The most startling stat of the season, could it be that despite a record number of return TD's for the Cardinals this season they still only posted just over 18 PPG. No as horrible as that it given the state of our Quarterback position it is very believable that our offense would be so horrible.

Over the course of the 2010 season the Arizona Cardinals played 4 Quarterbacks (Anderson, Hall, Skelton and Bartel) and had 10 players carry the ball on any particular occasion(However for this purpose I will only look at four realistic candidates). Now this first part is going to look like some numbers without much context, but bear with me;

Derek Anderson - 43/97

Max Hall - 14/27

John Skelton - 19/44

Richard Bartel - 2/4

Tim Hightower - 9 carries

Beanie Wells - 5 carries

Larod Stephens-Howling - 1 carry

Jason Wright - 3 carries

The most startling stat put forth in the 2010 season by the Arizona Cardinals, and it has to do with Third Downs, and no it is not how horrible we were at both converting and stopping them, but rather how we tried to convert those Third Downs into first downs.

The Arizona Cardinals faced 190 3rd down situations in the 2010 season. On 18 of those occasions, or 9.47% of those occasions they ran the football. WHAT! Fact on 3rd downs in 2010 the Arizona Cardinals despite the rabble they put out at Quarterback threw the football over 90% of the time, 172 passing attempts on 3rd downs with just 78 completions or a 45% completion rate, and that is just completions not even factoring in if the actually got the first down or not.

I know what you are thinking. It is becasue the team was always in 3rd Down and long situations that made it necessary to throw the football. Wrong.

The Cardinals faced 28 situations where it was 3rd down at 2 or less yards to go. They passed the ball on 67% of those occasions.

We already thought we threw the ball far too much, but now it is clear not only were we throwing the ball, we were throwing the ball badly and in bad situations. Playcalling is one area that needs to improve in the 2011 season if the Cardinals are to go anything. Mike Miller has a lot of work to do in this area, if Whis give him full reigns on the playcalling.