Arizona Cardinals/Cincinnati Bengals Postgame Analysis And Quotes

by cdeveau on Dec 24, 2011 6:58 PM MST in Arizona Cardinals Postgame Recaps

So close, but yet 3 quarters away.(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

And with a pair of tangled feet, the Arizona Cardinals and Early Docuet both came crashing down to earth. The final score Arizona sixteen and the Cincinnati Bengals twenty-three. The fourth quarter heroics of John Skelton could not make up for three quarters of Skelton on kryptonite. The defense played at a pedestrian level in the first half, and then the second half turned they made adjustments and dominated the Bengals. All would be for naught, as a wide open Doucet tripped over his own feet in the end zone. But his is not the only mistake in today's game.

Hit the jump to see what the organization had to say about the tough loss.

I start at Ken Whisenhunt, who had this to say about the overall outcome of the game, "It was just unfortunate."

Fortune is fickle. Today she decided to frown on the Cards. Early Doucet doesn't trip and the game changes, who knows, we may still have been talking plaoffs next week. Instead we're talking about the trip heard round the valley.

Doucet doesn't brush aside the fault when he was asked about the play. "I can't fall down no matter what. It's a play we needed to win. Whatever happened, I'm not a guy who uses excuses. It's my fault. It's a play I normally make."

John Skelton also laid the blame at his own feet for the game, talking in particular about his first interception. "It's frustrating. For me to thrown an interception early kind of deflates us."

Daryn Colledge put into words what most of the team and the fanbase are thinking. "We can't put the defense in that position. We have shown the ability to do something special. We have to figure out how to do it all the time."

Consistency. I expect it to be the theme for next game, and headed into the off season. Larry Fitzgerald has over a thousand yards. So does Beanie Wells. With those type of play makers, the offense can't struggle all game.

Coach Whisenhunt even addressed that aspect of the team's performance. "It's tough when you're not doing anything on offense, when you have opportunities and you turn the ball over in critical situations, it can be frustrating."

It's another close loss. Eerily similar to earlier in the season when the Cards turned in the losing streak. But they can make amends next week when The Seattle Seahawks come to town. Next week either places the team at even in the win loss column for the year, or pegs them at below average. Until then, live Cards large.

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Comments

Skelton is always able to be a harsh critic of himself

I like that about him

"If Gortat pulls off a real Dream Shake in-game this year I will shave my head.
Mark my words." Piotr Szczesniak 12/12/11 2:12 PM
Cardinals, Suns, D-backs for life!

by Airwave on Dec 24, 2011 7:38 PM MST reply actions

Those first two interceptions were just awful

The first one, he air-mailed it over Robert’s head, right to the waiting R.Maualuga.

The second one, he didn’t even have a bad throw to blame. Just didn’t see Clemens, and threw it right to him. Probably worse than the first one.

by DaveInTucson on Dec 24, 2011 9:52 PM MST up reply actions

They were both bad

The second was much worse

"If Gortat pulls off a real Dream Shake in-game this year I will shave my head.
Mark my words." Piotr Szczesniak 12/12/11 2:12 PM
Cardinals, Suns, D-backs for life!

by Airwave on Dec 24, 2011 10:16 PM MST up reply actions

A must win game next week

Gotta finish strong

by bigredjbird on Dec 24, 2011 8:15 PM MST via iPhone app reply actions

Skelton once again shows a key...

attribute of an elite QB… poise. When the pressure is on so is Skelton… excellent. I hope we start him next week because the kid really needs to work on game decision making… his passing has improved and will continue to improve but he’s got to learn to toss the ball out of bounds when the play is just not there. Doucet gets a pass… not because its okay but who has not stumbled this year and he’s done his job all year… for a while he looked like the number two receiver.

by MooseTheDog on Dec 24, 2011 10:56 PM MST reply actions

poise is only a small fraction of an elite QB

he’s missing accuracy, smart decisions, ability to read the defense, and most importantly consistency throughout the whole game.

by CanadianCard on Dec 24, 2011 11:27 PM MST up reply actions

agree, but he's accurate and makes good decisions and reads defenses fairly well

in the 4th quarter… lol

I think that botched snap on 1st and goal hurt a lot. Skelton gets most of the blame for 3 quarters of poor play, but I think a lot of plays weren’t executed properly by the offense as a whole, especially like the screen pass that Heap missed on the block, or the offensive line breaking down.

The defense did it’s job in creating turnovers and managing the Bengals to 23 points, and Skelton made up for his less than mediocre 3 quarters with his what should have been 3 touchdowns were it not for Doucet tripping, so in the end he did put up points on the scoreboard.

I think that many people can agree that Skelton has shown the he can be a very very good quarterback… just not on a consistent basis, YET. The performance gap between his good play and his bad play has to lessen if he wants to win more supporters.

I couldn’t participate in the in game threads live, but I hated seeing people wanting Bartel, Doucet, Dockett, etc to come in. I also thought it was immature to see “where are the Skelton supporters now” -type posts. I don’t know, but I think these kind of posts kind of makes me believe that some people still do have a bias over a certain quarterback, and still have that Kolb vs. Skelton mentality. On gamedays I’d like to see everyone root for whoever’s starting…

by falltea on Dec 25, 2011 4:32 AM MST up reply actions

major issues on offense, right?

The Cards were listless on offense for THREE quarters. Only the late game heroics were able to mask an otherwise abominable performance. But then, that’s been the story of the entire season. Clearly the offense needs a makeover.

But where to begin? The O never sets the tone early in games. Only once this season were the Cards able to open up a significant lead on an opponent – against the Ravens – and that was the result of turnovers and special teams play.

Fitz is the only high-performance cog in the machine – the only guy who can make a play out of nothing. It’s hard to tell if the other receivers are any good, because quarterback play has been so erratic. Kolb is a basket case at this point. Sure, I think he deserves a second chance, but he needs to find a way to stay healthy, otherwise he’s just another Leinart – wasted talent. As for Skelton, there’s no doubt he’s a terrific second-stringer – a guy you can confidently throw out on the field late in a tight ball game after the starter’s been knocked out. But let’s face it – a starter needs to be able to manage 4 quarters of football, something Skelton just doesn’t appear to be capable of doing. It’s hard to imagine building an offense around such a player.

Considering the obvious weakness in the passing game, with all the sacks allowed, the dropped balls (Doucet has been guilty on too many occasions – yesterday’s gaffe was only the most blatant), I have no idea why the Cards haven’t committed to the run. Is it because they’re too thin at the running back position, with only one bona fide smash-mouth rusher? Is it because Beanie is playing through pain? If so, kudos to him for sucking it up and amassing 1000 yards this season. Kolb should take note…

I’m obviously just venting my frustrations after such a disappointing loss. I have no idea how to turn this offense into something ressembling what the team had in 2008, when the team sported THREE 1000-yard receivers. They seemed to march down the field at will. Was Todd Haley simply a wizard, able to squeeze amazing performances out of less-than-stellar talent? In light of recent events, it would appear that the answer is negative.

So to all you football saavy fans, how would you begin to rebuild this offense? What do you throw away, what do you salvage? And how long till the organization is able to field a legitimate contender?

by northern_cardinal on Dec 25, 2011 11:27 PM MST reply actions

Without seeing any end-of-season grades...

Keep our top 4 interior OL. Keep Fitz. Get someone to play WR so Roberts can be a WR3 like he belongs. Have anyone else play LT and RT.

by tw3kr on Dec 26, 2011 7:34 PM MST up reply actions

First and foremost,

on rebuilding the offense, it needs to start with the coordinator, as evidenced by late in games we clearly have the talent to shred opposing defenses at all positions. So Miller has gotta go.

Formerly known as Cardsfan928, If you wanna grab a quick game of madden, my screenname is also my Xbox name.

by INSOMAN1ATIC on Dec 26, 2011 11:03 AM MST reply actions