Cardinals Dominate in 27-3 Win over the Seahawks
by Pyromnc on Oct 19, 2009 5:00 AM MDT
in 2009 Season
16 comments
In week five the Arizona Cardinals had to sweat out a win that required a goal line stand in the final minutes against the Houston Texans. In week six they would not sweat so much, as they lead the whole game and played very well on all three sides of the ball (special teams, offense, and defense). They were able to do things in this game that has troubled them all season including, protecting Warner, giving up big play, and turning over the ball in the red zone. Everything for the most part went the Cardinals way in a big win in Seattle.
The Good:
The passing game played almost near perfect football in this game. Kurt Warner completed 32 of 41 passes (78 completion percentage) for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns. Warner spread all those completions between seven receivers but the two players that had the biggest impact of the receiver were Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston. Fitz caught nearly every pass thrown to him racking up 13 of them and also did what he does best and that is catch a touchdown in the end zone to give the Cardinals the first touchdown of the day. Breaston pulled of his best Fitz impersonation with some amazing catches and he would finish with seven catches and a touchdown. The pass protection also held up very nicely, allowing two sacks but not much pressure on Warner. Overall this is what we want to see out of the passing game.
The defense played extremely well today allowing just 14 total yards rushing on 11 carries (1.27 yards per carry) and held Matt Hasselbeck to just 10 completions on 29 throws. The rushing defense is nothing new as they were ranked seventh in the league coming into this game but the passing defense was a different story. They came in 32nd against the pass allowing more than 300 yards passing a game and nine total passing touchdowns. Much of this is because the defense has not been able to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks. That all changed today, as it seemed Hasselbeck was getting hit on every play and went down for a total of five sacks. We all knew the Cardinals defense is loaded with talent and it decided to show in today's game.
Special Teams played pretty well in this game. They had a nice fumble recover in the 1st quarter on a short kickoff by Neil Rackers. They also had nice coverage holding Justin Forsett to just an average of seven yards per punt return and holding the kick returners to an average of 20 yards on three returns. The punter, Ben Graham, also played pretty well punting 6 times for an average of 37.8 yards but four of those punts went inside the 20. The only bad play by special teams was they allowed Seattle's punter to complete a 42 yard pass to the John Carlson that would lead to their only points in the game, a field goal.
The Bad:
The Running game finally got a considerable amount of work but they did not prove much as they ran 26 times for just 62 yards (2.4 ypc). They did start the game off pretty good as they ran 8 times for 31 yards (3.9 ypc) and 1 touchdown. After that there was not much to rave about as they would run 18 more times for 31 yards (1.7 ypc). With that many carries you would like to see much more production but at least they did not fumble the ball in the red zone, something that has seemed to plague the running game this season.
Turnovers continue to be a problem for this team as they give up two more in this game. The first one was a fumble by Warner, something he has a history of as we all know. This one was not completely on Warner as the protection broke down and Levi Brown allowed Patrick Kerney to get by him and strip Warner but Warner has got to hold onto the ball. The second one was an interception by Warner as he just heaved the ball to the end zone hoping to get a touchdown to end the half but ended up going into safety Jordan Babineaux's hands. Overall the Cardinals did a better job of holding onto the ball but they still need to stop turning it over.
The Ugly:
The Cardinals continue to have too many penalties in games. This week they had a total of 7 turnovers going for 76 yards. Most of these came from the offensive line as they had five of them, three false starts and two offensive holding calls. The have got to stop as they are coming on important drives. The first holding call, by Deuce Lutui, came on a rushing play by Beanie Wells that went for six yards and a first down that got brought back to 2nd and 11. The next one came on 2nd and 13 and Tim Hightower had a rushing play for 11 yards and that got brought back because of a holding call by Lyle Sendlein making it 2nd and 23. The false starts can be understandable in Seattle but they came on relatively quiet plays. They have to get better at not committing these penalties. The other two penalties were defensive pass interference on linebacker Gerald Hayes and Delay of game on Ben Graham.
Overall the Cardinals played well, and looked a lot more like that team that went to the Super Bowl last season. This team will have a tough game next week as they go to New York to face a pissed off Giants team.They will need to play like they did today if they want to win this game, something they have not been able to consistently do on a weekly basis. How do you think we played this week? Can we go into Giants stadium next week and beat the Giants?
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Maybe it's because there wasn't a whole lot of "Bad" in this game
but I wouldn’t consider turnovers a bad from this game. One real turnover over the course of a whole game isn’t so bad, that interception was just a hail mary throw. I might count beanie wells fumbling and juggling the ball in the air on more than one play each as a “bad” though. I’d consider time management a “bad” for the Cardinals play just before halftime when we couldn’t decide if we wanted to score some more points or run the clock out. We were driving on the Seabags, yet we called only 1 of our 3 timeouts and burned a good 20 seconds off of the clock leaving about 11 seconds remaining. Setting ourselves up for a picked off hail mary throw? That was a real head-scratching drive for me.
by Fitz Jizzle on Oct 19, 2009 6:30 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Yea, I do not know why we did not call a timeout during that last drive to preserve a lot of that 20 second that got run off. Overall, cannot complain about time management as that was really the only drive I saw us not very good at it. For the most part we had the clock running when we had a chance and it showed as we did have the ball for more than 40 minutes. Want to see more of this next week.
by Pyromnc on Oct 19, 2009 8:52 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Good game guys
’grats on the win.
