Cardinals at Saints.... opening weekend... official game day thread!!! 09/07/25

[nashman]

Exactly and NO is like 6-0 their in

Cardinals first win in New Orleans since 1996

Their last 6 home openers this was NEVER gonna be a cakewalk win no matter how bad people may think they are!

 

[TJ]

Lost in all of this: We looked hella rusty in the first quarter. My first thought was a lot of this couldve been avoided had we played the starters more in preseason. Perhaps there would've been less getting the kinks out and more efficiency.

 

[TJ]

Exactly and NO is like 6-0 their in

Their last 6 home openers this was NEVER gonna be a cakewalk win no matter how bad people may think they are!

New Orleans is flaming hot garbage this season. We should've won by 2+ possessions rather than sweating it out to the last play of the game.

 

[JohnnyCakes]

I came away feeling disappointed with the way we played, both offense, defense and ST's. But we did cover the spread and snapped the Saints six game win streak on opening day. But perception is everything. Just not excited about the team.

agreed, this game gave me zero faith in the season

 

[oaken1]

More disappointed in both lines of scrimmage. Run blocking was OK, only because we had two long runs. Pass blocking was average at best. No pressure on QB at all, no one stood out at all. KM made some plays but also needs to learn to throw it away at times. Still thinks he can out run every situation.

I mentioned a few times last spring that I was concerned about us losing our O Line coach... so far this guy from Ohio state does not seem to be a pro quality coach...if he dont get his crap together and whip this line into shape we are gonna scrrape the bottom of all the pre season win predictions...as they were based on the line being at least as good as it was last year...and right now they just aint.
Like you said, we had two good runs....but aside from that the saints defense shut our run game down...we had like 2.6 yards per carry if you remove the two big runs. out of everything from this game...the o line failure is the absolutely least acceptable.
JG needs to pull that coach into the office and casually ask him if he knows how much unemployment pays back in ohio

 

[oaken1]

What I notice the most watching this team versus all others week in, week out last year and the same in week 1 this year, we just lack special players. Got a solid base of good, lots of okay… but very few guys that are just major impact players.

Tough to win at an elite level with very little elite level talent.

agree. we win because JG gets every ounce out of his guys. But in the playoffs we will run into a lot of teams that just have more ounces to give...we are way light on star power.
McBride,...Marv may be getting there...Garrett Williams maybe,...and apparently Will Johnson unless it was just beginners luck today....and opefully Walter Nolen....was also hoping for DR but he was pretty quiet today. Not what I expected from a guy who made such a physical transformation and talked about making up for what he missed last year.
we are still a couple first round draft hits away from being a "really good" team.

 

[DVontel]

Blasting a very good Titans team in 2021 the first game of season didn’t stop us from getting our asses whooped against a bad Lions team later that same season.

 

[Snakester]

I’ll take the win any day. I’m surprised we did this good considering the starters get very little playing time in preseason anymore. I expect game three the starters will be playing like we expect them to play. I was hoping to see a better pass rush and the defense to be more dominant but again it’s only game one.

 

[nashman]

New Orleans is flaming hot garbage this season. We should've won by 2+ possessions rather than sweating it out to the last play of the game.

Weird how you know what or who NO is since it’s game 1? Also if they are hot garbage what does that say about our Oline they worked like dogs today? And we were up by 2 possessions much of the game and our crappy OC played a scared conservative BS play calling after we got that lead! One could easily argue if we didn’t have such a gutless coward at OC and keep your foot on the gas we win by a ton…. But he sucks and plays not to lose once he gets any sort of lead proved it last season with the same abysmal play calling. And season opener on the road early game for us in a place that usually kicks our asses the last 30 years I’d say any win is a quality win! Your assuming how bad NO is or isn’t you have no idea, and they sure seemed to have a pass rush and tackled well because our run game sucked today and they effectively screwed up our offense many times!

 

[ajcardfan]

I’ll take the win any day. I’m surprised we did this good considering the starters get very little playing time in preseason anymore. I expect game three the starters will be playing like we expect them to play. I was hoping to see a better pass rush and the defense to be more dominant but again it’s only game one.

IDK about these we barely played in preseason takes. NOBODY plays their ones much anymore. The one exception might be the Chiefs but even they don't play them like the NFL did 20+ years ago. Remember the third preseason game was the first string through at least one possession of the second half? That crap is LONG gone.

Besides, how did that work out for the Chiefs this year? They lost.

In case you can't tell, I think preseason is bullpuckey. Get rid of it, go to 20 regular season games if you have insist on 20 games. Or, call it what it is, exhibition games and scrimmages, and turn them into more of a fan fest type of experience.

