Arizona Cardinals: Jeckyl and Hyde in 44-37 loss to Green Bay

Leinart looked great (where are you hardhat?) and the running game was pretty good but everything else was pretty blah.

There were plenty of negatives, but some guys looked good.

I thought Lance Long had a good game. He may have bobbled that punt return, but he didn’t let it become a turnover. Lance Long has had a great pre season, I hope he makes the final 53. Sean Morey stepped up big time. Doucet made some good plays, but he also didn’t make some that he really needed to. Byrd looked good. Also I saw some good effort by that new fullback from hawaii ( the juggernaut.) Obviously Matt and Beanie played great. Timmy and Fitz did great as well.

Kurt Warner looked old and slow most of the time. DRC and the rest of the secondary looked bad. Dockett was double teamed and made no impact on MOST plays. It seemed like the Packers knew the weaknesses of our defense very well and exploited them completely.

The only things I was happy about were Leinart and Beanie, the rest were mediocre, or just plain disappointing.

HardHat is still hating Leinart, so I’ll just post what he said at azcentral to entertain everyone here, and hopefully keep him out because he won’t have to say anything.

Warner broke almost every single-season Cardinal QB record, tied Joe Montana’s playoff TD record, and led us to our first-ever NFC Championship Trophy and our first-ever trip to the Super Bowl.

But you just had to know that after Leinart completed a few passes in the 4th quarter versus future Green Bay club bouncers and taxi drivers, that his delusional fanboi’s would show up demanding that he get some first-team playing time.

HaHaHa!!!

Almost 4 years ago, he was the 10th pick of the draft. Now, he’s the star of the preseason toilet bowl picking on street free agents who will be out of the league next week.

Leinart’s USC homies must be high off the fumes from his jockstrap if they think he’s going to see the field under any condition short of an injury to Kurt or 4th quarter garbage time in a blowout.

Too bad the rest of the NFL isn’t buying into Leinart finally growing up… If they had, maybe we could trade him for a conditional 7th round pick and a couple beer vendors. But last offseason, Cutler and Cassel were the hot tickets. Nobody wanted ol’ Matty Boi.

But I agree with almost everything Hardhat says. I would hope that Arizona fans (and especially the more intelligent type here) would have more patience with Warner. Preseason is far too early to make absolute decisions about this team. Even last year, when they had clinched the playoffs and the games didn’t matter anymore, they played like crap. That might just be part of the makeup of this team.

That being said, its great to see Leinart play so well. Regardless of how well Kurt plays, he’s still old and injury prone, and having Matt as a backup is huge. I really think he needs this experience because in my mind (unlike Hardhat’s) Leinart is still the QB of the future.

and even the cheerleaders looked like they were in preseason form—no continuity or coordination. They were hot though, but not like the suns dancers. Anyway, where was I before I got off track. I thought the first team D was horrific. I think losing Antonio Smith is going to hurt worse than we thought. No pressure on Rogers whatsoever. Even after knocking Jennings out of the game, Rogers just picked us apart. The offense looked out of sync except for Fitz. Drives were stalled from turnovers by WR’s and one Warner fumble, which could’ve made the game more interesting in the first half had those drives sustained points. Overall, I thought the Packers offense impressed me the most, specifically Rogers. Maybe there is hope for Leinert.

Dear God, so many missed calls on the Pack. False starts, pass interference, Harris going all macho-man on Fitz out-of-bounds, etc.

Morey’s hands quieted the voice in the back of my head rooting for Long/Doucet/Jones to bump up. Sure he’s not that quick, but he really held on to some tough ones out there. Comparatively, Doucet looks like a rookie and Long is not only on the bubble of the team but the bubble of being effective at his job. I would say that Jones may just as well sweep out the fluff, but that route miscommunication at the end wasn’t exactly pretty. Despite this, he’s been more consistent than either Doucet or Long, in what limited time I’m seeing him out there. Urban basically looks like the same old Urban. Just not the go-getter you want to be starting, but still versatile and mostly effective.

Moving on, LBs Walker and Davis both had fantastic games. It looks like the 2nd & 3rd teams are tightening up while the first team is falling apart. Quite honestly though, Green Bay opted to choose this one as their blitz-every-down preseason game, and actually seemed to have prepared for the week, which in my mind just about makes up for the horrible deficit going into the half. Overall their squad is of a better caliber (or at least more cohesive at this point) than San Diego’s, and were able to fend off our meager “everyone go do your thing” approach. The good of the first half has been mentioned (run-game), and I choose to take that as the best possible omen looking forward.

It was great to see Leinart playing well. I am glad J. Wright got some more opportunities and showed up for all of them. Every time he comes into the game, however, it’s a safe bet that we’re going to pass, which could lead to some problems down the line… Fowler was shoveling off some low-snaps which probably played a part in Leinart’s one bobble, but his run-blocking was effective. Elton Brown (Cheese) had a nice highlight, too, along with both Castille and Maui’a. Maui’a seems to cut block a lot of the time, which probably undermines the potential of his imposing build some. Really, between him and Kreider, I’m not sure how much more devastating we can get at the FB position (not to discredit Castille at all, who again, has looked great blocking all preseason. Now if only we could get him to turn his head).

Right on about the TEs — the consistent one (Spach) blew it entirely, the underachiever (Pope) had a nice grab, and the comeback-underachiever (Byrd) had one of the most impressive catch-and-runs of the game. I only remember seeing Becht smiling on the sideline.

Speaking of sideline, I swear Palko was in 100% of the shots over there. Every time anyone would make some kind of play and get the camera on their backside, Palko showed up to talk to them. What does it mean? Probably nothing. Hoping for an entire half from the guy in week 4.

