If Arizona wins on Sunday against the Rams a few things will happen!

1. They will be 7-3  The 7-3 record will equal the same mark they had through 10 games last season. Did anyone imagine they would be in this position after all the struggles they had especially early on?? I certainly had my doubts as I'm sure many others did to

2. 5-0 on the road.  When was the last time this happened? You'd have to go back to the mid 70's when they were in St. Louis.  Both in 1974 and 1975 they were both 5-2 away from the nest. This is a far cry from the 2002 to 2008 seasons when they only won nine road games combined.

3. Maintain a two game lead on San Francisco.  This might come into play as the two play later in the season on  December 14th in San Francisco. The NFC West Championship can be won that night.  

The Keys For Sucess:

Protect Kurt Warner. Very key for the offensive line to give him enough time to perhaps find maybe the best wide receiving core in the NFL Very important for our emerging running game to potent once again so St. Louis can key in totally on the passing attack.

Hightower and Wells must keep improving. The last two games they have been impressive averaging over 100 yards a game. If this emerging running attack continues it will make an already passing attack even more lethal.

Make St. Louis one dimensional. If the Cardinals jump out to a 21-0, 21-3, 17-0 early it will make St. Louis get out what they want to do with be balanced. This will make them a complete passing team and this will put them in a familiar situation at 1-8 that they have been in all season. A big lead early could devastate St. Louis

Come to play. The Cardinals better not that they can just step out there and expect to win. New Orleans nearly found that out last week. Don’t expect St. Louis to rollover and die out there the Cardinals need to come and play with intensity.

  What's good, RotBers.  I wanted to stop by from Turf Show Times and answer any questions you guys might have ahead of our game this weekend.  You guys have a great community here.  Andrew's from this morning on who you would grab from the Rams is a great discussion to have.

  In any case, hit me up with any questions you have about the Rams.  This first year of the Spagnuolo-led Rams has been a tumultuous one, but it certainly has its bright spots and has slowly fostered some optimism among Rams fans for our future.  Hit me up.

I'm a horrible evaluator of NFL talent and don't follow the Arizona Cardinals all that closely(I'm a Packers fan, see you guys later in the season). I watched Beanie play in college when he was playing my Wisconsin Badgers with the Ohio State Buckeyes but college success doesn't equal NFL success(Ron Dayne, Michael Bennett, Brian Calhoun, etc). I've noticed that he has had a couple of good games these last two weeks and could be emerging as a starter. Any thoughts on what his NFL potential is?

One of the upsides of some of the injuries on defense is that we have been able to see some of the younger back ups getting playing time.  It has been a mixed bag in my book.  I thought it might be worth while to take stock in what we have seen thus far from the young back ups.

Will Davis:  I like what I have seen.  He is very active on pass rush and seems physical enough to set the edge well.  His coverage of backs needs to be improved.  Forsett had gained 6 yards before Davis closed on him.  That may improve in time but at least for now, he seems to be able to impact the game as much as Berry has traditionally done.  2010 starter?  We'll see if they resign Okeafar another year but I think Davis will be in the rotation, especially on 3rd down.

Ali Highsmith: Highsmith is basically a slower, heavier, less athletic version of Adrian Wilson. His special teams impact has declined this year although he isn't bad.  He got eaten up in traffic inside, and wiffing twice on open field tackles doesn't look good on a resume either.  Teams with any sort of a power running game will target him in the future.  More often then not, rather than filling the holes he has been bending back and taking angles like a safety would.  The upside to Hayes' injury? We now know that Highsmith can not be the heir-apparent should Dansby walk.

Reggie Walker: I know he is off everyone's radar but from what little I have seen of him on goal line this past game, I like what I have seen.  He is around 240 and 6'.  He seems to be thumper (like Hayes) which I tend to like in a 3-4 ILB.  I would like to see more of him but thus far, he seems to have potential.  Is he a future starter... that is probably a stretch.

