Will the Real Arizona Cardinals Please Remain Standing Up?

Well, as some of you may recall, I asked the Real Arizona Cardinals to Please Stand Up last week that talked a little bit, in no particular order, about some of my thoughts on the game. One of my points in asking the question was to get the team to play up to their potential. The Cardinals responded with a great win at the Meadowlands in NYC, so i decided to continue this week with another post asking the Cardinals to keep being the team we hope they can be. 

So regarding this game, my thoughts, again in no particular order (why change something that isn't broken or maybe it is broken but it's working (I'll leave being organized to the able coaching staff of the site)):

The weather & the roof: There is actually an NFL rule regarding the roof and opening or closing it. The Cardinals have a plain English breakdown of the rule here: http://www.azcardinals.com/stadium/a-to-z-guide.html if you scroll down to Retractable Roof Movement. It supposed to warm up over the weekend to around 86 so the roof most likely will remain closed. However, if it is open, the Carolina team and bench, along with a significant portion of the fans sitting on the visitor (east side of the stadium) are gonna get nice and toasty. As we all know the AZ sun can really beat down on you even on a nice day here. I can tell you, I walked over to the sunny side of the stadium once in the first year and there is a huge difference in the feel between the sunny side and the shaded side. The cards website estimates it feels 15 degrees warmer in the sun, but I personally think 25 degrees is probably a closer number as there is absolutely no breeze in the stadium even with the roof open. The Cardinals suggest you can call  the Cardinals Roof Hotline at 623-433-7663 on the way to the stadium to find out if the roof will be open or closed (I can only assume that want a passenger to call as they would not possibly want the driver to call while driving!?!?!) SInce I sit on the shaded side of the stadium, I hope we open the roof and cook us some panther meat.

Our Run D - Just like last week I am again real excited to see our run defense against the tandem of Williams and Stewart. If we shut them down and can get a few points on the board, the game gets put into the unsteady hand of Jake Delhome, which is what we want to see and leads me to  . . .

Creating turnovers - shut down the run and get after Jake. My fantasy footbal site actually has the Cards D ranked #2 and is predicting atleast one pick six and said the defense could score 30+ points in the game if things get out of hand.    

After last week, I'd like to see the offense get off to a quick solid start and build a decent first half lead then HAND THE ROCK TO BEANIE the whole second half and get him a 100 yd rushing game.

If you have never been to a game, try to go some time. The 12th man has really gotten going in the Nest and the defense really does feed off it during the game. I expect the crowd to be especially loud after last weeks victory.

Last meeting Playoffs Jan. 10 @ Carolina (Divisional Playoff) W, 33-13 You may recall this game with fond memories, but it was the start of the Nightmare for Jake Delhome, who frankly still does not appear to have recovereed from that game. I can't beleive they gave this guy a contract extension in the off season.

Whiz record in regular season against Carolina 0-2, Playoffs 1-0

Cards lifetime versus Panthers 3-6.

Cards in Arizona versus the Panthers 0-3 (Ouch!) This needs to change.

Cards last 5 regular season against the Panthers 0-5 (OUCH!)  (Maybe I need to consider stopping with the past record, although it makes me appreciate the team we have now even more.)

Game History:

Oct. 26, 2008, @ Carolina Panthers L, 23-27 (Steve Smith did step out of bounds on that play)

Oct. 14, 2007, Carolina L 10- 25

Oct. 9, 2005, Carolina L 20-24

Nov. 21, 2004, At Carolina L 10-35

Dec. 14, 2003, Carolina L 17–20

Oct. 6, 2002, At Carolina W 16–13

Dec. 30, 2001, At Carolina W 30–7

Nov. 19, 1995, At Clemson Univ. L 27-7

John Fox is likely on the hot seat this season and I think he is likely to take the blame for extending Delhome, if he doesn't turn around his season. This is his 8th and likely last season in Carolina.

So, let's open the roof, light up the panthers and have a great game!