Finally, despite my waning confidence in all of our starters, I would rather be 0-4 in the preseason than 4-0. We’ve all been finding plenty of things to be positive about, and the lack of scheming makes us that much harder to prepare for going into the season. From my limited perspective, the teams that really fare well in the preseason give too much away, or something. Take the Lions last year for example. Enough said there. Aaron Rodgers has looked amazing yes, and is slated to be a Top 5 QB for the season, yes, but again — vanilla defenses. We’ll be okay.

crosses fingers

DRC was overhyped in the off-season. He continues to be a work-in-process – a very talented youngster who will progress and regress until he finally matures into a consistent top NFL corner. (The irony is that everyone was wondering out loud whether Toler could be the “next DRC”). After the GB game, people are observing how much DRC looked like the raw rookie (Toler).

A key characteristic of this team a year ago was its inconsistency. Apparently nothing has changed. Which means: Either this year’s flavor will clean up its act , consistently play at a higher level and reach (& win) the Super Bowl. Or it won’t. But it won’t be because of lack of physical talent – it will everything to do with what’s between their ears and shoulder blades.

Kurt Warner is the embodinment of Cardinal inconsistency. He sometimes regresses – holding onto the ball too long, trying to make orange juice out of lemons, messing up center exchanges or failing to see a pending blitz at presnap. He knows this and usually he fixes it so I’m not terribly worried (just concerned).

If Beanie can stay healthy, we’ve got something.

I agree with the comment about the reffing (GB blockers were tackling Cardinal pass rushers throughout the 1H). But 15 penalties are a tad too many to explain away by saying they were all due to “bad officiating.”

Question of the Day: Will the Cardinals immediately “snap out of it?” Or will they fail to wake up?

I posted these thoughts yesterday and put them at the end of last week’s post: Game and 53 Man Roster Thoughts..if any of you are interested in checking them out. Thanks.

The first half should have brought back some memories. All be it, one better forgotten.

1. DRC, The only thing more upsetting than your play, was you laughing through your stupid “grill” at me and all the other fans counting on to live up to your ego.

2. Brown “Tiny” – Your not a starting back in the NFL. McFadden get better soon.

3. The D – Line either gave a half hearted attempt, or the GB line is that stout.

4. Receivers – Doucet had flashes of impending stardom between flashes of college football level play. Your in the big leagues now, step it up.

5. Urban – Just enough man, just enough, if not for your blocking I would have called your performance a failure – next time it hits your numbers I won’t be so forgiving.

CONGRATULATIONS – We found a run game, one that was so impressive it eclipsed our high flying attack and was the only redeeming quality of the entire first half of the game. Now just do that, through out the rest of the season and post season.

Hightower looks better than he did last year with some serious positive results. Beanie, You are who we thought you were! You are who we thought you were! SO FAR…Great field vision. He looked as if he could run with his eyes closed and feel were the holes would develope.

O-line – Looked better creating running lanes than it did in pass protection? Did I just say that. Penalties again, come on.

Warner – seems to get thrown out of wack when a couple of good throws get dropped, as if to suffer from apathy.

Leinart is looking like an NFL quarter back. Thank god!

I think they should do to Warner what they did to Leinart last season. He played one bad game against the Raiders and got the hook and they gave the job to Warner. Leinart would have done just the same as Warner last year if not better, Warner is old and slow and is lucky that he was throwing to the best receiving core in the NFL and his line was protecting him well. No one knew that Fitzgerald, Breaston, and Boldin would step up how they did last year. They would have done the same with Leinart. Warner doesn’t have the ability to make plays like Leinart does. Matt is bigger, stronger, younger, and plays the game just like Warner makes quick decisions, knows where to go with the ball, and has a great pocket presence, but where Leinart is the starter for me is how he can avoid sacks not like Michael Vick, but he can buy enough time to throw the ball away or find an open receiver. Not like Warner where he gets sacked by a one arm tackle or fumbles! Qb’s like that don’t deserve to start – he’s really the only thing holding the cardinals back from being complete. Like the last play of the game in the super bowl where a 100% Leinart would of atleast been able to throw a hail mary for Fitzgerald so he would of had a chance to make a play on the ball, but instead guess what HAPPENS??? SACK!!!! Because Warner is old! Leinart is ready! The cardinal staff needs to sack up and make the right the decision – who is your future? Leinart or Warner?

My only question is why would you want to be limited? Once a d-lineman gets in it’s over! With Warner it’s a sack. Why would you want that when you could have a QB that is younger, does all the same things and can buy time and elude defenders. Which is better for the TEAM, obviously this coaching staff doesn’t care to pull someone – this isn’t about loyalty. They didn’t win the super bowl last year so their is no reason why he has to be the starter this year. Basically any descent QB can be a great QB in the Cardinals offense, but Leinart is a smart QB just like Warner they have all the same great qualities, but right now in their careers – Leinart is clearly the better fit for this young, improved, motivated, team. I’m just looking at the big picture in what is better for the team to get to that next level. Why wait? Just because they gave him a new deal? That’s bull! He’ll be a great back up. And that’s helping the team. I know it might sound outrageous to some people because of how great a season Warner had last year. But I guarantee that if Leinart was in it would have been the same result. Take a look at the New England Patriots, they have a great line that could protect Brady, and then a no name like Cassell gets in and wins 10 games. It’s all about the players around them. Warner like Leinart will find the open player on a 10 yard pass and these great receivers will turn it into a 25 yard gain. So it’s not all about Warner! If you know football you know that!