Are The Arizona Cardinals Playing Possum?
by Andrew602 on Jan 6, 2010 9:54 AM MST
20 comments
We all know that Ken Whisenhunt and the Arizona Cardinals are an inconsistent team. Although they have yet to lose back to back games this season(an anomaly at that), they've dropped games to the Panthers, 49ers, and Titans - games they should have won. But is inconsistency really the reason?
We knocked the Cardinals for losing games in embarrassing fashion, after clinching the NFC West last season. They lost to the Vikings and Patriots with a combined score of 21-82. They hobbled into the playoffs and were ripped with "the worst playoff team in NFL history" title. Obviously they weren't, surprising the Falcons, Panthers, and Eagles to get to the Super Bowl.
This year the Cardinals have become a different team when their opponents are least expecting it. After poor performances against the 49ers and Colts, the Cardinals went into Giants Stadium and won, surprising the nation and the Giants. Then the Cardinals lost to the Panthers, squeaked out a win against the Rams, and lost to the Titans on the last play of the game. The Vikings were the favorite to win the next week, but faced a different Cardinals team. They threw blitzes we hadn't seen all year, and dominated the Vikings defense as well. Since then, the Cardinals have fallen to the 49ers, struggled against the Lions, and then lost to the Packers this past week. So what exactly does "playing possum" mean? Here's what wikipedia says:
"Playing possum" is an idiomatic phrase which means "pretending to be dead". It comes from a characteristic of the Virginia Opossum, which is famous for pretending to be dead when threatened..."Playing possum" can also mean simply pretending to be injured, unconscious, asleep, or otherwise vulnerable, often to lure an opponent into a vulnerable position himself.
Is that what the Cardinals have done this season? Maybe. I believe in the end that they are an inconsistent team but that doesn't mean they aren't playing possum. It seems that most of what Ken Whisenhunt does throughout the year happens for a reason. Edgerrin James was benched last year, only to be rejuvenated in the playoffs and give the Cardinals an added dimension to their offense. This year, the Cardinals have shown very little on defense(except for the Vikings game), and have yet to make a big play on offense. Come Sunday, we'll be able to tell if the Cardinals are truly luring their "opponent into a vulnerable position". Have the Cardinals really been playing possum all year? What are your thoughts?
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I love the thought....
But it’s a bit of a reach. Couldn’t we have possumed our way to a first round playoff bye?
http://seasonsofdiscontent.com/
True
I think it comes down to the fact that the Cardinals are still a young team and aren’t as consistent as they should be.
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
Not anymore
Looking at starters:
The Cardinals we all used to swear at are no longer young. Who on offense besides Hightower & Patrick is young?
On defense the only young guys you have are Campell & DRC
Thats only 4 out of 22 that are young, sorry gentlemen but we cant call the Cardinals young anymore. They do have a good crop of young talent but they arent what makes up the team as they dont get significant playing time.
Never do card tricks for the group you play poker with.
My meaning of young should be considered less experienced
As in the Cardinals haven’t been accustomed to winning until the past two seasons.
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
Machiavelli
I think that the Cards’ play on Sunday was less of a master plan by the Whizard of Az, and more of a Machiavellian realism on the part of the team. I mean, I’m sure Whiz got the guys pumped up during the week for the chance at a first-round bye, and when that possibility went out the window, so did the players emotions about the game. And we all know how emotions can affect this team’s play. I think what we saw on Sunday was a group of guys who asked themselves inside if it was better to try to win a meaningless game or to take it easy in preparation for the game next week. Ultimately, you had a team of players (aside form Matt Leinart, who did have something to gain from the game) who wanted the game to be over before it even started.
A couple of things that encouraged me:
1. the Charles Woodson interception on the cross route. Yeah, it sucks that that happened, but you have to expect that Fitz is a little peeved about that. And I don’t care who you are: an angry Fitz is not someone you want to have to cover.
2. The incompletion to Steve Breaston way downfield. He was open. Way open. Two DBs covering Fitz leaves a lot of room for the speedy Breaston, and Warner connects on that pass that Leinart overthrew.
3. Tight ends. I know that Leinart hit Spach for one of his few completions, but we didn’t use Patrick, Spach, or Becht as much as we usually do; especially in blocking. Wells and Hightower were essentially running the most basic plays in the playbook with no help from TE blockers or a fullback. I have a feeling that the running game is going to surprise some people on Sunday.
With those first two plays you mentioned.
It looked like Woodson just beat Fitz to where Matty expected him to be when I saw it, and I think I saw Breaston slow down, but he probably would have been overthrown anyway.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan.
I can't stand band-wagoner fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad.
No he dih'nt
“This year, the Cardinals have shown very little on defense(except for the Vikings game), and have yet to make a big play on offense”
Really Andrew? They have shown plenty on defense IMO. The thing keeping them from being a top 10 defense is consistency, they have proven to be able to shut down some of the game’s best. The defense has dominated for most of many games—no not all and there have been several games where the defense stunk. DRC, Wilson, Dockett in the Pro bowl, thats 3 of 11 D starters recognized for their great years. Let alone leading the NFL in rushing D for 1/2 a season. I’m I just misunderstanding your sentiment?
