Arizona Cardinals get ugly, yet needed win
October 7, 2007 by Mike Olbinski
Fans will point out that after the last two weeks, the Arizona Cardinals played down to the level of their opponent, they didn’t have the intensity they should have on defense and generally looked pretty bad.
And they would be correct.
However, they were up by 11 points with 13 seconds left and won a game they were supposed to win. And that is what is important. 34-31 was the final, but the last Rams’ touchdown came at the end of the game.
Think about it. In the past, what would have normally happened in a game like this? Well, Arizona would do everything that was mentioned above, and LOSE the game. Against the St. Louis Rams, they looked bad in some places, yet still had a two-score lead with a few seconds left.
That’s improvement, no matter how you slice it. This team is still young and learning how to win games and this was just another step in their education.
The defense just didn’t come out fired up, but rectified that in the second half, with interceptions and great plays. Roderick Hood especially turned things around, shutting Torry Holt down after being torched in the previous half and also scoring a touchdown on an interception (photo shown)
They allowed Brian Leonard to rush for over 100 yards, the first time that’s happened in nine games against Arizona. Yet as bad as they played, they came up with turnovers and big stops. They did what they had to.
Kurt Warner got the reins handed to him, taken away and then given back after Matt Leinart went out with a collarbone injury. He looked shaky running the offense fulltime, but he gutted it out. A huge throw to Larry Fitzgerald that set up a touchdown was a big time play before halftime.
So the quandry is this: Do you get down on the WAY the Cardinals played or do you get excited that they won the game they needed to no matter how ugly it was?
Because every team is going to have their ups and downs. Look at Pittsburgh today. They lost to Arizona last week, and probably didn’t look so great, yet they come back and shut-out Seattle today (thanks Steelers, by the way).
I like the way Arizona gutted and fought their way through this contest. It was a division game after all and they usually don’t go as planned.
Oh not to mention, Arizona leads the NFC West (as long as San Francisco loses today).
Posted in kurt warner, nfl, football, arizona cardinals
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Gotta give it to the Cards, they pulled out what probably should have been an easier win. But a win is a win and now the Cards are over .500, so congrats.
One other good thing that may have come from this weekend is that for at least the next 6 weeks we won’t have to worry about QB by committee. Nothing against Matt, but this team needs to pick a QB and go with it. So if Kurt can get it done with Matt out, I suspect the job will be his for the remainder of the season. If he stumbles, it will be Matt’s.
It still sucks to have Matt hurt, because if Warner gets hurt…yikes….we’re in trouble.
Bottom line is we won and we did it on the road. We have lost to much worse teams in the past and end up talking about how if this, if that. Leonard had 102 yards. Big deal. Thirtyfive of those yards came on the first possession. We overcame several obstacles and adversities yesterday and gutted out a win and had the ref rules McMicheal down near the goal line we would have won by 11. The beting public may be upset, but I’m not.
Do we have to keep improving? You bet. This team appears to be moving forward and progressing every week. Our biggest obstacle now will be keeping Warner protected.