Arizona Cardinals Roll Over The Bills: 41-17
The Arizona Cardinals came home looking for a win as well as some momentum and they got both on Sunday by routing the Bills 41-17. The Cardinals were physically dominant from the outset of the game when they knocked Trent Edwards out of the game on their third offensive play (we'll see if Adrian Wilson is fined for the hit later in the week). One look at the box score will tell the story of this game considering the Cardinals ended up with almost a hundred more total yards, more than a 10 minute edge in time of possession and +4 in the turnover ratio. There were far more positives that anything else yesterday so we'll take the easy way out and just talk about what went right. Later in the day we'll talk about the negatives from yesterday and concerns heading into next week including Roderick Hood and Ben Patrick's injury status.
Kurt Warner: I've said it before, but it's worth reiterating: When Kurt Warner doesn't turn the ball over, he's as good as any quarterback in this league. The Bills were 6th in the league heading into this week allowing just 168.5 yards per game but that didn't stop Warner from completing over 78 percent of his passes on his way to 250 yards. He didn't end up with a great yards per attempt (6.0) but a week after having six turnovers, he protected the ball and had a very good game despite missing one of his top receivers, Anquan Boldin.
Offensive Line: One week after getting embarrassed by the Jets, the offensive line had a great rebound performance against the Bills. The O-line kept Warner clean all
game long, not allowing a single sack and he was hit just a few times. Considering that Warner dropped back to pass over 40 times, that's quite an accomplishment. They did a really good job limiting Marcus Stroud and Levi Brown had a nice bounce back game after being abused against the Jets. The run blocking still has a long way to go but they did end up with 123 yards rushing on 34 attempts (3.6 avg).
Wide Receivers: There were several questions heading into Sunday concerning the wide receivers, such as could Breaston handle being a starter and how will Early Doucet handle his first professional game? In case you missed the game, both answers were a resounding YES. The Bills were focused on Larry Fitzgerald (7 for 52) and the result was Breaston and Doucet combining for 119 yards on 13 receptions, including a couple big third down conversions. Fitzgerald ended up with both touchdown receptions but Breaston and Doucet did a good job of moving the chains.
Defensive Pressure: After a couple of lackluster pass rush performances on the road, the Cardinals turned up the dial yesterday and harassed the Bills quarterbacks early and often. A blitzing Adrian Wilson knocked Trent Edwards out of the game on the Bills' third offensive play and they didn't slow down until the game was well out of hand. The defense finished with five sacks, two of which came from free agent signee, Travis LaBoy. LaBoy not only only led the team in sacks, he was also tied for the team lead in tackles and was a disruptive force all over the field. Another Arizona-newcomer, Clark Haggans finished with 1.5 sacks and oddly enough his sacks came on back to back plays in the fourth quarter. Gabe Watson made his presence felt in his first game back with a sack and fumble recovery.
Turnover Ratio: The Cardinals were -8 in the turnover battle the past two weeks against the Redskins and Jets and much of the talk was centered around the defense not being aggressive. Well that certainly wasn't the case yesterday as the
Cardinals were ultra-aggressive causing four turnovers which led to 17 points. The first fumble was the result of a great play by Antonio Smith when he shot the gap and blew up a handoff between JP Losman and Marshawn Lynch. That was the second play after Trent Edwards was knocked out of the game and the Bills would never recover. The Cardinals would take over at the Bills 38 and score six plays later.
Neil Rackers: I've jumped on Rackers for every mistake he's made this year so it's only fair to acknowledge him when he has a really good game. He not only connected on two field goals (47 yards and 38 yards), he also hit another one from 28 that was nullified by a Bills penalty. His kickoffs were effective even though he didn't register a touchback considering that the Bills average starting position on kickoffs was thier own 25 yard line. Rackers also helped his own cause registering two tackles, both of which came around the Bills 20 yard line.
-------------------------------------------------------------
There were other positivies about this game, but that should get the ball rolling. Later today and into tommorrow we'll chart the running and passing plays as well as continue to break down a big Cardinals win. Thoughts? Who else stood out as having a good game?
0 recs |
17 comments
|
Comments
Home cookin'
The dichotomy between the Cardinals on the road and at home is startling. They seem unbeatable at home thus far, but it’s only been two games against AFC East teams. The journey gets to those teams too. The real test comes next week with Dallas and their horde of fans in the house; Dallas shows some vulnerabilities so it should be a competitive game.
The key to the Buffalo game was the ring of stars and tweeting birds around Trent Edwards’ head. Adam Sandler, er, JP Losman had all of two snaps in practice the past week and that’s going to be an advantage for the Cardinals. It doesn’t explain why the Bills’ defense was so lackluster, but they did keep the Cards’ running game in check (mostly) and forced the Cardinals into a lot of 3rd down situations. The Cards just had a great game in converting those chances. The credit there goes to the O-line protecting Warner so he could connect with Breaston and Doucet. Good job boys.
DRC showed some rookieness on the long bomb to Evans biting on a juke. Rolle should have recognized that and been there to help too. I’ll put my blinders on (again) and chalk this up to inexperience and trust the coaching will be there to correct these mistakes.
As “good” a game as Rackers may have had (if a ricochet off the upright can be considered "good"), he’s involvement on kickoff coverage ticks me off. Cool, Neil, you can make a tackle at the 20 yard line. But why the frak do you NEED to? Shouldn’t the coverage teams be thicker that flies on horseshit around the 20 yard line? Why does the kicker need to make the play? ::red alert, red alert:: It’s a quick way to get your fragile kicker noggin knocked off or have a ST linebacker lay you out on the turf. I recall on the second tackle he was still lying on the turf when the telecast went to commercial. Oh boy. But wait a second….Neil get’s hurt, Kurt has to throw on two point conversions which helps my fantasy stats…woohoo! Come on Neil. Make those tackles at the 15 yard line! Bust the wedge! Laurence Tynes has to to come back eventually for the Giants and we can pick up John Carney then! Sweet!