Rashad Johnson:  Ughh... Underwhelming, underachieving, underperforming... any other words that go along with that train of thought?  I know it is only his rookie year etc... but he has shown nothing.  He looks nervous. The game is still too fast for him and he is worried more about making a mistake than making a play.  I havn't seen athleticism either.  He was drafted to provide a backup and leverage for contract talks with Rolle but right now he looks to be able to provide neither.  I will be honest, (and said so after the draft) I was not a fan of the pick.  I wanted the Cards to pick Jasper Brinkley (ILB 250ish 6'4" was picked up a dozen picks later by Vikings) but the Cards had Johnson ranked high.  Time will tell but I wouldn't place money on Johnson being an impact player in 2010

Greg Toler: I was also skeptical of Toler in the draft.  He was a complete unknown to me, but, unlike in the 3rd round, there weren't other players I would have prefered so his draft didn't bother me.  He has shown potential.  In the Giants game he looked nervous but he held his own although he wasn't tested much.  He has played well on special teams and, unlike R. Johnson, he has made an impact.  I think he has potential to replace McFadden in 2011.

Kenny Iwebema: Injuries, tumors, conditioning... it has been a hard year for Kenny.  Yet he still has managed to play well on special teams and is effective in rotation on the DL.  The draft may bring more competition for DL spots next year but I would bet that Iwebema will be back in 2010 and will provide effective depth.

I left out Ware (who I have come to like and hope they resign) and R. Brown (who I have never been a fan of) simply because they are veterans and will be FA.  They are a known package and if they are brought back it will be to fill holes.  I am not looking to them to be the promise of the future.

I know we'll do all of this speculation again in the off season but what's your take now?

What do you guys see as the future of our OL.  I'd like to see:

1) A first round OT taken in next year's draft.  We have to upgrade at at least one of the tackle spots and if I had to choose I'd rather it was Gandy that was demoted.  He is getting older and just gets abused by the higher quality DE's around the league.

2) Stick with Brown at RT (or maybe move him to LT if Leinart becomes the QB).  I know he has been pretty bad most of the time, but I think he fits what our coaching staff wants to do offensively down the road.  Even coming out of college, he was touted as a very good run blocker, which is what you want in a non-blindside tackle.  He is not a very good pass protector, but if we are going to be more run oriented, we can maybe give him more help than our tackles currently get.

3) I think Sendlein is a pretty good center.  To me, center is the most mentally taxing position on the line.  As he gains more experience, I feel he will continue to be a middle of the road NFL center, which is probably good enough if we are going to continue spending good money elsewhere.

4) I guess I don't know much about Herman Johnson's development at this point, but I'd like to see him get reps somewhere next year.  If he makes it as a tackle, then ammend #1 to drafting a guard.  To me, he would make a great road grating guard.

I have to admit that OL analysis is not my strong suit, but I have been thinking about this topic a lot lately and was hoping others could fill in the holes in my plan.  To me, OL improvement has to be a priority in the off season, especially if we are moving more towards a more balanced offensive attack.  What do you guys think and what would you like to see done to improve?

I just read that due to Dwayne Bowe's four game suspension, Lance Long and Chris Chambers are going to be the starters at wide receiver this week for the Kansas City Chiefs. It seems that Lance taking the job over in Kansas City with Haley was a great move for his career. Now let's see what he can do with it. He had 74 yards against the Jaguars two weeks ago, but quickly came back to Earth last week versus the Raiders. But that was with Bowe still active.

I think this is awesome for Lance. I hope he does well. Did the Cardinals do the right thing with cutting Long?

     Beanie Wells and Kurt Warner put in stellar second half performances to lead Arizona to a 31-20 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Glendale Sunday afternoon. After only gaining 10 yards rushing in the first half, Wells exploded for 75 yards rushing including two touchdown runs of 11 and 13 yards. Wells also caught two passes for 32 yards. Kurt Warrner was 29 of 38 for 340 yards and two touchdowns. Warner's two touchdowns gave him 200 for his career.

