Chargers 33 Cardinals 31 Analysis

August 26, 2007 by Walter Mitchell

The third pre-season game is supposed to be a dress rehearsal for NFL teams. If that’s the case, Cardinal fans will have to load up on antacids, aspirins and sedatives to prepare for the real games. This 33-31 home loss for the Cardinals was wild and wooly from start to finish, from J.J. Arrington’s opening 70 yard kickoff return to Nate Kaeding’s game winning field goal with 2 seconds left. It was a largely entertaining game that was only slowed to a halt on several occasions by the officiating crew, who might have been trying to catch their breaths. All in all for the Cardinals, when the curtain of this dress rehearsal closed, the majority of the offensive players deserved rousing ovations, while the majority of the defensive players deserved a cacophony of catcalls.

The Cardinal offense was spectacular, largely because the offensive line, thanks to the brilliant choreographing of Coach Russ Grimm, created  perfectly symmetrical pockets for QB Matt Leinart to throw from. Whenever Leinart felt the need to shift from the pocket, the offensive linemen reacted perfectly to the ad-libs, redirecting their blocks and walling off the defenders. In unison with the offensive line, the receivers broke off their routes to wide open spaces, where QB Matt Leinart, spurred by swift instincts and superior vision, delivered the ball downfield on target. Leinart took another major step forward in his plight to become a marquis player by demonstrating an innate ability to check off a covered receiver to find a wide open one.

Leinart threw for 196 first half yards…and would have recorded over 250 first half yards, had Bryant Johnson and Sean Morey not dropped two long, perfectly thrown passes. Johnson was the recipient of an earlier 41 yard improvisation, for which he gets appaulse. Meanwhile, the star WR tandem of Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald combined for nearly 200 yards on 8 catches, the bulk of which was provided by Boldin’s dazzling 5 catch, 143 yard, 80 yard TD performance. Rounding out this stunning success were two impressive TD runs by Marcel Shipp (on a third and goal from the five) and J.J. Arrington (on a second and goal from the two).

There were smiles all around for this offense…as befits a drama and its intention to entertain and amuse…ah, the mask of comedy…but, as is also the reality of drama, the mask of tragedy follows closely beside…

It appeared early in the game that the Cardinal defenders were paying closer attention to their pass covering assignments, as Cardinal defensive backs and linebackers were very much in the vacinity of their receivers. RCB Eric Green was playing his man aggressively all night, and while he got beat to the inside a couple of times, he did not lose his confidence. In fact, he broke up a third down conversion attempt (rare sight all night) and he made a very nice interception–while clearly getting knocked out of the end zone in mid-air by a Chargers’ WR–that was nullified on a poor call by the official and an even poorer rule that states that pushed out of bound judgements by the official are not reviewable, if one buys into the notion that the spirit of replay is to get the calls right.

Thus, even though the Cardinal defenders were giving up yards in the passing game, the defenders appeared much better versed in their assignments than the week before.

Alas, it appeared that the Cardinal defenders had only learned their lines for Act I, because in Act II, Chargers’ WR Vincent Jackson was left completely uncovered for two Charger TDs. On the first one, a 33 yarder, FS Terrence Holt was in a position to defend the play but inexplicably froze on the action. It was Holt’s deep middle that Jackson exploited. On the second TD, a 6 yard drag pass in the red zone, it was apparent from the beginning that no one even came close to defending Jackson on the play. He was neither chased by a DB, nor was he picked up by another, if the team happened to be playing zone. Either way, the proper script was abandoned, and chaos and confusion ensued and began to reign from there on in.

All night long…whenever the Chargers found themselves in third and longs, regardless of the distance, the Charger QBs converted easy third downs throwing an assortment of passes right down the middle of the Cardinals’ defense. The Cardinals’ coverage was a phantom one at best.

Then there were the screen plays…it seems as if the Cardinal defense over the past few years has never properly prepared to defend the screen, because each time they see one, the Cardinal defensive linemen act as perfect dupes rushing the QB with starry eyes, and the Cardinal linebackers show no anticipation whatsoever and set up five to eight yards away as easy blocking targets. How about last year’s 70 yard screen pass to the Chief’s Larry Johnson that cost the Cardinals a win? One would only hope that defending screens was on the DC’s priority list this summer. Thus far, it joins the contain responsibility/execution, know who to cover, how to cover, and make every effort to cover your man priority list…at least one would hope.