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
by Hawkwind on Oct 6, 2008 9:51 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
DRC and Rolle
Yea they were definitely part of the ‘negatives’ from yesterday. I can chalk up DRC’s play to inexperience but I expected more from Rolle at this point in the season. I went into the season knowing that Rolle would go through some growing pains, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad for this long. He’s got to learn/understand that he’s the last line of defense and he can’t bite on play fake or double moves. Let A-dub support the run and the corners take care of the short passing game. He’s got to stay deep and play center field.
by cgolden on Oct 6, 2008 10:08 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Go Easy on Rackers Hawk he probably meant to hit the upright;
by CardsIrish on Oct 6, 2008 4:25 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Funny, that commercial went through my head as I saw it on the replay
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
by Hawkwind on Oct 6, 2008 7:01 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Rackers - seriously though.
His kickoffs were erratic on Sunday – he nearly kicked one out of bounds but one of their guys made a play on the ball.
Hopefully the 3 made FG’s have boosted his confidence though.
by CardsIrish on Oct 7, 2008 4:18 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
A Dub
I don’t have the data to back this up, which will make it less than useful, but it seems to me that Adrian Wilson has a history of injuring opposing quarterbacks.
This is where my memory gets a little bit hazy, but I thought two years ago he knocked out the other team’s starting quarterback two games in a row. One of them was Bulger, and I can’t remember who the other one was. Does anyone remember that?
Anyway, I didn’t think that the Edwards hit was dirty at all (it didn’t seem to me like there was any helmet to helmet contact), its just that man hits like a freight train. You never want to see anyone get injured, but I’m just glad that Adrian is on OUR team.
One other note—any game where Dirk Johnson comes out less than Ali Highsmith is a good one in my book.
by bcloirao on Oct 6, 2008 9:55 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Wilson
I don’t remember a string of two games like that but my memory is really bad so that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. It didn’t look dirty to me either, but when the NFL gets a hold of it they’ll look at it 50 times in ultra-slow motion and who knows. I don’t care if he gets fined or not but a suspension would kill this team against the Boys.
I was hoping someone would bring up Ali. Man did he blow up McKelvin.
by cgolden on Oct 6, 2008 10:13 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
I'm so confused!
Defense make up your mind, either rock the house or or really blow, I just can’t take the suspense from week to week. Great defensive effort this week. They seemed to play with much cohesion. Yes there were a couple of blemishes DRC, Rolle. I think A-Dub needs to stay after practice with Green and put him through some sort of hitting clinic. But all in all defense rocked it.
PENALTIES – Don’t have the numbers but there weren’t to many.
by badmatty53 on Oct 6, 2008 10:32 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
JJ
JJ needs to get more carries…I decided
by badmatty53 on Oct 6, 2008 10:35 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
High on the Highs!
Yeah that was some hit by Highsmith – McKelvin did well to hold on to the ball there.
Hightower was excellent on both of his TD carries – especially the first!
The stars of the show were Breaston and Doucet though. I was really impressed with how solid both played. Early panicked a little when Kurt found him with a sweet pass in the first quarter but he came straight back strong and made a catch on the next play.
Breaston played better than I ever remember Bryant Johnson doing in all the time he was here.
Oh yeah what about Fitz’s catch on his 2nd TD!
The defence really showed up too – lost count of all the big plays but nearly everyone got in on the act. Dansby looked menacing, Dockett was on fire and Gabe Watson made a nice return.
The big thing of the game though was Ball Control – The opposition can’t hurt you if they dont have the ball so I hope we can keep this going now.
by CardsIrish on Oct 6, 2008 10:47 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Doucet did surprise me and I’m really liking the depth and youth at WR. Hard to imagine that Doucet can’t even be active on game days when Q is healthy. It’ll be interesting to see if Early jumped Urban on the depth chart though with that game. Urban’s got some value on special teams that I’m not sure Early has though so you never know.
It was great seeing big Gabe back in the middle of that defense. I think it really helped Dockett and Antonio Smith.
by cgolden on Oct 6, 2008 12:08 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Well the only thing I notice you guys have forgotten to talk about...
was how kick ass a game Hightower had. I want to see him and JJ splitting carries more and reducing Edge’s runs drastically. He’s not the same guy as he used to be and we have two other guys with loads of talent. Sometimes it takes a couple of seasons for guys to wake up in the NFL (i.e. Priest Holmes etc.) and I think JJ has finally awoke and is playing up to his draft status. We need to lock him up next year or he is going to be just another former Cardinal who transfers to another team and tears it up in the backfield.
by boogatt66 on Oct 6, 2008 11:01 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
completely agree
I need to get a full story up sometime this week or during the bye at the latest that’s a Edge vs. Hightower. I wonder if Hightower hadn’t have gone through that fumbling stage if he wouldn’t already be sharing the workload 50/50 or so.
by cgolden on Oct 6, 2008 12:09 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
told you so
Edge will get the PT only b/c of status. Timmy gets the edge (sorry for that one) in my book and will surpass Edge next season.
by hevchv on Oct 6, 2008 5:06 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Grab Hightower for your keeper fantasy football leagues now!
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
by Hawkwind on Oct 6, 2008 7:02 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
JJ is gonna look great in a Broncos uniform next year
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
by Hawkwind on Oct 6, 2008 7:03 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

by 
















