Why did our defense play SO much better last post season?

[82CardsGrad]

Just curious to hear what others have to say about this topic. We were minutes from a Super Bowl Championship last season, in large part because our defense stepped up BIGTIME!!! What the hell happened this year? Why didn't we get any pressure on Rogers or Brees?
How bad was Clancy afterall??

 

[SoCal Cardfan]

How bad was Clancy afterall??

I dunno, but I suspect he was giggling his ass off today.

Well.. in between brushing up his resume anyhow.

 

[conraddobler]

You know I'm going to be interested to see if Clancy ever lands somewhere with an elite defense.

It's not likely, as in you almost always get a pithole assignment but again this year talk about zero talent to work with, OMG he was seriously working with nothing in KC.

I'm no fan of his but he's never had great players to work with like some DC's get.

 

[Clif]

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/12672/cardinals-nfls-oldest-team-in-week-17

This is what happened. Especially since most of the oldest players are on defense. Couple that will a long playoff run last year. (short offseason) and two of the hottest offenses imaginable. Add that to a short week and there you go.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

I think the extreme case of "old" caught up with our defense.

Okeafor is in a position where we need a dominating pass rusher, and he has been a phantom all year.

Berry, and Haggans have produced some sacks here and there (especially Berry last week) but neither are supplying the pass rush we need.

The ghosts of our preseason came back to bite us in the butt. It would be nice to have had Cody Brown with a season of experience under his belt for this game.

And I would couple that with the loss of Matt Ware, and the fact McFadden picked a poor time to start playing like the second coming of Duane Starks.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

I'd say because we faced run oriented offense and teams with only dangerous reciever and we were forcing turnovers.

 

[Buckybird]

Just curious to hear what others have to say about this topic. We were minutes from a Super Bowl Championship last season, in large part because our defense stepped up BIGTIME!!! What the hell happened this year? Why didn't we get any pressure on Rogers or Brees?
How bad was Clancy afterall??

turnovers, look how many were forced last postseason. We still gave up yards but took it away more than we gave it up.

Plus it's not like we played the schools of the blind this year. We played 2 of the best offenses in the NFL let alone the NFC.

 

[conraddobler]

I think the extreme case of "old" caught up with our defense.

Okeafor is in a position where we need a dominating pass rusher, and he has been a phantom all year.

Berry, and Haggans have produced some sacks here and there (especially Berry last week) but neither are supplying the pass rush we need.

The ghosts of our preseason came back to bite us in the butt. It would be nice to have had Cody Brown with a season of experience under his belt for this game.

And I would couple that with the loss of Matt Ware, and the fact McFadden picked a poor time to start playing like the second coming of Duane Starks.

I'd say there's one guy that escapes unscathed in all these talks and has more of a hand in it than anyone we've mentioned so far, as in Davis or Clancy or whoever.

Graves has been touted all over the NFL as some miracle worker, yet a lot of the great players are DG's doing and his recent FA signings have been less than stellar.

Graves better step up this offseason, he's got a ton of work to do IMO.

 

[conraddobler]

I'd say because we faced run oriented offense and teams with only dangerous reciever and we were forcing turnovers.

Bingo.

I'm no Davis fan but we ran into two buzzsaws back to back and we're lucky we evaded the first one.

Our defense was exposed in both games, we simply have to get better in terms of our pass defense, the elite teams just abuse us.

We do suprisingly well against running teams, that's probably it more than anything, we went through two running teams last year and narrowly beat a pretty good but not great passing team in Philly.

We just suck ass in terms of defending the pass.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

To expand on my point, as we witnessesed in the superbowl and these last two games: when our d faces a team with multiple receiving threats it exposes severly the weakness of our secondary and without a good pash rush it becomes even more soft...

 

[azmike74]

I can't help wondering if a lot of our problems don't stem from not having strong LBers. I'm no football expert but it seem that if we had LBers who could a) rush the passer, or b) cover somebody we wouldn't be exposed so much.
I've seen Dansby make some good plays, don't get me wrong, but as far as rushing the passer or being decent in coverage I don't think we have much other than him.

Edit: I only say this with the hopes that with a pass rush, the opposing qb wouldn't have 30 seconds to pick on our secondary

 

[conraddobler]

I can't help wondering if a lot of our problems don't stem from not having strong LBers. I'm no football expert but it seem that if we had LBers who could a) rush the passer, or b) cover somebody we wouldn't be exposed so much.
I've seen Dansby make some good plays, don't get me wrong, but as far as rushing the passer or being decent in coverage I don't think we have much other than him.

That's a good point.

We have the crappiest LBing core ever for a team trying to play a 3 4, it's almost laughable.

Our coaching staff either has to realize we have to upgrade the players or toss the system.

To play a 3 4 you have to have your lbing core as the heart of your defense, we throw out Dansby, who isn't a 3 4 guy and a bunch of nobodies and expect this to work out well.

A one footed TE abused us because our version of the 3 4 sucks that bad.

They have to either cover or get to the other QB, if they can't do either you're sunk.

 

[Buckybird]

I can't help wondering if a lot of our problems don't stem from not having strong LBers. I'm no football expert but it seem that if we had LBers who could a) rush the passer, or b) cover somebody we wouldn't be exposed so much.
I've seen Dansby make some good plays, don't get me wrong, but as far as rushing the passer or being decent in coverage I don't think we have much other than him.

Edit: I only say this with the hopes that with a pass rush, the opposing qb wouldn't have 30 seconds to pick on our secondary

How many other teams (besides Cards) have you ever seen send the house blitz & never even knock the QB down to the ground? Happens nearly everytime the Cards do. Nuff said!!!

