So after another disappointing loss I am left pissed off and wondering why and\or how I fell in love with the Cardinals. At 11:00 am this morning I felt like an excited groom waiting expectantly at the front of the church looking at the back doors only to be jilted again. What happened to the plan we had to build a legit franchise, to reach our immense potential and become a perennial contender? What happened to Steelers style football? Where is the defense? The run game? The discipline? We did not just lose today, We got outplayed, outworked and outclassed... by the chiefs! 

   After brewing for most of the afternoon and thinking about what has gone wrong it is my opinion that some major changes and plans need to be made. Or biggest problem is our Defense, then our QB's, and finally our play-calling. 

  Bill Davis is not ready to be a defensive coordinator. We need a defensive coordinator who will teach better technique and instill a tough mentality. Our defense is getting gashed on a consistent basis and it is due to poor play calling, bad discipline (5th most defensive penalties in the NFL) and even worse tackling. We have so much talent on the defensive side of the ball but it is being wasted by bad coaching. It feels like we have been one of the worst tackling teams for years and in our last two years it has been masked by a winning record. This is a basic skill that desperately needs to be taught and practiced. This season is slipping away if it has not already and one more lost with a bad defensive performance should cue the immediate release of Bill Davis.

  In the way of plans, we need to either go into a rebuilding mode, or find a legit franchise QB who is ready to play now. That means with a trade or FA, not through the draft. It is looking like we will have a high first round draft pick and it should be used to acquire a QB. If Vick is available he looks like a really good option in free agency, if not, I am sure the eagles would part with Kolb or maybe the Broncos with Orton for a high first rounder, or a bunch of middle round picks. Plus, there are no Sam Bradford's in this years draft. I personally think we have a lot a good players in their prime and have added a couple of twilighting players (Porter, Faneca) and with a QB and better game planning we can be a very strong team. I do not think we have time to wait for Skelton, Hall or Drafted QB to develop. Our draft needs to be focused on the O-line and LB'ing core. 

Onto our Offensive play calling. We claimed that we were going to run the ball this year and play smash mouth football. The retirement of Warner and signing of one of the best run blocking guards of all time (Faneca, not Rex, in case you were confused) seemed to give evidence to the seriousness of this claim. But right now we have 176 rushing attempts which puts us dead last, 26 attempts behind Washington and a staggering 141 and attempts behind first place Oakland. apparently we have strayed slightly from our plan. Now, I understand that the fumbles, constantly playing from behind and beanies injuries have some affect on this, but come on Whiz! run the ball, if for no other reason to give the Defense and break (Our offense is averaging a league low average of 26:40min/game). Also, we no longer have Warner or Boldin and our short passing game can no longer be a substitute for the run game. It seems like we are still calling plays like we have Warner. We attempt a running play and if it doesn't go for big yardage, we throw the ball for the next few plays. Our offensive linemen are maulers and we have two solid RB's (three including LSH), please run the ball.

Defensively: see above. Also, we need to do a better job of utilizing our talent and stopping the run. currently only the bills:1502 and bucs: 1365 have given up more yards on the ground then us (1351). And we must turn up the pressure. Although this is tough to do when your defense is on the field for an average of 33min and 52 sec per game (most in the league).

All in all some changes must be made. Whiz needs to get someone else calling the plays so he can focus more pointedly on his role as the HC. Bill Davis needs to go and we need to get a DC who will hold our players accountable and design better game plans. We do not need to rebuild anything other then our defensive coaching staff. And hopefully our front office realizes that we need to use our draft picks to acquire a franchise QB. We do not need another Levi Brown, Leonard Davis, Matt Leinart or Antrel Rolle.

Go cards and as much as it baffles me, I will be waiting expectantly again next Sunday for you to show up, please do not jilt me again.