I'm going to keep this short and sweet - the Arizona Cardinals were exploited in the 34-21 loss to the Carolina Panthers. They're run defense is now suspect and more questions arise about Kurt Warner's confidence in the pocket. He remains hesitant to pull the trigger on the deep ball, and his 6 turnovers were brutal at home today. Hopefully no other teams use the Panthers gameplan from today, but if you can run on us and take Warner out of the game, we'll get owned. With that being said, we'll make this a good news, bad news edition:
The Good News:
- After allowing 28 points in the 1st half, the Cardinals defense only allowed 6 in the 2nd.
- The Cardinals improved their rushing game, gaining 94 total rushing yards on the ground.
- The offensive line improved overall, only allowing 2 sacks and giving more rushing lanes.
- The Cardinals had 23 total first downs, 10 more then the Panthers.
- The 49ers lost today, allowing the Cardinals to remain in 1st place in the NFC West.
- With the Panthers win, the 49ers 1st round pick that they received from Carolina gets pushed back in next years draft.
The Bad News:
- Hmm where do I start? Oh that's right, Kurt Warner. After turning over the ball 6 times, Kurt Warner and Jake Delhomme must of done a complete identify swap. Kurt Warner's dump-off passes continue to hurt the Cardinals on 3rd down as well.
- The rushing defense disappeared. What happened to the 1st ranked run defense? The Panthers ran for 270 yards, which = pathetic. This team doesn't do well with hype or recognition and frankly, I'll start being more happy if the Cardinals continue to fly under the radar.
- 1-3 at home this year. Being at the game myself, I can tell you that the vibe in the stadium was crushed before the 1st quarter was over. After my over-excessive use of the F-bomb, I've finally cooled off but have yet to forgive this team. They have been terrible at home and their only win came after blowing a 21 point lead and containing the Texans on a goal line stand to end the game(which I was also at). What happened to the home field advantage?
Final Thoughts
The bad news list can go on but frankly, I'm tired of thinking about it. A 13 point loss looks better then a 21 point loss but in my mind they got blown out. I also believe the Panthers are a lot better then they got credit for, but have had to deal with Delhomme all season. Speaking of Delhomme, I hope I don't hear about how this was is "break out game", or that he's over his turnover-prone ways. Sorry Panther fans but he threw 14 passes all game and only completed half of them. Delhomme is anything but back to his old self. On a final note, I'm not worried about next week as the Cardinals have been a much better team on the road and they face the Bears in Chicago next Sunday. We'll break the game down more tomorrow but what are your thoughts on the game?