Dennis Green deserves a great deal of credit for the talent he's brought in on defense...and for putting that talent in the capable, creative hands of Clancy Pendergast.
Green brought Messers Berry, Okeafor, Moore, Kolodziej, Huff, Macklin, Tate, and Griffith in through free agency or waivers. Green drafted Dansby and Dockett. And he drafted some real good talent in Rolle and Green (neither of whom played yesterday). These acquisitions are the main reason why the Cardinals won yesterday. We saw one of the most dominating defensive performances in Cardinal history yesterday...and Green should be applauded for that.
What Green is doing with the offense is mind boggling. With McCown in the lineup the past two games, the offense has put up big numbers and shown significant progress.
The ill-advised strategy to keep mum about who the starting QB is backfired in absurd fashion yesterday. Instead of keeping the Tennessee defense off-balance, not knowing what QB they were going to face...this seemed to fire up the Titans' defense even more than normal...and they obviously decided that no matter who the QB was, they were going to bring contant heat and blanket Q and Fitz the way the Panthers did in the 4th quarter of the previous game. That Tennessee defense was extremely well prepared and extremely well motivated. And had LB Brad Kassell caught McCown's gift interception and run it back untouched for a TD...we'd likely be talking about how the Ttians' defense won the game for them, instead of the other way around.
When asked about his decision to keep mum about the QB situation by the media after the game, Green when on a "because we wanted to and we don't have to if we don't want to" rant.
Now there's word that the mum strategy is still in effect for this week.
This is an egregious mistake...being made by the coach who got burned screwing around with Josh McCown's head last year, by benching him in the hotel lobby on the eve of an away game, following a two game winning streak.
Yeah, this year Green has Kurt Warner waiting in the wings, not Shaun King. So be it. And Green is in a nearly identical situation with McCown want to bench him for sub par play even though the team won the game.
Green's got to take the bull by the horns, recognize that this strategy is hurting the team, rather than helping it...and make a decision.
Oh, and by the way, whomever the QB is...switch Reggie Wells over to center in shotgun situations and run the shotgun, so as to buy the QB those extra precious seconds to find the open receivers. If this isn't done immediately, it won't matter who is the QB...neither one of them will have the time to throw effectively.
My feeling is this: the only way to get the most out of McCown is to build him up...he won't thrive in this type of a scenario. McCown is too brittle emotionally. If he's the guy...commit to him. If not, go with Warner.
To me...if Josh can feel free to play his game and not feel guilty about playing in front of a past Super Bowl icon such as Kurt Warner now that Warner is able to play, Josh's the best choice for this football team. He throws a quicker, faster ball and his legs put a good deal of pressure on the opposing defenses.