 

[Shane]

Melton had an overall good game imo. To all the Melton sucks haters

 

[ajcardfan]

Melton had an overall good game imo. To all the Melton sucks haters

He did. Clearly Garrett Williams is the one who needs to get dragged now.

 

[Dayman]

Rattler was sacked 22 times in 7 games last year. The fact that we only got to him once today is not great. Only 2 QB hits, too.

On the flip side, 9 PDs is excellent to see. If the secondary keep getting their hands on the ball, the turnovers should eventually happen.

 

[ajcardfan]

Rattler was sacked 22 times in 7 games last year. The fact that we only got to him once today is not great. Only 2 QB hits, too.

On the flip side, 9 PDs is excellent to see. If the secondary keep getting their hands on the ball, the turnovers should eventually happen.

Part of that was their game plan. I was surprised by how quick they were getting the ball out on the big majority of their attempts. But the other part was we didn't have guys beating their blocker. Or have players come in completely clean like NO did several times. Hopefully at home we get a lot more hits on Young

 

[oaken1]

Part of that was their game plan. I was surprised by how quick they were getting the ball out on the big majority of their attempts. But the other part was we didn't have guys beating their blocker. Or have players come in completely clean like NO did several times. Hopefully at home we get a lot more hits on Young

Yeah until our defensive front gels and fully understands the system Nick is gonna need to dial up some blitzed on passing downs.
What we saw today is how the staff "wants" to play.... I hope they recognized that right now that style isn't working for us.
I mean...we collapsed some pockets....crowded the QB several times...but guys ain't getting home quick enough.
Part of that was the Saints game plan. But part of it imo was none of the big dogs in the middle penetrating and demanding a double team.
We need Walter Nolen back...yeah, yeah, I know...he's a rookie and rookie DT's struggle...
But Walter has a talent for getting skinny and shooting the gaps. A guy that does that will always draw a double team on passing downs...
We get that in the lineup and Sweat and the other olb's get to run foot races around the tackles to the QB

 

[WisconsinCard]

It's crazy how good kickers have gotten. Guys like Jan Stenerud were legendary kickers and they barely made half their kicks over 50 yards

Come on a guy with half a foot kicked a 63 yarder many years ago. I saw it, after the game they interviewed Rosy Greer and he said they didn't even rush. They laughed for 62 yards and then cried themselves off the field

 

[Russ Smith]

Lost in all of this: We looked hella rusty in the first quarter. My first thought was a lot of this couldve been avoided had we played the starters more in preseason. Perhaps there would've been less getting the kinks out and more efficiency.

Basically every game I watched this weekend the teams looked rusty in the first quarter. I think everyone decided they'd rather keep starters healthy and work into the first week than play starters in the preseason

 

[slanidrac16]

Part of that was their game plan. I was surprised by how quick they were getting the ball out on the big majority of their attempts. But the other part was we didn't have guys beating their blocker. Or have players come in completely clean like NO did several times. Hopefully at home we get a lot more hits on Young

Yes, and we can’t seem to do that. When Kyler takes the snap he always seems to take a couple of steps back and then pat the ball before he releases it.

 

[JosiahLee]

Blasting a very good Titans team in 2021 the first game of season didn’t stop us from getting our asses whooped against a bad Lions team later that same season.

This is the kinda hope we have to hang onto. It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish. Yes Lamar Jackson always looks amazing…Until January lol

Unfortunately K1 has only ever shown a pattern of falling a part down the stretch

 

[kerouac9]

This is the kinda hope we have to hang onto. It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish. Yes Lamar Jackson always looks amazing…Until January lol

Unfortunately K1 has only ever shown a pattern of falling a part down the stretch

CoD comes out Nov 14 so start loading up on Cards moneyline for the next couple months.

 

[Chopper0080]

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[BulldogCard]

Loved that Will Johnson hit on that bubble screen. He should of also had a pick, but a bs call negated it.

 

[ajcardfan]

Come on a guy with half a foot kicked a 63 yarder many years ago. I saw it, after the game they interviewed Rosy Greer and he said they didn't even rush. They laughed for 62 yards and then cried themselves off the field

Lol.

Exactly. Old No Toes was a 60% accurate career kicker on FGs and missed THIRTY extra points in eleven seasons. And he was considered a really good kicker!

 

[unseenaz]

I'd rather have some things to fix coming off a win than things to fix coming off a loss. Look at ASU this weekend.

Glad to be 1-0.

 

[PACardsFan]

Melton had an overall good game imo. To all the Melton sucks haters

Yes he did. As did Johnson. The OL & DL were both average at best. The holding penalty in the 4th quarter against Froholdt was the only reason we didn’t win by 2 scores.