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Anti Cardinal Of The Week: Week Fifteen

CHARLOTTE NC - DECEMBER 19:  Beanie Wells #26 of the Arizona Cardinals runs with the ball against the Carolina Panthers during their game at Bank of America Stadium on December 19 2010 in Charlotte North Carolina.  (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Another week, another bad loss for the Cardinals. Not much else to say.... Now lets go on and look at the people who contributed to this the most.

Last week, Jay Feely won Cardinal of the Week with 83% of the vote.

Everyone who dropped a pass

I am really getting sick of all the passes the receivers are dropping. With a great Quarterback like Kurt Warner, it seemed like almost every pass was on target and when a pass was on target it was caught (unless the ball went towards Jerheme Urban, who would throw the ball into the air as soon as he was touched and it would then get picked off). Now, you have two rookies and Derek Anderson, and with them it seems like the receivers are surprised when a ball is on target. I remember two of them when Beanie dropped a check down when he was wide open, and on a deep throw to Early Doucet that was perfectly thrown he dropped it. Just catch the ball guys, you are paid millions of dollars and you can't even do what you are paid to do?

Reggie Walker - Roughing the Punter Penalty

Why Reggie.... why?

Beanie Wells/Tim Hightower/Run Blocking - 14 Carries for 27 yards between Beanie and Hightower, Fumble

I don't know if their poor game was because of just them not doing their job, or what was supposed to be the "best Offensive Line we have ever worked with" according to Coach Grimm and Coach Whiz being incapable of stopping a 13 year old girl doing a bull rush against them. Maybe a little bit of both. Either way, I just decided to combine the three of them. Hightower also fumbled again, but it was recovered by Steve Breaston for a Touchdown so at least that didn't hurt us...

Defense

You are playing a team with a struggling Quarterback that needs to run the ball 40 or 50 times a game to do anything on offense. Why not let them do exactly what they want to do? The Defense did stiffen up at parts of the game, but they allowed Jimmy Clausen to have the best game of his young career, and they could not stop the Panthers from running the ball. After all the hope we had after they shut down Denver, they went right back to being the old Defense.

Coach Whisenhunt's Playcalling

This is something I have been wondering all year long. If you have a struggling Quarterback, why do you decide to throw on almost every down? On the Cardinals first drive, they went 3 and out after three passes, even though the Panthers had a very poorly ranked rush defense and a good pass defense. This is the kind of game where the Cardinals should have ran the ball 40 times, but the Cardinals wound up going down 6-0 early in the game, which this season has become a deficit that requires Whisenhunt to call a pass 80% or 90% of the time. Come on Whiz, I still believe in you as a coach, but you have to get someone in here next year that will actually try to run the ball. Kurt Warner isn't your Quarterback, you don't even have a guy who is at the level that Matt Leinart was at anymore (for those who are wondering, I just mean an average Quarterback). You have Derek Anderson, who statistically was worse than JaMarcus Russell in 2009, and you have two rookies (Max Hall and John Skelton) who should not be forced to carry too much of the load yet because of their inexperience. I bet that even Richard Bartel would wind up throwing 40 times a game even though he was only good enough to be a backup in the UFL. Hightower has some talent, so does Beanie, you should know that you used a first round draft pick on him, so why aren't you using them! Even if the run isn't doing much, at least stick with it so the other team has to at least think about a run being called instead of it being pass on every play.

So, anything else that deserves to be mentioned here?

Poll
Who is the Week Fifteen Anti Cardinal of the Week?
Everyone who dropped a pass
36 votes
Reggie Walker
2 votes
Beanie Wells/Tim Hightower/Run Blocking
15 votes
Defense
7 votes
Whiz's Playcalling
60 votes

120 votes | Poll has closed

Comment 19 comments  |  0 recs  | 

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tough one

I went with offensive playcalling, but I think the defense was just as culpable.
It’s absolutely embarrassing to have Jimmy F’ing Clausen lead his team to victory over us. Completely unacceptable.

Whiz needs to fire Davis and himself as offensive coordinator as soon as the season ends.

by KDean75 on Dec 20, 2010 10:23 AM MST reply actions  

Come on, how was the defense the main culprit yesterday?

