clif

Cardinals | Huff to Fill in For Darling
Tue, 13 Sep 2005 19:46:49 -0700

Darren Urban, of the East Valley Tribune, reports Arizona Cardinals LB Orlando Huff will fill in at middle linebacker while LB James Darling (knee) is sidelined with a knee injury

Redsz

So Blackstock will be starting at OLB?

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ajcardfan

Actually, I suspect Eric Johnson will be starting.

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We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it.

T.H. Huxley

Redsz

What? Why? Johnson is one of the worst LB's on this team.

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ajcardfan

Johnson is Huff's backup as SOLB. Blackstock is Dansby's backup. I guess they could flip Dansby to the strong side and start Blackstock. But, my feeling is, they won't do that.

We'll see.

__________________
We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it.

T.H. Huxley

CardinalChris

Changing 3 starters or changing 2.. . my guess is they keep dansby where he's comfortable.

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War does not determine who is right. War determines who is left.

joeshmo

I think you have it backwards.

Dansby and Blackstock are on the strongside.

Huff and Johnson are on the Weakside.

So that would mean Dansby moving to the weakside and Blackstock starting on the strongside.

Anyways I thing that no matter where the put Blackstock and Dansby both will start this next game with Huff in the middle. Pendy probably wants his 3 best LB's starting so he will try to make it work somehow.

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Russ Smith

Someone posted a brief article yesterday that implied Dansby would flip flop so Blackstock starts where he's familiar and Huff in the middle. So in effect you take the risk of weakening all 3 positions (Dansby's a great player but not playing his familar spot). But the alternative is starting a rookie (Mitchell)at MLB who's not ready, or starting a rookie(Blackstock) at OLB in a spot he hasn't been practicing.

The Rams don't use their TE a lot so it may not be a huge problem for us. Going against Shockey or another good TE with so many LB's out of place might be a disaster ala the first 49er game last year.

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“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

ajcardfan

Here's the depth chart from the official site:

http://www.azcardinals.com/team/depth_chart.html

I did get it backwards.

__________________
We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it.

T.H. Huxley

BigDavis75

I like this move, I mean with what we have and all. Blackstock didn't impress me in Preseason but you never know.

spanky1

Blackstock vs. E. Johnson............haven't a clue, really. If Griffith/Wilson/Dansby et. al. can cover his back, let Blackstock loose. St. Louis, while balanced with Jackson/Faulk and Holt/Bruce in both the run and the pass offense, do favor the pass. This plays into Blackstock's wheelhouse as a pass rusher at least.

Not too sure what Johnson brings to the table to be honest. He really is unknown to me.

ajcardfan

I guess the question would be how comfortable the coaches are with Blackstock's understanding of their schemes. If he's on top of it, then more athletic is the way to go.

__________________
We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it.

T.H. Huxley

Pariah

Thsi is a call that the fans can't make with anything other than a hopeful wish. We don't see the practices, and therefore can't really make a call on whether Blackstock or Johnson or Mitchell are more prepared than the others.

At least, I can't say that I payed any particular attention to these guys during the preseason--especially Johnson.

My hope would be that Mitchell would be ready to step in the middle. He's number 2 on the depth chart, and I hate all of this position juggling so early in the season.

spanky1

Pariah,

Mitchell is at least a season away from being ready. The reason he's on the depth chart is because he wouldn't last a NY minute on PS.

Mitchell needs to believe that his knee is FULLY RECOVERED. When he does, we'll see if being patient was worthwhile. He could be our MLB for a long time if things work out as to the "plan".

Russ Smith

He had surgery almost exactly 2 years ago.

Mitchell seems to think he's recovered he said this after being drafted.


Q: You had a knee injury you were coming back from last season. Did that effect where you went in the draft?
A: I tore my ACL in 2003. It was difficult to overcome. I didn’t have the season I wanted this past season. It was one of the toughest things I’ve had to overcome football wise, emotionally and mentally. I had never sat out a whole season of football so that was real difficult to overcome but now I’m back and I feel great. You could say it did effect me in the draft. I didn’t play like I did before. If you play at a 100% and you drop down to 80%, everybody is going to raise their eyes at you. I’m fortunate enough to be here, fortunate enough to have been drafted after expecting to go higher than what I did. I’m not much of a workout warrior either so that may have been part of it too. I’m a football player so that wasn’t me at all doing those workouts this spring. I’m productive though. Eleven linebackers got taken ahead of me so now it is time to put up. They’ll know. Everybody will know what I can do.


I don't think confidence in his knee is a problem, I think he played 2 years of division 1 football, and is facing a large adjustment to the NFL. he said himself he's not a workout warrior special athlete kind of guy, he's a player. I think in time he can do for us what Pierce does for the giants and did last year for Washington, but I really don't get the sense the knee is a factor anymore for Lance.

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo