Arizona Cardinals Offense Doesn't Show up in Loss to San Franciso 16-20
by Pyromnc on Sep 14, 2009 5:00 AM MDT
41 comments
The Arizona Cardinals offense was extremely explosive in 2008 but they were anything but in Sunday's loss to the San Francisco 49ers. They failed to produce any productive drives until the third quarter and that was it, the rest of the game was filled with mistake after mistake. Even though they had struggles on offense, the defense was able to keep San Francisco at bay allowing just 2 touchdowns and 2 field goals, despite not getting any help from the offense. For the Cardinals, they have got to hope that their ugliness on offense is just rust and that they will show up to play next week against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Good
- The Defense: This unit was so good that it was tough to really name just one player that got the job done. As a whole the unit got four sacks and kept pressure on Shaun Hill the whole game. They also only allowed 21 total rushing yards on 25 carries. They had their rough moments though as Bryant McFadden allowed Isaac Bruce to run past him and make a 50 yard catch. They also allowed two touch downs to Frank Gore, one rushing and one passing, but for the most part they were dominate and gave the offense tons of chances to win this game.
- Tim Hightower: He was just one of a few players to actually perform well on offense. Even though he had a tough day rushing the ball he did come out and get 12 catches for over 121 yards.This was notable as the Cardinals haven't had a running back receiver over 100 yards since Larry Centers did it in 1996 against the Colts. He also had some nice blocks in the passing game.
- Larry Fitzgerald: Just like in the Super Bowl he was kept under control during the first half but they were not able to hold him down the whole game. After the second half started Fitz finally started getting his chances and caught five passes for 61 yards. For the whole game he had six catches for 71 yards. Those aren't spectacular numbers but considering how Kurt Warner was playing, those numbers are good.
The Bad
- Kurt Warner: Warner saved himself from being on the ugly list for his second half but not by much. The guy that everyone saw in the preseason and worried about was the guy that showed up today. The whole game was just bad decision after bad decision. He was either overthrowing the receiver, too far in front of them, or too far behind them. To top it all off Warner also had a delay of game penalty at home, something that should never happen for the home team at home.That was the story for much of the first half, then he came out for the second half and looked much better. He was more accurate and probably would have made more plays if the pocket would have held up a little longer and receivers weren't dropping passes. For now though, this has got to be an area of concern for Cardinals fans as Warner has got to be the Warner we all saw in 2008 if they want to have success.
- The Running Game: This would be under the ugly section if it was not for Chris Wells. Beanie carried the ball seven time gaining 29 yards, not bad for his first regular season game against a physical defense. The only mistake he made was running the wrong route forcing Warner to run with the ball that caused them to lose five yards. The reason why the running game was not very good, Tim Hightower. As good as he was in the pass game he was just awful in the run game, Gaining just 15 yards on 8 carries. This could have been because protection was that bad but he did dance a little too much, that could have also been because there was really no where to run. If this team wants to have that playoff success they had last year they are going to have to be able to run the ball, something they did not do in Sunday's loss.
The Ugly
- The Offensive Line: This unit might have cost the Cardinals the game as Warner was getting hit on just about every play and the running game had no holes to run through. This came against a team in the 49ers that have no real pass rushing threat, which makes you wonder how they'll hold up against a real pass rush. One player that deserves to get pointed out the most from this bunch is Levi Brown. The first round pick from three years ago is looking like a complete bust. Seemed like every play he was getting beat badly by Parys Haralson. If this unit continues to produce like this than the Cardinals will get no where this season.
- Penalties: This seems like something that has plagued the Cardinals for the past several seasons, and it doesn't seem like it's not going away any time soon. They had 12 penalties for 82 yards. They all seemed to come on key drives that could have helped us score, especially in the fourth quarter. Most of these came on offense but special teams and defense had their fare share of them as well. If I was Coach Ken Whisenhunt, I would make this team practice two-a-days until they get it into their heads that this sloppy, undisciplined style of play is unacceptable.
Obviously the Cardinals got off to a horrible start to the season and to make matter worse, this poor performance came against a division opponent while we were playing at home. You can bet that Ken Whisenhunt and each and every player will be saying all of the right things after such a disappointing start, but what does this mean in the long term? Is this really the 2009 Cardinals or just a team that's still trying to shake the rust off after a poor preseason?
