I have no idea what's in the minds of players or coaches and can't quite understand why anyone would suggest they do.
What we have is the numbers and Bettcher's first-year efforts were as good as our two previous D-coordinators, who, as we remember, were panned by many when hired.
And, after the HOF Hog, I can't see how anyone can complain about Goodwin's work with the O-line. That he or Bettcher may not be head coaching material is of little relevance to our hopes for the team.
If Bettcher "the unqualified" and Goodwin are two of our "weak links", I'm feeling fairly confident going into this season.
As to Woodley and his all-knowing pronouncements, here's one for the ages:
http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/id/28452/woodley-flacco-wont-win-a-super-bowl
I hope you are correct. How great it would be if Bettcher winds up being a stud DC.
While you have a good point about the numbers, I felt Bettcher's blitz schemes were so predictable and poorly executed that after a while he got ultra conservative and even went in the opposite direction by calling a number of 3 man rushes, which in pretty much all the cases did not work.
Adding Dwight Freeney was a boon and it allowed Bettcher to blitz less often.
With exception of Freeney, Mathieu, Jefferson, Golden and Bucannon, I felt like all the rest of the defense was underwhelming and under-achieving. I thought they peaked in the romp over Green Bay which in part was because D.J. Swearinger added some much needed toughness on the back end---but then a week later in the debacle versus Seattle, Bettcher goes back to Rashad Johnson and without the Badger and Swearinger the defense turned soft. Very soft.
Then there was the meltdown on the sidelines in Carolina. It got ugly at the worst time. The defense got picked apart left and right. Aside from Jefferson and Minter, no one seemed to show up.
Sure, people can blame that mostly on the players---but, the coaches deserve their fair share of the responsibility.
BA said after the game that he thought he knew why the team responded so poorly---it would be very interesting to know what BA was thinking.
As for Goodwin---again---the fact is that last year under his watch two 1st round draft pick linemen did not see the field down the stretch. I say again because people are quick to criticize the players, but what about the coaching? There almost always is a shared responsibility when high profile draft picks fail. Goodwin is a hardass screamer and f-bomber---which is great for some, but no so great for others. People say, well this is the NFL---players should be able to take it. But---sometimes the players who have the hardest time coping with a screamer coach are the ones who are hardest on themselves, which makes the pain and embarrassment twice as difficult.
What concerns me most about Goodwin, aside from his "knee deep" persona, it's the way his lines suffer numerous assignment mistakes and miscommunications game after game. To me they do not look like a line that has been well coached. They don't get off the ball properly, they don't sustain blocks, they are penalty prone and they don't react quickly to stunts. I also question the scheme of pulling slow guards versus faster defenses like Carolna's. They start of the NFCCG running pull plays that are slow to develop and so David Johnson has no where to go but laterally where Luke Keuchly and Thomas Davis are there in a flash to hammer. It was is if the Cardinals had no idea who there opponent was, because for most of the game the coaches played right into Caroilna's strengths. It was the most vanilla and ill-conceived game plan of the year.
Why then were the Cardinals still number #1 in yards per game? Big-time talent at the skill positions and a QB who has learned how to get rid of the ball quickly---which he now can do because he's got mismatches galore on every snap. BA is one of the very best ever to coach how to exploit mismatches.
On STs---the Cardinals can't even get a punt returner to even want to return a punt. That in itself should be cause for a change.