Yet, late in the game, thanks to the Cardinal offense and a nice game end TD drive orchestrated by #3 QB Shane Boyd and finished off by rookie WR Matt Trannon’s superb catch in the corner of the end zone on a textbook fade route, the Cardinals were clinging to a 31-30 lead with one minute left…

Yet, the fate of the outcome in the game was decided by yet another blown assignment in the Cardinal secondary, as LCB Justin Wyatt, bit on an inside move by WR Kassim Osgood and made virtually no effort to recover as Osgood busted off a corner route, which was nearly impossible for the deep safety, Aaron Francisco to break up, seeing as he was coming from the deep seam. Alas, another late game self-destruction…and the tragedy had some Cardinal fans poking their eyes out, even if it was just a dress rehearsal, for, over the years, if it’s one thing Cardinal fans have come to expect, it’s a tragic ending.

It always hurts…because it brings back past traumas and ghosts of the past!

Thus…let’s applaud for last night’s tragic heros:

QBs Leinart, Warner (despite the giveaway—really the only mistake he’s made in three games–was slingling the ball like a gloved Joe Willie Namath last night), Boyd (near perfect performance with legs and arm on last drive).

RBs Shipp and Arrington (for good timely TDs).

OL: Gandy, Wells, Johnson, Lutui and Brown…first-rate pass protection indeed! (and the 2nd line Mitchell, E. Brown, Sendlein, Johnson and Vallejo got the job done late)

WR: Boldin, Fitzgerald, Johnson and Trannon.

PR/KRs: Arrington and Breaston.

NTs: Watson for his fumble recovery and all around hustle.

DE: Cooper, for 5 tackles and a near sack…he recorded more tackles and near sacks alone than the starting trio of Dockett-Watson-Smith.

LB: Dansby was pretty good at times…even got underneath the diminutive RB Sproles for a tackle (5 in all)…but David Holloway’s “flying Cardinal” sack was the defensive highlight of the game.

CB: Hood (wasn’t even challenged by the Chargers at all), Green and Hunter (who not only showed good coverage, but registered 5 tackles, the best of which was using the sideline to corral Sproles on a screen that had TD written all over it).

SS: Wilson…another couple highlight real hits to add to his collection.

FS: Francisco…10 tackles to lead the team…getting closer in deep help too.

ST: Rackers (total star, YTD), Castille (possible TD saving tackle on last kickoff) and Keeler (great tackle on the muffed kickoff at the five yard line).

The Goats:

TEs Pope (why is he thrown to once and Bienemann 4 times?…and when he is thrown to it’s always on a little dump pass…why isn’t he a real part of this offense?), Bienemann (rough night, 10 yard penalty blocking a man in the back on a return, an off-sides penalty, a fumble…getting schooled by a heated Russ Grimm on the sideline, and he was the one who missed the assignment on the 4th and inches last game).

NT: Branch (not in the action nearly enough for a player of his talent)

DE: Dockett (again…nada), Smith (one good play a night is not enough), Kolodziej (not sure why he was one of the first DEs in—he was getting whipped around like a rag doll), Bailey (not enough from a guy who’s on the bubble).

ILB: Davis (if one didn’t know he was a 3rd round pick, would one even think he had even a remote chance to make this team? His play and his sluggish demeanor have been downright embarrassing for a first day draft pick).

OLB: Blackstock (a little more active, but still a step or two too slow or late), Pace (did he even play?…why he wasn’t used as a rush DE on sure pass plays in the second half is a real head scratcher), Tafoya (not much pressure at all as a rush end…looks slow…man do we miss Okeafor), Berry (looks like he has a classic case of training camp legs…he did turn the corner on the rush pretty well a couple of times and did have 3 tackles, but this is Bertrand Berry we are talking about and so he can’t think of last night as a good game for him).

CB: Rolle (there’s one pre-season game left to see what he can do as a safety…the coaches should know by now that he can’t cover WRs man-to-man and has failed to shown he can in three years).

FS: Holt (really looked frozen most of the night, both in run support and in deep pass coverage..on Sproles’ 19 yard TD run, Holt HAS to come up quicker to close the gap or otherwise a guy with Sproles’ quicks can do exactly what he did, give one juke and bolt to daylight).

ST: Player (another subpar night…Fred Capshaw has a long of 58 with the Rams this pre-season and will be waived because the Rams are committed to Donnie Jones–bring back Capshaw?), Morey (thus far a dud, not a stud), Milligan (same as Morey).

The pressing question for next week: how long will Mike Shanahan wait to call the naked bootleg bomb from Jay Cutler to David Kircus or Rod Smith???…which resulted in 2 TDs for the Broncos last year (once in pre-season and then again on the exact same play in the regular season).

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