Also re: big plays and offense…they have yet to make a really LONG play, but there have been plenty of BIG plays.
http://undrafteds.com/
Big plays mean plays over 20 yards
The Cardinals are dead last in the league. Touchdowns can be big during games but in no way do they have a lot of big plays on the year.
What have we seen from the Cardinals defense this year?
- Yes they lead the league in rush D for the first SIX games, but we all know deep down that it was because they had taken big leads each game and forced their opponents to pass more. I think the Panthers exposed our run D.
- The Cardinals have no doubt, improved their pass rush(the 41 sacks prove that). As far as exotic schemes – what have we seen? I know that many of us were surprised by what we saw during the Giants and Vikings games – in which they completey confused Brett Favre and Eli Manning, and shut down each teams running attack. Have we seen that all year? No. Which is part of the reason I believe they may be saving some of those schemes for the playoffs.
- Three Pro Bowlers on D is great, but does it rank the Cardinals in the top 10 in any major defensive stats?
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
+1
I totally agree. I believe constistancy HAS been a problem, but I think scheming has something to do with that. I may be blined or something. But the way the Defence acted playing against the Giants and the Vikings, giving all sorts of different looks. I did not see that in really any other games.
another case of agree to disagree
For my mind, the defense proved to the league they are a force to be reckoned with when they play with focus, stats or no stats.
And yes they do rank in the top 10 in some major defensive categories. W/o looking, they are 5 off the lead in sacks. by stat standards they are “6th” but what it really means is that they are 1 behind the teams that are tied for third. and take into account they did not blitz at all Week 17, they were one of the best in the league all year in sacks.
Honestly I don’t care to go searching for more stats, feel free, anyone?
To me, they totally dominated for a majority of the game in 8 games.
Back to big plays, what I am saying is the lack of LONG plays doesn’t change the stat that matters most which is how many IMPORTANT plays the Cards made this year. Part of making important plays is red zone efficiency where we are #1. I.e., being dead last in long plays does not bother me in light of being THE BEST in red zone efficiency.
http://undrafteds.com/
Possum?
I sure hope so. I am nervous about this game. I think the Pack matches up against us well. Though we haven’t “truly” played them yet, I think Woodson and their LB core will be good enough to force us to utilize TE’s in pass blocking schemes thus taking a WR off the field which hurts our chance to attack their weak and depleted secondary. If we stop the pass rush, Breaston and Doucet are going to have a nice day.
Not to be a pessimist but I don’t think we will be able to stop Rodgers. If it comes down to the wire and hes got the ball in his hands I see VY and Tennessee all over again. I really see our best chance at beating this team is if our D can cause a few turnovers. No turnovers; no win in my mind.
They are who we thought they were!
Turnovers have been the key to every game this whole season
So I agree that won’t change against the Packers. There were only 2 games this season when the turnover battle didn’t determine the winner, the Rams in week 11 and the Titans in week 12. There were four games this season when we had an even turnover ratio, and those were all wins. The other 10 games all had wins or losses correlating to turnovers
We definitely need to force some turnovers on D, and protect the ball on offense to make a run in the playoffs
Kind of a stretch but...
I definitely think we’ll see some completely new pressure packages to keep Rodgers out of rhythm.
I’m most excited though for the big plays on offense you mentioned. Whisenhunt loves the trick plays, for example the two TD’s to Fitz last playoffs, and to my knowledge we haven’t run any at all this season. I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing something from Rolle in the wildcat. They’ve lined up in it twice this season I think, once for a 9 yard run, and another for an incomplete pass called back on a penalty. And hopefully someone can verify this, but I’m nearly positive that one of the announcers on one of those plays was saying the cardinals were excited in warmups about rolle in the wildcat, that he has the strongest arm on the team and can throw it like 80 yards or something ridiculous
great point
I too am ready for some razzle dazzle, Whiz def. likes to pull out a play here or there esp in the post season. Rolle does have a huge arm and has proven he could be a helluva RB if he played offense
http://undrafteds.com/
They did mention his arm strength.
Only problem with putting in Rolle is that there is no surprise factor. The Packers will key on him as an anomaly. If they use him multiple times, and in different ways, that could be mitigated some.
true
but if Rolle got enough time back there from the o-line I think it still works, because Fitz would likely be the only receiver going deep, so at most he’s double covered, because the packers have to respect rolle’s ability to run, and then I like our chances with Fitz going up for a 70 yard jump ball. At the very worst its an interception with a 70 yard change in field position, at best its a huge gain, probably a touchdown. And if the protection breaks down I’d trust rolle to get some positive yards running. If I could get somehow get odds on rolle throwing a td, i would definitely take that bet haha
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