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Additions
The Good
Ben Graham and Rackers in their kicking duties
The punt and kickoff coverage units especially LSH and Ali Highsmith in coverage.
Calais Campbell – Antonio who?
Rolle on punt returns eventually
The Bad
LSH on kickoff returns
Whiz on clock management and play calling. Especially that 3rd and 5 at the 2 minute warning – why was that rushed, it made no sense.
The Ugly
Lance Long – catch the freaking ball dude
Spach – stop giving away needless penalties and catch the freaking ball too dude.
Coverage addendum: Michael Adams was always down field with Ali and LaRod as well. Morey was the fourth guy down almost every play and that’s unheard of with Sean. ST shouldn’t be an issue this year if Rackers and Graham nail their kicks like they did yesterday.
Fitzgerald: Survives the Madden Curse for a week. Good. Two dropped passes. Ugly. Cuddling up with the Niners secondary most of the game. Bad. Superstars get open…get open Larry.
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
Yea, Long looked like a dude playing in his first real NFL game
Unfortunately, so did Urban.
Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Agree with that play before the 2 min warning
What was the point of rushing it? Made no sense to me.
Hey, hey, hey hey hey, watch the language, ok? I have a family.
Revenge of the Birds
It's time to start worrying
I tried to stay positive through that grusome preseason, but after attending the game (haven’t watched the DVR recording yet) here our my intial thoughts:
1) Offense looks truly lost and play calling was uninspired (maybe Haley was better than I thought)
2) Time management at end of game was poor (why were the cards rushing to get off 3rd and five play before the 2 minute warning. We had plenty of time if we got the first down(maybe we need a HC who is not also calling plays (time management was a problem in Wisenhunt’s first coaching season when he called plays too)))
3) Offensive penalties have to stop
4) Defense look pretty great in the first 3 qtrs, but appeared tired in the 4th (are we still too thin to rotate guys on the line).
5) Warner looked terrible.
6) Special teams play was really exceptional especially kickoff and punt teams.
6) Warner and reciveers looked confused.
7) Truly the worst officiating crew I have ever seen (this did not cause the loss though)
Final intial conclusion:
Unless Cards make a radical inprovement on offense this is still a 5-6 win team (it hurt to say that).
I will watch the tape tonight and hope my impression approves.
by Drullin'OverDaCards on Sep 14, 2009 9:30 AM MDT reply actions
Early bye...
When the schedule came out, a week 3 bye looked to be a negative. Now it has to be a positive. This team needs a second camp. They really looked like they didn’t care to me. I didn’t see any passion on offense. Beanie probably needs to be more involved just to add some spark of excitement.
The defense looked dominant at times, but allowing that 80 yard drive was really pathetic. DRC not making his interception. Not good. That is a play that a good team makes.
A very frustrating first week.
0-3 is looking like a reality...
I think the defense played well enough to win the game and for once I can actually say I place the blame of this loss squarely on the offense. I think some of this can be blamed on the the play calling as I though we were way too conservative but I think most of the blame goes on Warner and the O-line. Warner failed to find open recievers and when he did his passes were way off and he had to hurry because the O-line was atrocious. I really think that is the worst I’ve seen the OL play since Whiz and Grimm took over this team.
As you said hopefully we aren’t 0-3 at this point come the bye week. On the bright side I said we would 2-4 going into the break last season after that loss to the Jets and we ended up going 4-2.
I'm encouraged by the defensive play
If the offense had pulled their head out of their ass at any point in the game, I think the defense would have held the 49ers at 10 points. The 9ers had something like -1 rush yards at the half. They won the TOP battle with our offensive penalties that resulted in 3 and outs, and hasty/sloppy decisions by Kurt due to a syv-like O-line that resulted in 2 Ints and incomplete passes that some looked like could have turned into more INTs. That long drive they had was frustrating to watch. 3rd down conversions were the difference in this game, but they were also tired on that drive due to the previously stated offensive inadequacies.
True story
The D kept their end of the bargain, and just so happened to run out of gas thanks to the Offense not keeping their end of the bargain.
Such a frustrating game to watch.
"Yeah I could have been king, but maybe I already am king. Hail to the king baby." Ash from Army of Darkness
End the penalties and we have a good team
defense looked great, but can’t do it by themselves.
The offense seemed to improve whenever beanie was on the field. I think it is because defenses start to consider bringing a safety down into the box.
Breaston get well soon.
My concerns....