The offense was screwing the defense all day long with three and outs and short fields. The Panthers started four drives at either the fifty or on the Cardinals side of the field and 13 of their 19 points came off drives that were 31 yards or shorter.

If the offense does their job, this could have been a game we might have won with 12 points.

by Steamin' Beamin' on Dec 20, 2010 6:18 PM MST up reply actions  

Jimmy F'ing Clausen

threw for a QB rating of 107.6 against our defense. His season rating is 59.1. That is how the defense is just as culpable. I don’t care if they had short fields, Jimmy F’ing Clausen cannot have a good day, or in this case, a career day.

by KDean75 on Dec 21, 2010 9:37 AM MST up reply actions  

eh, Clausen did very little

Actually he had the kind of game that we should be trying to get from our rookie QB. He didn’t even have 150 yards passing, I don’t really care what his QB rating was, he did very little to beat us.

My only complaint of the defense is that they didn’t have any impact plays (namely no picks), but other than that, I’m OK with their performance.

by Steamin' Beamin' on Dec 21, 2010 12:38 PM MST up reply actions  

the point

is that a shitty QB had a career day against us.
If going into the game, you say let the QB beat us, and then the QB has his best game as a pro, and that QB is worse than Derek Anderson, that’s a problem.

by KDean75 on Dec 22, 2010 8:56 AM MST up reply actions  

They need to just put it in the playbook. It’ll have to be more effective than half of what they are doing currently.

by psknapp on Dec 20, 2010 2:17 PM MST up reply actions  

You need to add a final option

The entire damn team, except special teams.

by Jesse Reynolds on Dec 20, 2010 10:47 AM MST reply actions  

What I have on there now was pretty damn close to that.

Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].

I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team(s), throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.

by JoeCB1991 on Dec 20, 2010 10:59 AM MST up reply actions  

What I have on there now was pretty damn close to that.

Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].

I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team(s), throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.

by JoeCB1991 on Dec 20, 2010 11:00 AM MST up reply actions  

Except special teams? Not even.

How about two onside kicks that didn’t manage to go 10 yards by Jay Feely? The second half kick off could have been a turning point in our favor. It caught the Panthers by surprise. The Cardinals couldn’t take advantage only because they couldn’t even touch the ball, having to stand by (or sit by in Feely’s case) as the Panthers recovered.

by hadrarius on Dec 21, 2010 5:04 PM MST up reply actions  

Why Pass?

…easy…because RBs had 27 yards on 14 carries. Skelton was at least getting the ball to the receivers. This is two weeks in a row that had numerous dropped passes that should have been caught.

by JohnLV on Dec 20, 2010 11:17 AM MST reply actions  

That's why I voted for that.

Whiz’s play calling was absolutely suspect, but those catches would have extended numerous drives. Just one of those drives results in a touchdown (however unlikely, with this team) and it’s tied. But long term, Whiz CANNOT continue to call the plays. We need to find a good OC. Maybe one that got a chance at HC but it didn’t work out… Like Weis now at KC. Maybe McDaniels from Denver?

by psknapp on Dec 20, 2010 2:16 PM MST up reply actions  

Skelton was at least getting the ball to the receivers.

What?!?! He was 10 fo 23 for 75 yards prior to the 4th quarter. How in the hell does that equate to “getting the ball to his recievers?”

by Steamin' Beamin' on Dec 20, 2010 6:12 PM MST up reply actions  

A lot of drops

These last two games. Heck all season. It’s not like we lead the league in dropped passes… Oh, wait we do.
I like Skelton but in this case Whiz was actually right about a QB. Skelton is too raw.

by Jesse Reynolds on Dec 20, 2010 6:22 PM MST up reply actions  

You're kinda contradicting yourself Joe

You pointed out the ineffectiveness of the run game and run protection, but you then go on to say that we should have ran it 40 times? Come on.

by CanadianCard on Dec 20, 2010 7:16 PM MST reply actions  

Even if the run game isn't getting much

You have to keep at it and hope that you eventually break one. Its better than the Defense just knowing that you are going to pass on every play.

I think teams should try to run the ball until the score gets to a point where you just have to pass on every play.

Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].

I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team(s), throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.

by JoeCB1991 on Dec 20, 2010 10:55 PM MST up reply actions  

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