Arizona Cardinals Face Dilemma Between Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson

by Andrew602 on Dec 3, 2009 11:31 AM MST Comment 9 comments

With the ageless Brett Favre coming to Arizona on Sunday night, the Cardinals find themselves in a familiar place they've been before. Last year, they shot out to a comfortable lead in the NFC West, only to drizzle and win 2 out of the last 6 games of the year. In that span they were out-scored 198 - 138, and their only two wins came against theSeahawks(4-12) and Rams(2-14). One of the teams they lost to in that stretch were the Minnesota Vikings. With Tarvaris Jackson at the helm, the Vikings came to Arizona and out-muscled the Cardinals to a 35-14 beating. Jackson threw 4 touchdowns on only 17 attempts and the Cardinals home crowd was stunned.

This year Jackson has taken a back seat to Brett Favre, who is now running the show. After contemplating retirement once again in the off-season, Favre shocked everyone when he signed with Gre

Favre by Month	Cmp	Att	Yds	Cmp%	YPA	TD	INT	Sack	Rat
September	61	94	566	64.9	6.02	5	1	9	94.5
October	96	134	1115	71.6	8.32	7	2	9	107.6
November	91	130	1193	70.0	9.18	12	0	4	129.4

en Bay Packers rival - the Minnesota Vikings. He was brought in to run the offense and let Adrian Peterson carry the bulk of duties. Instead, Favre has recorded one of his best seasons yet, and has been on a tear as of lately.

Favre has currently attempted 358 passes, completing 69% of them. He's also 8th in the league with 2874 passing yards and is tied for 2nd in the league with 24 touchdown passes. Favre has had the advantage however, of playing against some less-then-stellar pass defenses. The average pass defense he's faced this year has been 18th. That isn't significant to a Cardinals team that's been burned through the air, most recently by Vince Young last week. Looking at the chart, it's evident that Favre has gradually increased his production over the last three months.

The Cardinals defense could try to limit Favre and make him hand the ball off more, but if that happens, the Cardinals will face Adrian Peterson. Although Peterson's play has been over-shadowed by Brett Favre's resurgence at the age of 40, it wouldn't be wise for the Cardinals to forget about the All-Pro running back. Peterson has run for 947 yards and 10 touchdowns when Favre throws 20 or less attempts in a game. After the Cardinals allowed over 150 rushing yards to Chris Johnson last week, that may be the last part of the defensive game plan on Sunday. What are your thoughts on the game and who should the Cardinals attempt to stop?

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I've been talking to a friend of mine who is a Vikings fan.

And I told him I’m more worried about Favre since at least we can probably force All Day to fumble at least once during the game.

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 Dec 3, 2009 11:36 AM MST reply actions

Peterson

I’m more concerned about the Vikings weapons at TE and WR and Harvin who lines up all over the place. Harvin is being used as a wing-back in the Vikings version of the “West Coast Offense”. Peterson is the devil you know. The others, the devil you don’t know.

If I’m picking the poison then I’m going with more coverage based defenses and forcing Favre and company to go to the ground game. See if they can put together multiple sustained drives on the ground. Purple Jesus (Peterson) will put the ball on the carpet every now then. Davis needs to attempt to make them one-dimensional. The Vikings run blocking is not what is once was. If the Vikings beat you with the weakest part of their offense then they deserve the victory.

Is it me or do the Vikings on offense at the skill positions have more weapons than the Pentagon ?

by Cardsfan81 on Dec 3, 2009 12:32 PM MST reply actions

Percy Harvin has been scary good this season

I’m just as scared of him on returns as I am when he lines up as a receiver. He’s probably the ROY so far in my book.

Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

by Bezekira on Dec 3, 2009 12:40 PM MST up reply actions

I can already see him streaking along the field 60+ yards =knocks on wood=

What? I didn't break it, I was just testing its durability, and then I placed it in the woods becuase it's made out of wood and I just thought he should be with his family.
Revenge of the Birds

by Andrew602 on Dec 3, 2009 1:03 PM MST up reply actions

Harvin

Percy Harvin is keeping me up at night. Lol. Can you imagine what DC Billy Davis is going thru. He has his work cut out for him this game.

And +1 on the ROY concerning Harvin Bezekira.

by Cardsfan81 on Dec 4, 2009 6:43 AM MST up reply actions

I'm going with Harvin and Byrd as my Rookies of the Year.

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 Dec 4, 2009 9:31 AM MST up reply actions

run blocking...

I don’t know if you can say it’s not what it once was – there’s an argument there due to the rookie/2nd year starters on the line, but they are consistently facing 8-plus defenders in the gaps. APs big runs are coming when the pile moves to the right or when he jumps outside early. Not to mention… his passing game has elevated this year.

Hope for the AP fumbles… that’s about all you can cling to if you opt to stop the run. The offense IS dangerous.

I BELIEVE...

by ArizonaVikingsFan on Dec 3, 2009 6:16 PM MST up reply actions

Our pass D has been suspect

Vikings are soo dangerous. They either score early and run is to death or we score early and they pass us to death.
My game place, score more than they do, own them on special teams and pray that the Ageless wonder finally has a bad game!

They are who we thought they were!

by Jessesb on Dec 3, 2009 2:14 PM MST reply actions