I love the guy who brought us within a few minutes of the ultimate prize, but to me he looks more like the Warner who started with the Cards…patting the ball, holding on to it too long and lacking scrambling abilities. I don’t recall him getting his bell rung in the pre-season, but that’s what it looks like to me…no zip on the ball and slow processing speed.
Were Fitz and Q really that well covered on every pass play? What happened to the quick slants, bunch formations with the streatched deep ball. Maybe Breaston was the guy that put the pressure on the opponent’s defense and allowed for such great plays from the two stars? Fitz had his chance at the jump ball in the end zone, but just seemed to mis-time it off his back leg. Too bad he didn’t get a chance to redeem himself.
As a “hard ass”, I can’t believe Wiz stands for all the procedure and pre-snap penalities. I’m okay with the occasional hold to protect the quarterback or the personal foul for a hard play, but the silly penalities are killing them.
I gotta say, the best I’ve seen them play this year (including the pre-season) was the 1st quarter against Pittsburg. I know Wiz has history with them, but there were less penalities and they looked like they belonged in that position. I was encouraged then, but now am concerned about the lack of spark on offense.
Someone needs to make the team watch the games from the playoffs and make them realize it WAS the Cardinals playing and not the “same ol’ Cards”.
by CaliforniaCardFan on Sep 14, 2009 12:20 PM MDT reply actions
seriously?
That was beyond embarrassing. Don’t be confused, we aren’t an elite team, but we’re definitely A LOT better than the 49ers. THEY ARE HORRIBLE.
THE BAD:
1.Warner(he looked almost disinterested to me)
2.Clock Management
3.Penalties(i’ve come to live with them….)
4.Why is Lance Long in the NFL? put Antrel Rolle or DRC at WR if he can’t catch a ball.
5.Hightower is too slow and dances too much(michael pittman anyone?) when Chris Wells was in the game he was getting solid runs and not dancing around getting 1 or 2 yard carries(Hightower: 8 carries 15 yards, Wells: 7 carries 29 yards. Hightower, as a running back, really doesn’t have any positives that I’ve seen other than he doesn’t fumble very often. He doesn’t have any big play ability whatsoever, has very little agility and speed, no power, and doesn’t charge through the line. He gets the ball from Warner and just does little cutbacks back and forth until defenders catch up to him because hes too slow to avoid them. Chris, on the other hand, charges through the line and can actually break tackles and carry defenders on his back, all while having a lot of speed and big play ability. His only downfalls are that he is an injury risk and has had a history of fumbling in college. If Warner continues to play like he did yesterday, then we’re gonna need to put Wells in the game to have any sort of production from our offense.
That whole game though, in my opinion, was lost because of Warner. Him and the wide receivers weren’t in sync the whole game. Maybe it was because he didn’t have Breaston and Boldin obviously didn’t look anywhere near 100% and because of that we had to use scrubs like Lance Long and Jerheme Urban(I don’t know why people around the league give him so much praise about being a good receiver) who are too stupid and don’t know how to catch a ball that is being thrown to them.
I’m not going to list “THE GOOD” because I don’t think there should be any positives coming out of a game losing to the ****ing terrible 49ers.
Warner was screwing up because the O-Line could not protect him
I would also add that Ref that took away our fumble recovery TD away to the Ugly.
Wow!
Welcome to RotB. Now with that out of the way, I have to disagree with some of that. Long played like it was his first nfl game because it was. Timmy is much better than you give him credit for. There is a full year of film on him vs Beanie being a rookie. This is the nfl. Film sessions is the way of life. Beanie will soon have film and teams will be able to better gameplan for him as well. Few backs can overcome this. I would be willing to bet that Adrian Peterson would have trouble with our o line right now. And as for Kurt, well he was crap.
Life's too short. Be a fan. Orlando Magic, Arizona Cardinals,Tampa Bay Rays and of course "the U"! What a winning combo.
by hevchv on Sep 14, 2009 3:37 PM MDT via mobile up reply actions
About Beanie
Have to disagree we all saw Hightower play last year, and what he did on sunday was the same he did last year, that is why Edge played in the playoffs… sorry but Tim may be a hardworker, but the talent is not there, the power or the speed are not there, when Beanie was able to get going he looked dangerous with the ball in his hands, stop making excuses for Hightower, he is not an elite back, may be one day, but right now he is not, and don´t even bring the Adrian Peterson comment, he is a beast, we have no idea what he would do with this line, but let me give you this, Benie´s skill set is much closer than Hightower´s to Adrian Peterson´s
paco cabrera
No one ever said Hightower is an elite back
I don’t think that Sunday was a fair judgement of his running game..He didn’t appear to have much to work with on any of his runs thanks to the o-line. I expect him to do better in the weeks ahead of us, but that’s just my opinion.
at this point Hightower is the more complete back
Wells is better running the ball, I’ll give you that but Hightower is much better out of the backfield and as a pass protector. Given the nature of the offense those two areas are probably just as important as running ability.
Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
+1
Great post, I feel very dissapointed, we lost to the 49ers, to Shaun Hill… enough said… Warner looked awful, lost out there, I didn´t see fire in his eyes, the clock managemente was horrible, penalties also and Lance Long, hopefully he won´t be active againg in the season, I can live with Urban being the fourth guy, but his drops are killing this offense…
About Hightower, I couldn´t say it better, even Michael Pittman was a better runner, I like him and know he is a hardworker but it´s time to let Beanie show what he can do, that is the only way we won´t finish last un rushing again…
paco cabrera
Really?
It was just one game and we’re already having people call for Warner to be sit down. Look if Warner is still playing like this after four games than I start to think about warming up Leinart but after one game I am not going to pull Warner.
not to mention that Warner didn't have his #3 wide out and his #2 wide out was clearly hobbled
He didn’t have his full cast of weapons and the pass protection was horrible. Don’t overreact from just one game.
Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
You sound like the shrill-voiced, old, drunk women who sits 4 seats to my right at games
I’m not calling you a shrill voiced old drunk women lol, but after even so much as an incomplete pass…“Leinaaart! We want Leinaaart!” She kept that up throughout Warner’s entire MVP-caliber season as well. I make sure to yell “Leinart!!!” after every pretty pass Warner throws. Long story short, it was ONE sub-par game..
guys it was bad but come on
Go back and look at last years season opener against the Niners. Its basically the same except we won. KW didn’t look very good and the game plan was conservative. It is still just one game and to be honest Warner will have worse game this season (NYJ & MIN) but he’ll have some great games too. Lets just hope that he has more good than bad.
Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
by Bezekira on Sep 14, 2009 3:04 PM MDT via mobile reply actions
Offensive Coordinator missing. HELP!
After watching the four pre-season losses, I thought Whizenhunt was just hiding his little secret filled playbook not wanting to reveal those plays to the opponents that will help bring the Cards back into the playoffs.
WRONG!
Man was I wrong. After watching the loss to San Francisco, I realized Whizenhunt doesn’t have a clue about offensive coordinating. Warner didn’t have a chance, nor did the receivers, with the long developing plays Whizenhunt insisted on calling play after play after play. The only receiver to get open before Warner would inevitably get hit as he stood in the pocket for way too long was Hightower. Not having a sense of his offense’s strengths and weaknesses and calling pass plays that aren’t suited to Warner’s style of quarterbacking will kill the Cards chances of winning the division. if Whizenhunt can’t figure that out, the Cards are going to be a 6-10 team.
Welcome to RotB. Now without further delay...
Whizenhunt doesn’t have a clue about offensive coordinating.
How do you think he got his job. He was a great OC with Pit.
Life's too short. Be a fan. Orlando Magic, Arizona Cardinals,Tampa Bay Rays and of course "the U"! What a winning combo.
Thanks for the greeting....
I realize that he was a very good oc there.
I hope that the great quality he possessed in Pittsburgh as the oc will start to show up in Arizona.
It’s early in the season, I know. It’s way too early in the season to make projections, but from the way the pre-season play calling seemed to carry over into yesterdays game, I hope it’s fixed fast because this division isn’t going to be a cake walk like last year.
I really don’t think this was all of Whiz’s fault. Sure we could have attacked more instead of having the check downs but really this was an execution problem. The play would have worked if Warner hadn’t been inaccurate and the O-Line gave Warner some time.
Definitely not all Whiz's fault
The penalties alone were enough to cause a loss in many a game. Over 80 yards. Those are player mistakes that will kill a game for any team. I do think, I hope, those mistakes will get fixed pretty fast.
The main concern I have is how out of sync the first team qb and receivers looked with each other for these games so far. If it’s just rust on the part of the players, then that will fix itself.
