ARI@STL: Heroes and Goats

[kerouac9]

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1. Jared Veldheer, OT. Jared Veldheer is long overdue for an appearance on the Heroes list. Did anyone hear Robert Quinn's name all night? Veldheer plays so well that the effect of an individual on the goat's list nonperformance isn't even visible unless you're watching for it.

2. Jerroud Powers, CB. Powers had a career game for 4 quarters last night. With a limited Cromartie and absent Mathieu, Powers stepped up as a blitzer and in coverage.

3. Frostee Rucker, DE. Rucker has absolutely been a godsend to a defensive line with both leadership, pass rush, and run defense.

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1. Jonathan Cooper, OG. If you have the opportunity to watch the game again, key on Cooper. Just count the plays where he doesn't fall on the ground, actually gets his hands on someone, or his shoulders don't get perpendicular to the line of scrimmage. His technique was an absolute horror show last night, and he may be the guy primarily responsible for the hit that put out Stanton.

2. Ryan Lindley, QB. What has Lindley been working on the last two years? He looks exactly like the player we saw being terrible and ending Ken Whisenhunt's coaching tenure.

3. Logan Thomas, QB. What a slap in the face to not go on the field as the third-string QB. What have you been doing the last 14 weeks, Logan?

 

[82CardsGrad]

Cooper is absolutely "that guy" who is responsible for the hit on Stanton... He actually whiffed on his man and in so doing, pancaked Sendlein! There remains a tremendous amount of rust all over Cooper... However, if BASK see progress and hope - I'm down with them!!
As for Rucker, I think I've mentioned his name in these threads of yours at least 4-5 times now. The guy, by far, has been my biggest unsung hero on this team all year!!

 

[juza76]

froostee rucker is an upgrade over dockett

powers is all around player,stud

valdeher made invisible quinn and tamba hali..is one of the best 5 LT in the nfl,allowed just a sack all season

 

[Shaggy]

I still think Cooper did well enough to not be on your goat list. The only thing I noticed he did wrong was the Stanton injury. Other then that not one oline man should be on your goat list. They played the best I have seen all year. One sack and one qb hit. That's awesome numbers.

 

[TJ]

Cooper is the guy responsible for the hit on Stanton, but again, not s goat. Technique was fine throughout most of the game.

Funny that two of our most productive offensive line games have come when Coopet has been starting. At a certain point, it's no longer coincidental.

 

[kerouac9]

Cooper is the guy responsible for the hit on Stanton, but again, not s goat. Technique was fine throughout most of the game.

Funny that two of our most productive offensive line games have come when Coopet has been starting. At a certain point, it's no longer coincidental.

I challenge you to watch the game and make a note of every play that Cooper:

1) Goes to the ground
2) Gets his shoulders perpendicular to the LOS
3) Fails to engage with a defender

And then divide that number by his total snaps and tell me again that Cooper had a solid game.

 

[NMCard]

It was strange seeing both the number 2 and 3 QB's getting up to warm-up. I thought for sure LT was the next man up. Lindley is absolutely the worst thing that could happen to the team this time of year.

 

[juza76]

It was strange seeing both the number 2 and 3 QB's getting up to warm-up. I thought for sure LT was the next man up. Lindley is absolutely the worst thing that could happen to the team this time of year.

 

[NMCard]

Cooper is the guy responsible for the hit on Stanton, but again, not s goat. Technique was fine throughout most of the game.

Funny that two of our most productive offensive line games have come when Coopet has been starting. At a certain point, it's no longer coincidental.

The run game most certainly has had a spark.

 

[TJ]

I challenge you to watch the game and make a note of every play that Cooper:



1) Goes to the ground

2) Gets his shoulders perpendicular to the LOS

3) Fails to engage with a defender



And then divide that number by his total snaps and tell me again that Cooper had a solid game.

I watched the game and I didn't see as many of those instances as you wanted him to display.

At this point, I'm not convinced you know how to appropriately analyze offensive line play.

 

[kerouac9]

I watched the game and I didn't see as many of those instances as you wanted him to display.

At this point, I'm not convinced you know how to appropriately analyze offensive line play.

Cute passive aggression there.

 

[MrYeahBut]

Whether or not individual players are singled out, the running game should be on the hero list. 143 yards!!!

 

[Russ Smith]

Totally agree on Veldheer, and he had the man size fumble recovery where he just dove in and took the ball away. Saved the game.

Totally agree on Rucker, hell the guy played at USC and I still love him, I do agree with whoever said he's actually better than Dockett, at least against the run he is.

I think Cooper played better than you are stating but the Stanton play probably was his fault. I don't know who is to blame on a play where one guy blocks someone then passes him off to someone else but my guess is that was Coopers fault. I do think part of the reason the run game is better is he is a better run blocker than Larsen was at LG, and larsen is good enough at RG to cover for Fanaika.

I also think we're seeing just how injured Ellington was, that backups come in and look that good.

Williams and Taylor were terrific. Williams had several good cuts to get extra yards and ran very hard. The fumble sucked but helmet on ball it's hard not to fumble. Taylor had 2 really good long runs where he hit the hole hard and got extra yards, he ran hard and protected the ball late when the Rams were going for the strips. Also had a couple of huge blocks in pass pro to keep Stanton on his feet.

On the injury, I think the ball was supposed to come out quick and didn't, but there was clearly confusion on the OL and my guess is Cooper was the one who messed up.

