Worst individual plays by Cardinal players throughout Cards History

[Jetstream Green]

Any play with Ryan Lindley at QB

 

[PACardsFan]

Any play with Ryan Lindley at QB

We all remember just how bad Lindley was. And we remember just how talented that Cardinal team was. Here’s a name that I hope some of the older guys remember. Back in 1966, the Cardinals started 7-1-1 with Charley Johnson under center. We were a true threat to win a Championship. We had 5 Olinemen that either had already been all-pro or would be: Bob Reynolds, Irv Goode, Bob DeMarco, Ken Gray, and Ernie McMillan. At their skill positions, they had Sonny Randle, Jackie Smith, Bobby Joe Conrad, and Johnny Roland. Trust me, that team was loaded far more that what Lindley was handed. TERRY NOFSINGER took over when Johnson broke his leg. We lost 4 of the last five. Our only win was against the last place Steelers, and the score was 6-3. He completed 40% of his passes behind the best OL in Cardinal history, throwing to some of best skill players in Cardinal history. He had like 2 touchdowns & 8-9 interceptions. My father called him Numbfingers. Hard to say he was worse than Lindley, but with the talent around him, he was pretty damn close. We drafted Jim Hart right after the season ended.

 

[Cardsfaninlouky]

1) Neil O'Shankohue missing 20 yard FG on last play in OT of 10-10 tie against Gmen. The reason I put him at the top is because he missed like 3 other gimmes.

2) Fransisco falling down on the last drive long completion to Holmes that allowed Stealers to go for the win

3) Grammatica tearing ACL while celebrating a FG in 1st qtr lol

4) Rackers missing a gimmie FG on the last play after Leinart lead them back for the biggest choke job I've ever witnessed in a Big Red game! They dominated the Super Bowl bound Bears.

5) O'Shankohue missing the last second FG in '84 against the Skins that would've won the NFC East. That Cards team was good enough to win the Super that year because nobody had an answer for Lomax to Green.

6) Big false starting with 10 secs against the Rams blowing another win with his chronic ineptitude.

7) Hiring Bud Wilkinson-really? That alone showed how clueless Bowtie was at running a football team.

The kick NO missed against the skins, I remember the kick vividly. However, I was a sophomore in high school at the time ( 35 yrs ago) & don't remember the play right before that. One poster talked about it several months back, he said Neil Lomax could've just thrown the ball away? Spiking it was illegal back then. Setting up the GW kick. Instead we ran a play & the clock kept moving. NO had to just run on the field & kick it without being able to set up first. I was sick to my stomach that day, watched it with a Redskins fan. He wasn't saying much when we took the lead & was scared as crap. Started running it when the kick went wide. That was messed up, win the game, we're in the playoffs & win the division. Lose, season over. I remember the CBS cameras shaking during the telecast from everyone jumping up & down in RFK stadium that day.

 

[Cardsfaninlouky]

1) Neil O'Shankohue missing 20 yard FG on last play in OT of 10-10 tie against Gmen. The reason I put him at the top is because he missed like 3 other gimmes.

2) Fransisco falling down on the last drive long completion to Holmes that allowed Stealers to go for the win

3) Grammatica tearing ACL while celebrating a FG in 1st qtr lol

4) Rackers missing a gimmie FG on the last play after Leinart lead them back for the biggest choke job I've ever witnessed in a Big Red game! They dominated the Super Bowl bound Bears.

5) O'Shankohue missing the last second FG in '84 against the Skins that would've won the NFC East. That Cards team was good enough to win the Super that year because nobody had an answer for Lomax to Green.

6) Big false starting with 10 secs against the Rams blowing another win with his chronic ineptitude.

7) Hiring Bud Wilkinson-really? That alone showed how clueless Bowtie was at running a football team.

Francisco had a good angle on Holmes to make the tackle before he fell down. I've told many Steelers fans about that play for yrs. That play cost us the SB as much as not handing the ball off at the 1 yd line right before halftime imo.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Just happened upon this gem - a very detailed graphical analysis of the Steve Bono 76 yard TD; a play that was even worse (as a Cardinals fan) than you remember!

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8/8

 

[PACardsFan]

did anyone else, watch that, knowing what was going to happen while REMEMBERING EXACTLY how awful those fifteen minutes and feel like maybe... wait... something... ... something crazy... anything... something UNEXPLAINABLE...would change in those fifteen minutes so that, even against your wiser judgement, you believed that something, ANYTHING could happen to surprise you and the Cardinals DIDN'T lose that game?

Yeah... me neither.

This team gives me mental problems.

God bless them.

Thanks for sharing that agony. I remember that game well. The Cardinals dropped 4 interceptions (2 by Tim McDonald) in the last 5 minutes of that game. That was the history of the Cardinals in a nutshell. They had an undefeated team on the ropes on the road, yet couldn't seal the deal. Can you imagine if our current defense had guys like Tim McDonald, Freddie Joe Nunn, and Ken Harvey on it? Just for the record, we added Aeneas Williams the following year, and Eric Swan the year after that. In true Cardinal fashion though, Rosenbaugh's career ends suddenly & our offense sucks a$$ with guys like Tupa under center. As Cardinal fans, we better all go to heaven!!

 

[New Mexico]

Grammatica ACL injury has to rank up there.

Is there a dumber play in our history? This should be fun.