You definitely need to improve the running game to get back to your SB-level. Warner dominated, yet when you look at the game’s statline it took the Cards way too long to get separation despite dominating the game.
Also, don’t be too hot on the D. Dockett is quietly having a career year and your rushing D is aces, but our O-Line is quite possibly the worst in the NFL right now, and that was – predictably – the real difference-maker.
by Vasilii on Oct 19, 2009 8:19 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Thanks
Don’t worry, we still have our worries with our front seven. Docket and Campbell have been the only consistent players to get any pressure on opposing teams the rest have been really inconsistent this season.
Good luck to you the rest of the season, except of in week 10 :).
by Pyromnc on Oct 19, 2009 8:49 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
wahhh
you guys beat us but you’re not really that good.
You lost, deal with it.
by KDean75 on Oct 19, 2009 9:33 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
*shrugs*
We lost because we played terrible football and got outplayed by a better team in every facet of the game. Injuries are an easy enough target for blame, but excuses don’t count for anything, an L is an L.
I was not aware that losing precluded making notes on the opponent, though. Especially since the Cards are a franchise I’ve always held a soft spot for.
by Vasilii on Oct 19, 2009 10:28 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
I agree
Though I do believe injuries were a big part of it. The OL just couldn’t keep Matt safe, and that was really the end of it. If Matt was kept safe and allowed to get into a rhythm, the game would have been a shootout.
In any case, I don’t at all agree that the Cardinals are “not really that good”. If anything, they’re simply inconsistent so far this year. They made it to the f***ing Super Bowl last year. Saying they’re “not really that good” is just stupid. If they become consistent and get into a rhythm, they can be very scary.
The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.
by Nick Andron on Oct 19, 2009 11:00 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
It would be stupid
If anyone had actually said “you’re not really that good”. No one did, KDean was simply setting up a strawman argument.
by Vasilii on Oct 19, 2009 11:41 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
couple thoughts
I agree with Fitz Jizzle in that we can’t consider turnovers as a “negative” from this game. The hail mary is a gimmie play and I don’t even count that INT. The fumble is what it is. When a QB get’s rocked he’s occasionally going to drop the ball. If anything I point the finger at Levi Brown and the coaching staff. How many times are we going to watch Patrick Kerney bend Levi Brown over his knee and spank his bare ass before Whiz and company decide to give him some kind of help? Brown can not block any pass rusher that is above average but Kerney simply embarrasses him every single time they matchup. It’s time to accept the fact that he needs help. Come on Whiz!!
The thing I take away from this game is that when our defense can pressure the QB, we can dominate. Teams will struggle to run the ball but if a QB has time in the pocket he can beat us. Pressuring the QB will be one of the biggest keys for the rest of the season.
Oh yea and Calias Campbell had better win ROTB of the week this week. He’s been a worthy candidate every single week and it’s about time he’s rewarded. Dude is amazing.
Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
by Bezekira on Oct 19, 2009 8:26 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Agreed except for turnovers.
They may not have had a negative impact in this game for the Cardinals but this is still something the team needs to work on. It was not in the box score but Beanie also had another fumble early in the game, I guess it was not listed since he quickly scooped it up but he needs to protect the ball better. Same goes for Kurt, he is a good QB and is experienced enough that he should feel that pressure coming and hold onto that ball. I am not trying to be a homer and rip this after one of the best performance this team has had since Whiz took over but I still think we need to get better at holding onto the ball.
You hit the nail right on the head with getting pressure on opposing QBs. In the game against the Texans and the Colts we never put pressure on the opposing team and got killed by the Colts and barely beat the Texans. We need our players to put presser like this every game. Next week will be a true test facing one of the better offensive line units in the league, talking about the Giants.
I thought CC should have been it last week, and he will have my vote this week. The guy has been nothing short of a stud this week on defense and on special teams. This guy was a steal in the second round for how he is playing.
by Pyromnc on Oct 19, 2009 8:45 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Just to point out...
This is nothing new but everyone in the league that I saw or heard from picked against the Cardinals this weekend except Howie Long, Frank Caliendo, Mike Ditka, Merrill Hoge, Michael Silver, and Jason Cole. I don’t know who chose Arizona from NFL Network or CBS but I am guessing most chose Seattle.
So to you commentators and analysts who picked against us, Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
by Pyromnc on Oct 19, 2009 9:09 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Another little side note.
Kurt Warner Tied the league record for fastest to 30,000 passing Yards. Dan Marino and he did it in 114 games.
by Pyromnc on Oct 19, 2009 9:39 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
The New York Gaints
Bring on the Gaints! The Cardinal will only get better from here on out. Cards32-Gaints15.
by cedriccedric on Oct 19, 2009 10:13 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Welcome to ROTB
Nice bold prediction. I am going to be a homer for this weekends game though taking the Giants,barring injury news before the game from the Giants, over the Cards in a close one 27-24.
by Pyromnc on Oct 19, 2009 10:21 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
I don't think we can beat the Giants.
But how Drew Brees ripped them apart and how the Cardinals took down the Seahawks does make me a little more confident.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan.
No band-wagoner fans allowed, pick a team and stick with em, throughout the good and the bad.
by JoeCB1991 on Oct 19, 2009 3:01 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Boy, that game was not what I had expected
You guys took the wind out of our sails real quick. Congrats on the win.
Fix up your running situation and you’ll be killin’ teams in no time.
See you in a couple of weeks!
The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.
by Nick Andron on Oct 19, 2009 10:24 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
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