PACardsFan
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First off, I completely understand that everyone wants to see the Cardinals in playoff contention asap. But really folks, it's getting harder & harder to even listen to some of you. For starters, let's not forget just how bad this team was just a year ago. Unwatchable was being kind. For all intents & purposes, we truly were an 0-16 team. If the Niners didn't break injury records, they would have soundly beaten us in both games last year. Even with the mutiny in Green Bay, their CB's dropped 3 fourth quarter gifts that Rosen tried to hand them. That was last year. We knew coming into this year that the schedule was far more difficult. Detroit has proven to be far better than people gave them credit for in the opener. Not many teams go into Philly & win. The Ravens at home is like KC at home. Just an extremely difficult venue for ANY TEAM, let alone a team coming off a 3-13 season with a rookie HC, rookie QB, new offensive system, and a PISS POOR defense. Hell, the Ravens went into KC & lost by 5 with a chance to win at the end. Yet, we gave both Detroit & Baltimore everything they could handle.
Then came the Carolina game. I knew that once Cam was out, this would be a difficult game to win. I wish some of you would go back & re-watch this game. We had 4-5 extremely well orchestrated drives by KK/KM this game. That is more than we had ALL OF LAST YEAR. We had leads of 7-0, 10-7, & 17-14. We were within 21-20. In every instance, the D either allowed a long, sustained drive, or a quick 60+ yard touchdown. K1 had a beautiful drive late in the 1st half to give us the lead with a little more than a minute before halftime. We then gave up a 60 yard TD pass!! Ask anyone who's ever coached at the HC, College, or Pro Level. The key to winning is what your D does after your offense scores. After 3 games, after every single point our offense puts on the scoreboard, our D has allowed points on the ensuing drive. That is just horrible. It's almost impossible for an offense to create any kind of rhythm under these conditions. I'm not even going to try to defend this defense. I was never enthralled with the VJ hire, but he's better than this. He has to be better than this. Losing both starting corners on a defense that was never going to be great to begin with, has hurt us tremendously. It will help a ton when PP21 comes back, but there needs to be urgency and emphasis placed on creating 3 & outs after we score. After 3 games, I'm not sure if ANY NFL D EVER has managed to accomplish the failures that we have. Statistically, it's almost impossible to continue to happen.
So here's how I've seen this season. The offense is improving with every game. We are seeing the offense making better adjustments also. We've had more sustained drives with every game. Carolina kept everything in front of them, and we dinked and dunked our way to a few double digit play TD drives. When we had some opportunities for longer plays, our WR's dropped passes they should have caught. The pass to Kirk brought back memories of Lomax to Green. He HAS to catch that pass. That killed a scoring drive. The pass to Sherfield wasn't perfect, but it should have been caught & he would have walked into the endzone. We settled for a FG due to that drop. So, K1 passes for over 300 yards in the first two games, and everyone is critical that he didn't run more?? Then he uses his feet beautifully against Carolina for 70+ yards, and we still have moronic comments about his progress. We've seen 3 entertaining games. With continued improvement from the offense, and any kind of improvement from the defense, this can still be a team that causes headaches for the opponent. We are not a playoff team, and NO ONE thought we were. We need another draft to beef our OL & front 7 on D. Rome was not built in a day! If Rosen were the QB, we would be 0-3, and the margins of defeat would be enormous. For now, at least K1 is keeping things interesting. Regardless of the asinine comments being made on this board, we have our QBOTF. You have to go back to the early 80's to see the last time we had a QBOTF. We now need to continue to build the team. It's a process, and a frustrating one. Let's see how/if we improve the rest of the way. I for one don't care what our record looks like right now. At least our games are watchable again!!
Then came the Carolina game. I knew that once Cam was out, this would be a difficult game to win. I wish some of you would go back & re-watch this game. We had 4-5 extremely well orchestrated drives by KK/KM this game. That is more than we had ALL OF LAST YEAR. We had leads of 7-0, 10-7, & 17-14. We were within 21-20. In every instance, the D either allowed a long, sustained drive, or a quick 60+ yard touchdown. K1 had a beautiful drive late in the 1st half to give us the lead with a little more than a minute before halftime. We then gave up a 60 yard TD pass!! Ask anyone who's ever coached at the HC, College, or Pro Level. The key to winning is what your D does after your offense scores. After 3 games, after every single point our offense puts on the scoreboard, our D has allowed points on the ensuing drive. That is just horrible. It's almost impossible for an offense to create any kind of rhythm under these conditions. I'm not even going to try to defend this defense. I was never enthralled with the VJ hire, but he's better than this. He has to be better than this. Losing both starting corners on a defense that was never going to be great to begin with, has hurt us tremendously. It will help a ton when PP21 comes back, but there needs to be urgency and emphasis placed on creating 3 & outs after we score. After 3 games, I'm not sure if ANY NFL D EVER has managed to accomplish the failures that we have. Statistically, it's almost impossible to continue to happen.
So here's how I've seen this season. The offense is improving with every game. We are seeing the offense making better adjustments also. We've had more sustained drives with every game. Carolina kept everything in front of them, and we dinked and dunked our way to a few double digit play TD drives. When we had some opportunities for longer plays, our WR's dropped passes they should have caught. The pass to Kirk brought back memories of Lomax to Green. He HAS to catch that pass. That killed a scoring drive. The pass to Sherfield wasn't perfect, but it should have been caught & he would have walked into the endzone. We settled for a FG due to that drop. So, K1 passes for over 300 yards in the first two games, and everyone is critical that he didn't run more?? Then he uses his feet beautifully against Carolina for 70+ yards, and we still have moronic comments about his progress. We've seen 3 entertaining games. With continued improvement from the offense, and any kind of improvement from the defense, this can still be a team that causes headaches for the opponent. We are not a playoff team, and NO ONE thought we were. We need another draft to beef our OL & front 7 on D. Rome was not built in a day! If Rosen were the QB, we would be 0-3, and the margins of defeat would be enormous. For now, at least K1 is keeping things interesting. Regardless of the asinine comments being made on this board, we have our QBOTF. You have to go back to the early 80's to see the last time we had a QBOTF. We now need to continue to build the team. It's a process, and a frustrating one. Let's see how/if we improve the rest of the way. I for one don't care what our record looks like right now. At least our games are watchable again!!
