Arizona Cardinals Survive Late Field Goal Attempt, Beat Oakland Raiders 24-23

Lazy and avoids contact. What do his teammates think when they watch film. The cushion he gives is ridculous. Bad tackler.

We went to the game.
Before the kick-off, my buddy tells me, “I want to see Larod take it all the way to the house..” What a great start!!.
Lastly, when the Raiders call their last timeout at :04, I’m thinking ‘its over’ My wife looks at me and says, “he might miss it. There’s always hope” Who could’ve known……

is there a reason they can’t do this??

Our defense lacks discipline. Giving up big plays on crucial downs, especially on penalties. Toler’s DPI when he was face guarding in the endzone, A-Dub’s defensive holding (I didn’t even see it), and DRC’s late DPI (C’mon, that was a weak call) killed the defensive momentum. Knowing our team has a target on their back, we have to play smarter. It happened many times today, but the last drive when it was 4th and long and they pass to Heyward-Bey for the 1st down was tough to watch. Play up on your man like the game depends on it. Similarly, on a 3rd and 20 earlier in the game, we don’t get any pressure on the QB and B-Grad picked us apart. Why on Earth aren’t we blitzing on 3rd and long? The goal is to get to the QB before the receivers can get 10, 15, 20 yards up the field.

I realized something today… I hate Raider fans almost as much as Cowboy or 49er fans. Where is the Red Sea? Why must the fan base sell their tickets to opponents’ fans? If you are a Cardinal fan and watched the game from home (phx area home), ask yourself if you are really a fan? Our team needs you more than ever. Suit up in your favorite red gear and get down to the stadium. And if you sell your tickets to opponents’ fans, then shame on you!

The excuse that AZ is a transplant state doesn’t fly anymore. If you live here, embrace the team and become part of the Red Sea. We have banners hanging from the rafters that prove we are a team that can contend any given Sunday. It’s time to get the stadium rockin’! Rise up Red Sea!

1. Our D is average at best. Play calling by DC is questionable.
2. Our OL continues to stink.
3. Derek Anderson seems to improved but NO TOUCH.
4. special team is a mixed bag. LSH is AWESOME. robert must go. He played too timid.
5. At least we came away with a WIN. Warner’s GOD must be smiling down on us.
6. welcome back BEANIE, you rock.
7. It will be a long season
see y’all at NO game.

Yes, all of you Cardinal coaches suck! Special teams made the same mistake for kick-off turnovers, twice, by two different guys. How many times was the Cardinal defense penalized? Whiz, wake up, Warner has retired. We have a different guy playing QB. How about some new plays. This guy needs to be put in motion constantly or he will never adjust. Like I said, he is not Kurt, so don’t expect him to change. It is up to the head coach to change, according to the players he has. New game, same old plan except worse execution.

That dude scares me, what is Plummer up to nowadays?

What stood out for me the most was how our defense stepped it up when the Raiders got into the red zone. They only allowed one touchdown out of the Raiders’ five trips to the red zone. This game would not have even been close if our defenders would have picked up a couple more interceptions. We had one but there were several throws by Gradkowski that seemed very catchable and our defenders just couldn’t get a hold them.

I thought this worked enough to where they should work it in more..
The run game (especially with Beanie back there) provides enough of a threat to where it could provide some positive yards…

For all those who are on the Haley bandwagon for his success with the Chiefs you have a very short memory. Who was the clown who called a pass play with the Cardinals on the 1 yard line right before halftime in the BIGGEST GAME the SUPER BOWL? By the way we didn’t have anyone fast enough to catch the defensive lineman before he made the end zone. Both offensive and defensive co-ordinators on that super bowl team sucked. As you know the defensive co-ordinator blitzed 3 times in a row and not one of the three times worked got burned each time the final time cost us a victory in the super bowl. In my humble opinion we are much better that neither one is still with us, though the defensive co-ordinator we currently have is not a step up from what we had but a mirror image of the previous one. This guy doesn’t seem to have a defensive scheme at all and when you are without a clue as to what to do by all means blitz, cross your fingers and pray something good happens.

Fire Whiz and the entire coaching staff! The Cards have a 2-1 record with the wins coming by way of default and the loss at the hands of a well coached NFL team. The time for coaching excuses is over. “Sloppy” is a compliment for this group. When your Special teams turn the ball over twice in your own Red Zone, by making the exact same mistake, I blame the coach. When the Offense gets beat by about a hundred yards, I blame the Coach. When the Defense is afraid to get beat, so they commit drive saving penalties, I blame the coach.
The Cardinal coaching staff has given lip service to cange without Warner but serve the same old stale dish. If this is the best they can do, then I say, step aside and let some professionals take over. Hell, let some good Pop Warner coaches take over, they could not do worse.

QB Play – Awful. Not to keep beating the same drum, but Anderson isn’t cutting it. His passes to Fitz look like they weren’t in the same huddle together. Given what each has done on the field over the past 2-3 years, I’m going to lay the blame on Anderson. The only positive I saw here was the roll-outs, when he had wide open receivers. This wont get fixed or changed this year – so I’ll stop harping on it. I’d suggest, as others have, to move more to the run to minimize the impact Anderson has on the game.

OL Play – Improved over the first two games, but that doesn’t say much. Also, when breakdowns did happen, they seemed to happen at the worst times. We’re going to have address the OL in the next draft.

DL Play – Good at times. Better at the pass rush than run blocking. Pressure on Gradkowski was there, though a couple more sacks would have been nice. Unfortunately the pressure seemed to evaporate when we were blitzing – on plays where we really needed to be hurrying Gradkowski, he had all day. Not sure if this is poor play or poor blitz design or a combination of both.

Secondary Play – was generally ok with the safety play – liking what I’m seeing from Rhodes. Toler had a generally ok game – flashes of brilliance, combined with stupid mistakes. It’s his first year starting, and I hope we see improvement this year. DRC is overrated – he seems to have regressed in some areas. I really hope the coaching staff can get him turned around and back on the right path, since he definitely has the physical skills and has shown impressive play in the past. Adams is a flat out liability on defense – if he’s not getting burned, he’s drawing a flag. Not sure if they can hold a spot for him just for special teams, but they’ve got to keep him off the field on defense. This will have to addressed in the draft as well.

Special teams – were not so special this game. I guess it’s really just the punt returns that are suffering – but it’s becoming a huge problem. Neither Roberts nor Komar can be trusted with punt return duty apparently (though I’d be willing to Komar another shot before putting Roberts back out there). Curious as to how this didn’t show up in training camp. I’m wondering about the wisdom of the Jorrick Calvin-Charles Scott trade here. We ended up with nothing, and guess who is starting to get some punt return work in Philly? Early days yet, and Calvin was a health scratch the first two games, but he did make their roster.

Random Thoughts:

Player of the Game: Janikowski – ‘nuff said
Loved: LSH scoring on the opening kickoff
Hated: Watching the Raiders convert 4th & 10
Made me laugh: Mike Carey stripping the ball for us
Made me cry: DRC’s late pass interference flag
Made me cheer: Lenon intercepting Gradkowski
Made me scream: Anderson giving it right back to them

Anderson is big and mobile with very poor accuracy and touch. Why is the coach putting him the situation of being a pocket passer? If he was put in motion for sweeps, handoffs or gadget plays makes much more sense.
The Jets are not afraid to use their “USC” Golden Boy as a running back to score touch downs. Is Anderson more Valuable than Sanchez?
Com’on Whiz, use Anderson to the Card’s advantage, not disadvantage! This is NFL football 2010. Time for the Coaching staff to catch up, the season has started and your teams looks like “Looney-Toons” out there.
Great job! NOT!!!!!!!!

What are the chances someone will hit a 54 yard FG? Let’s say 40%. That means in theory, the Raiders had a better chance to miss that one then make the final one (or not go for it, also assuming they would go for the endzone and don’t get it). So if they didn’t make that first one, they would have been in a much worse position near the end. So yes, there is luck involved, but it’s not incredible luck, but it averages out to just 40/60 or 50/50 luck.

All in all, we in theory won against a not so great team (no offense). That still doesn’t make us any better than Week 1.

I’ve changed my mind, Cardinal coaching is wonderful. We can win by expecting the opposing team to suck. We also can make the playoffs by hoping the other teams in our conference lose more games than we do. Outstanding team support guys. Just goes to show the high confidence we have in our well coached team.
I want Whiz to make sure Anderson is protected, keep him in the pocket like a statue surrounded by blockers. The Jets use Sanchez as a running back to score touchdowns, but Anderson is more valuable and must be protected at all cost.
Most true Cardinal fans do not live on Fantasy Island. They believe what they see. If I wanted to see Looney-Toons I’d change the channel. In this case, a real Cardinal fan would ask for a change of coaches. What is best for the team? It is not helpful to blame individual players for the poor product that the coaching staff puts on the field.

The Arizona team has as many good athletes as any other team in the NFL. They are simply not well coached. With Warner out of the way and not changing plays at the line of scrimmage, Whiz and his boys are being exposed for what they are, inept.
The players are all professionals, the question is, are their coaches truely of professinal quality?

Fire Whiz and the entire coaching staff! The Cards have a 2-1 record with the wins coming by way of default and the loss at the hands of a well coached NFL team. The time for coaching excuses is over. “Sloppy” is a compliment for this group. When your Special teams turn the ball over twice in your own Red Zone, by making the exact same mistake, I blame the coach. When the Offense gets beat by about a hundred yards, I blame the Coach. When the Defense is afraid to get beat, so they commit drive saving penalties, I blame the coach.
The Cardinal coaching staff has given lip service to cange without Warner but serve the same old stale dish. If this is the best they can do, then I say, step aside and let some professionals take over. Hell, let some good Pop Warner coaches take over, they could not do worse.

Your nursing home…

Would Trent Green be worth bringing in? Is he a upgrade from DA? Could it hurt to take a look, cause it doesn’t appear that coach Whiz is interested in handing the team over to either rookie?