Five Things The Cardinals Must Improve On For Their Next Game

First – very pleased overall. Compared to how we were all talking after Preseason game 1 last year, this is night and day.
I agree with everything you said. Good assesment.
Our O Line needs to get better. Guys were running by Keith and Brown again! (sigh)
Not defending Beanie, but LSH and Williams were playing against the back-ups….That said, Beanie needs to read where the gaps are and then punch it through. If there is no progress in the next game, I’d like to see Williams back there agains the 1’s. Whiz needs to abandon his ‘rooks don’t start in year 1’ philosophy, and get Williams an PP in there. Let them learn!!
No major injuries! Now they need to get back to work!

Highs

1. Pretty good QB play – Kolb and Skelton both looked sharp and made throws that were missed routinely last year. Bartel and Hall are tougher to judge because they were playing against practice squad guys basically.

2. Receivers and RBs looked sharp. Fitz, Stephen Williams, and Roberts all made good catches in traffic. Beanie, R-Will, and LSH all had their moments running the ball.

3. Coverage looked decent – there were ugly moments on D, but overall the coverage seemed to be OK.

4. Good red zone D – they were good at this last year so it’s good to see they still are.

Lows

1. O-line play – Kolb and Skelton were running for their lives too often. They showed when they have time to throw they can make plays. Give it to them! I counted one incompletion out of 3 for Kolb and 2 out of 4 for Skelton as being throw aways. That’s an extra 35% in completions we

2. Where’s the pressure? 2 sacks aren’t bad but they didn’t really come at important moments in the game. Jason Campbell et. al. once again proved even average QBs can make a lot of completions if they have time. Fortunately, their YPAs were pretty low so at least the D was keeping it in front of them.

Beanie had no time and no hole to run through on the goal line plays. Its not entirely his fault they didn’t get in, especially when he was met in the backfield on most of the plays. Whiz should maybe throw in a running play that doesn’t involve him crashing the middle EVERY time in those situations. It reminded me of the goal-line stand the Cards had two or three years back (I think against Houston) when they had 4 plays from the 1 to win the game as it was within a minute in the fourth quarter and a TD would’ve won it.

Secondly, Rashad Johnson’s penalty was BS, shouldn’t have been called. Just like the face-mask that was missed on an LSH run, the commentators mentioned, its preseason for the refs too, and they will make mistakes.

I thought everyone played “fine”, nobody really stood out and said “I am here to take his job”. I was just pleased that the starting offense was able to move the ball down the field on that second drive. I would hate for Whiz to bench or cut Kolb for failing to muster a sustained drive in his only two chances in the first preseason games like Leinart (bad joke). Kidding aside, obviously there is much to work on, but Kolb looked competent and surprised me with his scrambling ability. I thought he held onto the ball a little too long the first drive (I wasn’t expecting much anyways), but settled in nicely the second drive. The line will probably look different by the start of the regular season (with Lutui in the RG spot) which I hope will bring some stability to the inside of the line. ALL I really worry about is the outside pressure.

Lastly, I want to throw out a guys name that I thought stood out on a few plays. Anthony Sherman. He probably will not make a statement stat-wise, but he was everywhere on special teams (reminded me of when we had Sean Morey running rampant and in on every ST tackle) and got me a little excited knowing he will be creating holes for our RBs in the future…

is that our tackles didn’t get three false start penalties on one drive (all Khalif Barnes). Maybe it was two drives (but they were definitely all within a close proximity to one another. One even knocked them out of field goal range.

• Ball security in the passing game: there were some pretty iffy passes last night. Kolb thew a pass to an empty spot on the field, and Skelton had at least one miracle completion he threw into traffic that the receiver bobbled but was able to bring in. That’s the kind of stuff Charles Woodson, Tramon WIlliams, and Sam Shields, and Nick Collins come down with.

• Pass defense: So many times the Cardinals were giving the Raiders’ wide-outs 5, 10, or more yards of cushion. Aaron Rodgers, Matt Flynn, and possibly even Graham Harrell will shred that loose of coverage every time they get it.