 

[New Mexico]

Absolutely nothing compares to this

Not a Cardinal to be seen.

 

[vince56]

Is it limited to players?

Because the biggest mistakes I've ever seen the team make were in the first round on draft day.

1998 - "tHe NeXt BrUcE sMiTh" Andre Wadsworth selected while Randy Moss, Charles Woodson, Kyle Turley, Takeo Spikes, and Stephen Alexander were on the board.

2003 - Trading down because Dave McGinnis just had to get 2 picks in the first round, missing out on potentially drafting Byron Leftwich, Terrell Suggs, Marcus Trufant, and Troy Polamalu. They all went after the Cards' original 6th pick in the draft. The Saints drafted Johnathan Sullivan with our pick. Willis McGahee, Dallas Clark, Larry Johnson, and Nnamdi Asomugha were also drafted after our picks in the 1st round that year. Imagine the team with two of those guys instead of Bryant Johnson and Calvin Pace.

2005 - Antrel Rolle picked while Aaron Rodgers was still on the board.

2007 - This one stings the worst IMO. Levi Brown picked while Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch, and Darrelle Revis were available.

2018 - Josh Rosen over Lamar Jackson. Jackson was the afterthought to the 'big 4' last year. He's proving to be head-and-shoulders the most talented.

 

[Russ Smith]

The kick NO missed against the skins, I remember the kick vividly. However, I was a sophomore in high school at the time ( 35 yrs ago) & don't remember the play right before that. One poster talked about it several months back, he said Neil Lomax could've just thrown the ball away? Spiking it was illegal back then. Setting up the GW kick. Instead we ran a play & the clock kept moving. NO had to just run on the field & kick it without being able to set up first. I was sick to my stomach that day, watched it with a Redskins fan. He wasn't saying much when we took the lead & was scared as crap. Started running it when the kick went wide. That was messed up, win the game, we're in the playoffs & win the division. Lose, season over. I remember the CBS cameras shaking during the telecast from everyone jumping up & down in RFK stadium that day.

I had that game on VCR for ages, finally tossed the tape out. That was the single biggest ripoff by refs I ever saw as a Cards fan. 10 penalties on us, 1 on them and the only penalty on them was a late false start whistle when Curtis Greer was going to sack Theismann. In the same game we sacked him, and they called roughing the passer on the play. The announcer said paraphrasing, "if you take the aggressiveness out of the game, the fans will be filled with no shows." Think it was Pat Summerall.

There was a sequence on back to back plays where Theismann intentionally grounded and didn't get called, I thought Hanifan was going to come on the field and hit the ref he was so mad. What made it even worse is the announcers were pointing out over and over all the bad calls or no calls repeatedly saying it's tough to win at RFK.

 

[Russ Smith]

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The roughing play is about 1:15 in a sack of Theismann by EJ Junior. What made the call even worse was not that long earlier Theismann had been clearly in the grasp and allowed to throw the ball away without a sack being called, or grounding. So Junior threw him down, not horribly at all, and got a penalty.

35 years ago and it still makes me mad.

 

[Cardsfaninlouky]

I had that game on VCR for ages, finally tossed the tape out. That was the single biggest ripoff by refs I ever saw as a Cards fan. 10 penalties on us, 1 on them and the only penalty on them was a late false start whistle when Curtis Greer was going to sack Theismann. In the same game we sacked him, and they called roughing the passer on the play. The announcer said paraphrasing, "if you take the aggressiveness out of the game, the fans will be filled with no shows." Think it was Pat Summerall.

There was a sequence on back to back plays where Theismann intentionally grounded and didn't get called, I thought Hanifan was going to come on the field and hit the ref he was so mad. What made it even worse is the announcers were pointing out over and over all the bad calls or no calls repeatedly saying it's tough to win at RFK.

Yeah, thinking about the game right now with a more mature perspective, there's no way the NFL would allow the refs to call that game fair. No way they wanted the Cardinals advancing. They wanted the Redskins because that fan base traveled back then anyway (not now lol) & for tv ratings. We had some potential good seasons in the Neil Lomax era, only to be derailed by bad luck. Injuries & bad officiating.

 

[Cardsfaninlouky]

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The roughing play is about 1:15 in a sack of Theismann by EJ Junior. What made the call even worse was not that long earlier Theismann had been clearly in the grasp and allowed to throw the ball away without a sack being called, or grounding. So Junior threw him down, not horribly at all, and got a penalty.

35 years ago and it still makes me mad.

Just watched the video you posted. Ball was kicked from about the 33 yd line. 43 yd kick & it wasn't even really close. NO didn't have a strong leg. Those kickers looked so goofy back then, looking at it now, seeing the single bar facemask lol.

 

[Cardsfaninlouky]

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The roughing play is about 1:15 in a sack of Theismann by EJ Junior. What made the call even worse was not that long earlier Theismann had been clearly in the grasp and allowed to throw the ball away without a sack being called, or grounding. So Junior threw him down, not horribly at all, and got a penalty.

35 years ago and it still makes me mad.

Just watched the video you posted. Ball was kicked from about the 33 yd line. 43 yd kick & it wasn't even really close. NO didn't have a strong leg. Those kickers looked so goofy back then, looking at it now, seeing the single bar facemask lol. Rather painful to watch. Oh well, here's to hoping KM can lead us to several SB victories & hopefully #11 is still playing to get his long deserved ring?