Colledge 2 or 3 times trying to recover and pick up his man. And on two plays he actually tried to help inside on Colledge when he didn't need it, and his man just blew past and beat his ass. There wasn't anything promising about DJ's performance. Not even anything that would give one some hope.

(Edit: I have to add, on the stunts/twists it's probably Colledge's job to release and pick up the LB coming in inside and DJ's job to take Colledge's release. (Only because it's preseason and we have no chipper or RB picking that up). That probably explains why DJ was trying to cheat inside on Colledge's dude. Colledge never released and so DJ looks bad. I think on both plays where DJ cheated inside though he read it wrong, because the stunt he was expecting went wide outside his left shoulder instead of inside. It's a mixture of Colledge messing up the first couple times, and then the D exposing a rookie basically by faking inside, waiting for DJ to commit and then going by him outside)

 

[Russ Smith]

Mitch-----CKW's inability to seem to be able to instill ANY little bit of confidence into ANY QB on his roster is exactly why I have no faith in him or his offense. He IS our HC however, and we have to live with that, so I believe it is imperative that he give Kolb, Skelton, and Lindley as many reps as he can going into this season. With none of them having wrestled the job away from any other, we are going to need all three at some time this year, because injuries are inevitable.

I have often wondered, just how far any of our QB's might have gone, had they simply been given a modicum of confidence in their abilities, and that Whiz had spent at least some time trying to remove hurdles from their path so that they could do their jobs more easily and confidently. He seems determined to place as many obstacles in their paths as possible in order to see how they overcome them, so that he can judge them as fit to run his offense. They all play (scared to make a mistake), with the exception of Warner, who was mentally strong enough to know that he could overcome a bad play. None of these others can do that, and Whiz does not help them to overcome that fear. He seems to go out of his way to create the fear of making a mistake.

The Cardinals chose to trade for Kevin Kolb, with the endorsement of a future HOF WR. They then signed Kolb to a new deal worth good money, traded DRC and a 2nd rounder for him. They then named him the starting QB and they did nothing to instill confidence in him?

They did everything they could to instill confidence in him but with the odd offseason etc it didn't happen. I'm not sure now what the coaches can do, Kolb either believes he can play or he doesn't.

They traded up to get Skelton, they played him extensively late in his rookie year, unusual for a 5th rounder, they played him extensively last year. now they haven't tailored the offense to either guy but that's difficult since they're very different players. They haven't said Skelton's the man but then that's because they believed Kolb was
.

You can either play or you can't, all the talking the Cards did about Max Hall had to pump up his confidence but in the end it didn't matter because it turned out he couldn't play.