But If it’s what I think it is, which is Whiz’s poor offensive coordination and calling the wrong kind of plays for his qb to execute at the wrong time by continually misguessing the defense on a particular down, that’s going to require some self-assessment by Whiz that I hope he has the ability to make on himself.
IMO, this is what has made the offense look so out of sync .
Part of the problem...
Was like you said Warner and his receivers were out of sink. Warner did not trust that his receivers would be where the were supposed to, something he relied on last year. Part of this is Whiz’s fault as he built a game plan around having Breaston playing and not having Q playing. We all know Breston did not play and Q played, at what he said was 80% but looked more like 40-50%. That leaves you with the only receiver you can trust being Fitz who is double covered. I think this lead to a lot of problems as we saw both Long and Urban drop key passes early on.
Hopefully Q plays at close to 100% this weekend and Breaston plays because it was clear that those 2 things (Breaston not playing and Q not at 100%) hurt us.
As for the penalties, could not agree more. This is something that has plagued the team for years and needs to be stopped. Whiz sounded like he was ready to bench who ever committed future penalties even if you were a star player, which I think could stop them. Only time will tell how this pans out.
The main concern I have is how out of sync the first team qb and receivers looked with each other for these games so far.
I think you just answered your own concerns there. Warner isn’t playing with his starting group of WRs. Boldin hasn’t practiced in three weeks, Breaston was out which left him with Urban and Long. The guy was missing two big weapons and go no help from the offensive line.
Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
But hevchv, Wiz is not the OC
and that’s the problem. Clock managment was dismal his first season when he tried to call the plays as well. I though he learned his lesson when he gave up play calling, but I guess not. There is to much going on for the HC to call plays, in my opinion.
by Drullin'OverDaCards on Sep 14, 2009 8:00 PM MDT up reply actions
Maybe, but some coaches can do it.
I think its more too many cooks in the kitchen. You have the HC and two co-OCs coordinating on each play when you only get 40 sec to call it. Whiz is doing to much. IMHO he is trying to get Russ some time calling plays to prepare him for his possible HC debut next season. He is also trying to ease the other guy in to play calling. All while trying to make all the calls on offense. Not to mention his duties as the HC. He’s spreading himself to thin. But if the past holds true, he will have relinquished these duties by midseason.
Life's too short. Be a fan. Orlando Magic, Arizona Cardinals,Tampa Bay Rays and of course "the U"! What a winning combo.
I think spliting OC duties
duties is going to turn out alot like when they split QB duties…. it will fail, and lets not lay all the blame on the OL either, they have always had a problem with giving the QB time and Warner did fine last year. Im not Calling for lineart to start, but if Warner cant get right bring bring in Lineart who konws even if its only for Two drives in the 4th quarter maybe its the two drives the team needs. Just my opinion please dont blast me for it.
AYFK
by Desert_Bird_Watcher on Sep 14, 2009 11:01 PM MDT reply actions
I still think it is too early to really be talking about bringing in Leinart.
If Warner continues to struggle after our week 5 game, bye week in week 4,than I think we have to start talking about possibly switching to Leinart. The thing is though I don’t think this will continue. After rewatching the game Warner was much better in the 2nd half. He was accurate when given opportunities. The problem was receivers dropping passes, penalties bringing back a play, or protection just not giving Warner any leeway.
I don't think it's a qb problem at all
Leinart isn’t the answer to problems I see on the field. If anything, I think Leinart would implode and fail much more so than Warner under the same circumstances. This is a team problem. Whether it’s truly related to inadequate offensive coordination or players not playing at 100% of their game or all of the above, their is definitely something major missing from this current offense’s flow and swagger. I’m hoping it will get fixed before losses start piling up early in the season.
I do think Leinart will be a very good starting pro quarteback one day but there is no comparison between him and Warner right now.
IMO assuming everyone stays pretty healthy on offense, If Warner, who happens to be one of the best qb’s I’ve ever watched play at that position, does happen to fail to deliver in this current offense that’s run by Whiz as the OC , I believe we’ll need to consider Whiz’s credibility as the right OC for this group of players he has here in AZ.
I don't think Leinart would "implode"
Leinart is a great backup, and if Warner goes down I think he could still get us into the Playoffs.
But obviously Warner is one of the best to ever play the game, and we should not talk about putting Leinart in until Warner gets hurt or has several bad games in a row.
by JoeCB1991 on Sep 15, 2009 12:20 PM MDT up reply actions 1 recs
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