Posted on 10/15/2006 8:39:26 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE - WEEK 6
Sunday, Oct. 15
Buffalo at Detroit 1:00 p.m.
Carolina at Baltimore 1:00 p.m.
Cincinnati at Tampa Bay 1:00 p.m.
Houston at Dallas 1:00 p.m.
N.Y. Giants at Atlanta 1:00 p.m.
Philadelphia at New Orleans 1:00 p.m.
Seattle at St. Louis 1:00 p.m.
Tennessee at Washington 1:00 p.m.
Kansas City at Pittsburgh 4:15 p.m.
Miami at N.Y. Jets 4:15 p.m.
San Diego at San Francisco 4:15 p.m.
Oakland at Denver 8:15 p.m.
Monday, Oct. 16
Chicago at Arizona 8:30 p.m.
Open date: Cleveland, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Minnesota, New England
(Excerpt) Read more at nfl.com ...
Yup. Leinart was throwing really well when given the chance. They put a leash on him so Edge could get his carries (and getting a whole 1 or 2 yards each time). Then when they go behind everyone in the world, including the D, knew Leinart would throw, and he moves them easily down the field. Then they get into FG range and they run again instead of going with what worked. Makes ZERO sense.
It's a shame--they wasted awesome D and Leinart's near-gem. Maybe this will cause DG to allow him to throw some more.
In the category of "emails I should have kept" a friend of mine sent me a picture of how someone had rearranged the rocks outside the Minnesota Vikings headquarters so that they spelled, "Fire Dennis Green's Fat Ass."
The Cards have demoted their OC Rowen and promoted QB coach Kruczek as the new OC. Next step: Denny Green and Rackers. Then clone Anquan Boldin, Leinart, and #25.
Bad teams find a way to lose.
Leinhart was 8-9 during the first quarter and had drives for tds. There was no way that was going to continue. Having him keep throwing with a big lead was NOT going to protect the lead and eat the clock. The more time the Bears had left the greater chance they would win.
If using one of the top RBs of the last decade is a bad idea then there are few good ones.
Leinhart threw 42 passes. No way will Green want him to throw more. In fact, it would be much better if he threw less.
How does showing that the Bears can win without ANY offense shake my confidence? Grossman had a terrible game and the game plan was idiotic and they still won.
My confidence would only be shaken if he did this often. He won't. And they will start to run the ball more if they don't go into games believing it should be Bombs Away all the time.
Bidwell has been the worst ownership in the history of the league for decades. Complete no nothings.
Long drives eat up the clock as do runs. Short passes were working. A few incompletes here and there would be better than the 3 and outs that happened.
I know you are a Bears fan. The Bears O had nothing last night. Nothing. Didn't matter how much time they had--better them on the field last night than the D. 3 horrendous plays by the Cards was the difference.
Give the Bears credit for not mailing it in, and scorn the Cards for doing so at the end. You don't have to follow a book to the letter. If something's not working (the run), stop. It something is working (short route passes), do it. Who cares if it's not by the book.
I think the most important factor here is keeping Leinart healthy and passing 42 times a game is not going to do that. As discostu points out the Cardinals have a miserable o line. Thinking that the game can be won by Leinart throwing almost all the time will only get him killed.
The Bears have shown an ability to throw off miserable performances and get the offense rolling enough to win and I have no doubt it would have produced enough to win eventually even last night.
Actually after that opening drive the Bears defense did very well. The 17 drives the Cards had after that opener netted 179 total yards, the Cards dropped many passes in the second half, and the o-line never provided any real protection for Leinart.
Mr Top-Notch Talent QB got drafted by a team that sucks. Best thing he can do right now is try to avoid getting hurt and be a very nice guy that never creates lockerroom turmoil putting up as good a set of stats as he can, this will leave him well regarded when his contract is up. And he better pray they don't franchise him.
Grossman lives and dies by the deep ball. If he can't connect on those long passes he seems to be completely ineffectual. Thank your D and the Cardinals playcalling for the win last night and hope it was just a hiccup on a SuperBowl run (which is a very strong possibility).
It could be worse. It could be the Raiders.
While the Cardinals are horrible now (and have seemingly always been so), I wouldn't be so sure to write them off entirely for all time. They have an incredible core to build around. If they focus on O-linemen in drafts and Free agency they could be good.
Of course they are always at the "could be good" phase.
Most of of those 3 and outs involved 1 run and 2 pass attempts. The short passes stopped working in part because Leinart never was safe in the pocket.
Actually Grossman has started to utilize the tight ends and the backs and that is when he is most effective. Of course, had he hit that first bomb we would be having a different conversation.
But he has a tendency to get too excited at the beginnings of games and he is then wild.
If the Bears can win and play a absolutely miserable offensive game like last night then they certainly are in the Super Bowl hunt. But Phil., New Orleans might have something to say about it.
I really don't think different playcalling with that line would have made any difference. Any other team and the Cards would have won too.
You're forgetting which team you're talking about. This is the Cards, with a few exceptional seasons (like a few years ago when they finally won a playoff game) the team has always sucked. They have a good core now, but that core is hampered by an offensive line that's terrible this year, was terrible last year, and was terrible the year before that. Yet instead of trying to improve the offensive line they got rid of Josh (who got more wins as a starting QB for Green than any other Cardinal), grabbed of Leinart and spent a bunch of money on James. The team always seems to be focused in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yeah, I don't know why I expect anything different from them. I have a soft spot in my heart for them. They've sort of become my NFC team.
Now that Green sacked his offensive coordinator, he has no one left to blame but himself.
Shouldn't have been the co-ordinator, should have been the o-line coach. They called 38 runs and 42 passes, they had an even attack, I know the CW is they went run obsessed but the CW is wrong and the stats pages on NFL.com prove it. The problem was the o-line didn't allow plays to succeed, teams that go up in the first quarter, teams that develop a 3 score lead by the end of the first half, shouldn't be running 80 plays. You run 80 plays because people are dropping balls, with that receiving core people are dropping balls because the QB isn't getting the time or room to scan and set properly. They needed the run to get more than 1.5 yards a play, and they needed the pass to do better than 24 of 42. And the reason for both those failing is that their offensive line sucks in every possible way, you cannot win with an offensive line that doesn't give your QB time to run a play fake, or even time to make a 5 step drop, and allows your RB to be met in the back field more than half the time.
And remember, this is the Cards, there's always someone else to blame, the one person who truly deserves all the blame: Bidwell. Except for 2 playoff runs the team has sucked for the entire 74 years the Bidwell family has owned the Cards, in three different cities, with countless coaches, the Cards always stink. I'm not sure what it is the Bidwell's do to make sure their team is always terrible, but with the run they've had of consistently looking UP to mediocrity it's either deliberate or the most amazing level of incompitence ever recorded.
The Cards did not have a big lead and you have no reason to eat the clock when you are moving the ball as the Cards were doing. Even the most conservative coaches don't take their foot off the gas until midway through the 3rd quarter. The Cards had two opportunities going into halftime that were destroyed by the play calling. You don't "eat the clock" when you have the ball inside the twenty going into the half. And you don't "eat the clock" when you are down by one point with a minute left in the game and 30+ yards out. Especially if you are a team of the Cardinals (ahem) calibre.
Poor offensive line or not, one of the worst teams in the NFL was beating a top team pretty soundly due to a solid defense and a couple of sustained offensive drives. The Bears were fortunate enough to have picked the right team to take the week off against. The good news for Bears fans is that Super Bowl winners tend to always have a good dose of fortune to supplement their talent.
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