 

[Duckjake]

The Cards forced a bunch of turnovers against Carolina. Other than that they weren't that great on defense last year either. Blew a big lead against Philly and then gave up the drive to the Steelers. Didn't really stop the Falcons either.

Our D is what it is. Soft,quick,athletic and dumb.

 

[joeshmo]

The problem with our defense started before the season even started.

Remember we went into the season with only 23 defenders on the roster. That is a very small amount by usual NFL standards. Meaning when someone got injured we didnt have a usual rotation in place. We didn't have a solid rotation to keep guys legs under them the whole game or season. Combine that with older defenders who lost their legs towards the end of the year especially since we didn't have enough players for a solid rotation to rest them. Older players such as Okeafer, Haggans, Berry, Robinson, slightly Wilson. Players such as Cody Brown and Will Davis getting injured expanded on this issue.

I know some my not believe this but losing MAtt Ware was a bigger issue then some may have realized. He wasn't flashy but at least he was usually where he was supposed to be in the zone coverages called, he rarely got faked out by a play action or pump fake. And Rashad Johnson not coming along as fast as we thought he would didn't help matters.

Hate to say it but letting go of Hood was a mistake. I know his 08 season wasn't all that great, and was making not overly expensive but decent money but letting him go was without a doubt a mistake especially in favor of the 5-7 shorty Adams, the old Ralph Brown, and the uber raw Toller. Compounding this was the fact that Ware was injured and Hood played very well for the Titans this year. I don't think we do this often over the last 3 or so years but we without a doubt went the cheap route on that one.

Finally, Davis wasn't Wiz first choice. Butler from Pitt was his first choice. When Butler said no I think Wiz went with what he knew in Davis rather then shake the boat. I think he went the safe route.

 

[conraddobler]

The problem with our defense started before the season even started.

Remember we went into the season with only 23 defenders on the roster. That is a very small amount by usual NFL standards. Meaning when someone got injured we didnt have a usual rotation in place. We didn't have a solid rotation to keep guys legs under them the whole game or season. Combine that with older defenders who lost their legs towards the end of the year especially since we didn't have enough players for a solid rotation to rest them. Older players such as Okeafer, Haggans, Berry, Robinson, slightly Wilson. Players such as Cody Brown and Will Davis getting injured expanded on this issue.

I know some my not believe this but losing MAtt Ware was a bigger issue then some may have realized. He wasn't flashy but at least he was usually where he was supposed to be in the zone coverages called, he rarely got faked out by a play action or pump fake. And Rashad Johnson not coming along as fast as we thought he would didn't help matters.

Hate to say it but letting go of Hood was a mistake. I know his 08 season wasn't all that great, and was making not overly expensive but decent money but letting him go was without a doubt a mistake especially in favor of the 5-7 shorty Adams, the old Ralph Brown, and the uber raw Toller. Compounding this was the fact that Ware was injured and Hood played very well for the Titans this year. I don't think we do this often over the last 3 or so years but we without a doubt went the cheap route on that one.

Finally, Davis wasn't Wiz first choice. Butler from Pitt was his first choice. When Butler said no I think Wiz went with what he knew in Davis rather then shake the boat. I think he went the safe route.

Very solid analysis.

I never understood our non like of Hood by our management or coaches.

Toller looks to me to be solid, which is good, he's just raw, by next year he'll be acceptable IMO.

We'd do well to get as many mid range FA on defense as we can muster, just to shore up our depth if nothing else.

I hate drafting for need and I fear they'll do that this year and that causes reaches and causes long term problems IMO.

 

[football karma]

I'd say because we faced run oriented offense and teams with only dangerous reciever and we were forcing turnovers.

this is it -- the Falcons and Panthers were run oriented teams whose QBs where game managers. Philly was more balanced -- but after a slow first half, Philly's offense took off in he second half. The Steelers were also run oriented, particularly with the lead.

 

[Totally_Red]

There is just no escaping how poor this defense was against good passing teams period. GB and NO both lit us up like a Christmas tree. Peyton Manning totally abused the defense. And teams like Houston and Jacksonville and even the Bears mounted serious second-half comebacks after the offense built a solid lead.

Pittsburgh knew what they were doing when they let Darren McFadden leave in free agency. Ralph Brown is a career journeyman who is aging rapidly. Michael Adams is a special-teamer who shouldn't see the field. And Greg Toler is a promising rookie who shows potential for the future.

The pass rush was not there today and frequently against better teams. The Cardinals just do not win matchups one-on-one against good teams. That definitely showed up today.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

I would like to add the poor tackling today to the list. Looked like we were playing touch instead of tackle football.

 

[Duckjake]

I would like to add the poor tackling today to the list. Looked like we were playing touch instead of tackle football.

Sadly, how many times have we said that after a game over the last few years?

 

[Buckybird]

Sadly, how many times have we said that after a game over the last few years?

at least 14, seems to be a common factor in winning & losing.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Sadly, how many times have we said that after a game over the last few years?

Too many times.

 

[Duckjake]

at least 14, seems to be a common factor in winning & losing.

That's why I wasn't too upset over losing to Vince and the Titans. That was a hard hitting game on both sides. This touch football the Cards like to play far too often drives me to drink.

Of course that's not really a bad thing.

 

[Buckybird]

That's why I wasn't too upset over losing to Vince and the Titans. That was a hard hitting game on both sides. This touch football the Cards like to play far too often drives me to drink.

Of course that's not really a bad thing.

I will drink very heavily if the Cowpies do what I have feared for over a month now...

 

[Russ Smith]

Got old, were healthier last year etc.

The other thing is last year we beat a rookie QB, Delhomme, and then McNabb. Rodgers is better than any of them and Brees is better than Rodgers.