 

[MadCardDisease]

To be fair to Lindley he has gotten ZERO reps with the offense according to Arians. He has only been running the scout team.

To me that falls on Arians. He knew that Thomas isn't ready for action. Lindley should have gotten reps in practice and Thomas shoud have been running the scout team.

 

[BigRedRage]

with all the cooper bashing thats happened since he came in, isnt he doing better than Larsen was? How come we can suddenly run so much better, even with Taylor who only had like 150 yards all season coming into this game? Is the unit working better despite Cooper?

I have seen him make some whiffs and bad plays but it is odd that the two best blocked games of the year happened after Cooper got in the lineup.

 

[TJ]

Catanzaro went 4/4 and scored the only 12 points for us. No hero mention.

 

[Russ Smith]

I have to say as someone who doesn't know the rules of OL play, I'm not sure that's Cooper and not Sendlein's fault?

I watched it 5 times on ESPN. Cooper is blocking one man, Sendlein the other but it's a stunt or twist. Cooper tries to hand off his man to Sendlein so he can take Sendlein's, but Sendlein stays with the man, then cooper tries to run around to go get Sendlein's man, and he collides with Sendlein.

He winds up looking bad but I have to wonder if the right play there isn't Cooper and Sendlein passing off guys and Sendlein just didn't do it?

 

[kerouac9]

with all the cooper bashing thats happened since he came in, isnt he doing better than Larsen was? How come we can suddenly run so much better, even with Taylor who only had like 150 yards all season coming into this game? Is the unit working better despite Cooper?

I have seen him make some whiffs and bad plays but it is odd that the two best blocked games of the year happened after Cooper got in the lineup.

It's admittedly a lot of moving parts. Obviously the results with Cooper in the game have been better. My review and the look from independent sources like Matt Waldman and the Grantland NFL podcast agree with me, but your mileage may vary. For example, Daniel Fells started playing more at Tight End, and we put in a much more healthy group of running backs.

We also ran to the right much more last night than we did against the Chiefs.

Obviously, you can't complain much about the results of Cooper's addition to the lineup. But you should evaluate how much Cooper is contributing to the improvement. Right now, he's still got a L-O-N-G way to go and isn't playing in a way that is predictable to his teammates from a technique standpoint, and that may be why he was stuck on the bench for so long.

 

[Cardsfanstl]

Cooper and the Stanton injury aside. To go from under 30 yrds rushing last time we played the Rams to almost 150 is a dramatic improvment. So the entire OLINE deserves props.

 

[cardpa]

There seem to be confusion on who was suppose to block who on the Stanton injury. However the two defenders who hit Stanton the other came through Larson like he was a turnstile.

I think it is unfair to toss Lindley on the goat list. Only back with the team a couple of weeks and no time to properly warm up. He hasn't seen real game time for 2 years. He completed the most important pass of the night which was the first down to Brown which allowed the Cardinals to run the clock down to almost zero.

If I were to select a Defensive player of the year on the Cardinal defense hands down I would pick Frostee Rucker. He has filled the void Dockett left with the injury to the point that no one even talks about how it would be better if DD was in the lineup. He filled some pretty big shoes with barely a hiccup.

 

[NJCardFan]

Catanzaro went 4/4 and scored the only 12 points for us. No hero mention.

I did in my thread. As for the hero's here, 1 knock against Powers was on one of those long passes to Britt(?) when Hill threw up a wounded duck and Powers couldn't find it. Had he stuck with Britt that pass would have either been batted down or intercepted. That play was the catalyst behind the Rams making it a 1 score game late. Powers did redeem himself on the next drive when he blitzed and batted down the 4th down pass essentially icing the game.

 

[Stout]

We get it. You hate Cooper. Enough said on the topic.

 

[kerouac9]

We get it. You hate Cooper. Enough said on the topic.

That's right, Stout. Me (the first guy who predicted that we'd take Cooper instead of Warmack), Matt Waldman, and the guys at the Grantland Football Podcast all got together and formed a cabal to smear a guy who's playing really good football. Also included: The guys at AZCentral.com and AZCardinals.com who are spiking stories about Cooper's great play and all the coaches stepping forward to provide good quotes.

Whatever.

 

[Shaggy]

I rewatched the Stanton injury and it was really the fault of both Sendline and Cooper choosing the wrong guys to cover. Cooper double teamed a D linemen with JV and then saw another Ram player coming around Sendline's area and left the double team for that player. At the same time Sendline drop his guy and went after the same guy Cooper was going after. Sendline didn't have good position and fell so and really took out Cooper(Copper also to a horrible line and got caught up) and that allowed 2 Dline men to get free. Then Stanton ran in the area where JV was covering his guy and it became a 3 tiered sandwich. Just a bad cover on both really.

 

[Shaggy]

There seem to be confusion on who was suppose to block who on the Stanton injury. However the two defenders who hit Stanton the other came through Larson like he was a turnstile.

I think it is unfair to toss Lindley on the goat list. Only back with the team a couple of weeks and no time to properly warm up. He hasn't seen real game time for 2 years. He completed the most important pass of the night which was the first down to Brown which allowed the Cardinals to run the clock down to almost zero.

If I were to select a Defensive player of the year on the Cardinal defense hands down I would pick Frostee Rucker. He has filled the void Dockett left with the injury to the point that no one even talks about how it would be better if DD was in the lineup. He filled some pretty big shoes with barely a hiccup.

Larsen cover his man the whole time. The 3 players that were on Stanton at the end were the 3 from JV, Copper and Sendline.