    Arizona had threattened to take an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter when a pass interference penalty gave the Cardinals a first-and-goal at the six yard line. Seattle's defense stepped up with a huge goal line stand when Tim Hightower was stopped short of the goal line on 4th down. The Seahawk's Marcus Trufant had an end zone interception overturned when it was determined that he did not reestablish his position inbounds when stepped out of bounds prior to his interception.

    Seattle took advantange when Matt Hasselbeck found TJ Houshmandzadeh for a 53 yard gain. The drive culminated with a Justin Forsett 11 yard run. 

     The Seahawks took a 14-0 lead when Hasselback found Jon Carlsson on a 31 yard catch. Facing a 3rd-and-1 from the Cardinals' 31 yard line, the Cardinals were expecting a run play but Carlsson had faked out safety Adrian Wilson and went downfield and scored an easy toughdown.

     Arizona answered with a seven play 65 yard drive that ended with a 28 yard touchdown pass from Warner to Steve Breaston to make it a 14-7 ball game.

     Both teams then traded field goals and Seattle held a 17-10 halftime lead.

    The second half the Arizona Cardinals and Wells took over the game.  Arizona tied the game at 17 with a 13 play 82 yard drive that ended with a Wells 11 yard touchdown run. The drive included a 18 yard pass to  Breaston and a 15 yard pass to Lerod Stephens-Howling.

    After Seattle took a 20-17 lead early in the fouth quarter, Arizona took the lead for good on back-to-back touchdown drives. On the first one Anquan Boldin caught a pass for  37 yards. Wells finished the drive with a 13 yar run. The next possession for the Cardinals scored with a 18 yard touchdown pass from Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald. The drive included a 29 yard run and 23 yard pass by Wells.

    Seattle's final two drives were thwarted by interceptions by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Wilson.

Notes:

-Arizona had 122 yards rushing.This is the first time this season that the Cardinals had back-to-back games of 100 yards rushing.

-Kurt Warner two touchdown passes gave him 200 for carrer.

-With Anquan Boldin's eight catches for 108 yards he became the fifth fast player to have over 7,000 carrer passing yards.  Larry Fitzergerald can eclipse the same feat this season with 400 more passing yards.

When one word defines your style of play

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Like it or not, Dockett's elbow to the throat of Matt Hasselbeck isn't getting swept under the rug. Darren Urban is talking about it at the team's official site, Mike Sando is talking about it on ESPN, Seahawks head coach Jim Mora has sent film to the NFL offices and even Nine-0 referenced the situation via his twitter account.

For anyone who has yet to see video evidence of what we're talking about, you can see it right here.

I think at the very least Dockett will be some kind of slap on the wrist fine but this could be the kind of thing where the league and perhaps more importantly referees start watching him more closely. We all know that Dockett can have a short fuse and he's picked up his share of personal foul penalties over the years. He's also got a reputation for "questionable" behavior at the bottom of a pile (just google Dockett and Earnest Graham or Dockett and Rex Grossman). I really doubt that any kind of suspension could be coming but one can never tell how Roger Goodell will respond. Luckily this didn't happen against Peyton Manning or some other high profile QB in a nationally televised game (like it not, that makes a difference), but this might follow DD around for a while.

Below is an interesting website that looks at the percentages to determine if Belichick's decision to go for it on 4th and 2 from his 28 was a good move, by the numbers.  Of course this doesn't take into account things like: (1) the psyche of the defense, since a lot of the defensive players will consider going for it there a slap in their faces or (2) the chance that the Pats make it on 4th down and still lose (although this is so small it really isn't even worth putting in the calculation). 

I've had a pretty heated discussion with a friend at work about the decision.  Was just curious what you all think about the move?  Put it this way.  What would you want Whiz to do if the Cards were in the same situation?  Give the ball back to Manning with 2 minutes and 2 timeouts and 70 yards to go, or take control of the game with the 4th down attempt?  And does it make a difference if it is regular season of the Super Bowl?  I'll share my thoughts after a few of you chime in.

http://belichick-decision.heroku.com/