Cardinals vs. Chiefs - Preseason Game 2

[RugbyMuffin]

Again, I will just post what notes I took while I watched the game. Overall the Cardinals sucked, and the game was boring. The team looked asleep, and their play matched their energy level.

It is preseason, but you can't just turn it on like a light switch. I put it on the coaches heads that the team looked so uncompetitive last night.

1st Quarter - Skelton Starting.

1. Wilson with good pressure early. For our lack of power, and tackling ability this defense has a lot of speed.

2. Reggie Walker got a lot of time last night, and looked poor for most of it. He over pursued a bunch of plays, and missed at least 2 tackles

3. Dan Williams gets pushed all over the place on the opening drive, and then makes a stupid play and costs the team 15 yards. He looked weak, light, and played poor in KC. There was a reason the Chiefs ran all over us.

4. Happy to see Eric Winston, a player who the Cardinals "didn't need" dominate early in the game. How many big running plays did you count going to the right side ?

5. Good to see Patrick Peterson throwing his body into contact. May not be too effective but at least he is not scared.

6. 2 Preseason games - 2 opening TD drives by the opposing offense.

7. A Reason I like John Skelton as the AZ QB: He knows Andre Roberts plays for the Cardinals and gets the ball in his hands.

7a. A Reason I like John Skelton as the AZ QB: Pocket Pressence.

8. A Reason I like John Skelton as the AZ QB: He knows Fitz is a dominant player and gets the ball in his hands as much as possible

9. WOW. Our offensive line is atrocious. Colledge lets a LB right in the back field on 3rd & 1. That is pretty clueless. -punt-

10. Michael Adams gets burned for a big gain.

11. Holliday, Acho, Schofield and Bradley are getting manhandled in the run game. I have said it once, and I will say it 50 times before we get to game 6 of the regular season. This defense is going to struggle at the beginning of this season. If we got 2-4 in the 1st six games, it will be a blessing. Oh, and another TD drive. Yawn. Nothing much to watch.

12. Sendlien gets BLOWN UP. LOL. Our offense cannot make the right adjustments, and our center and guards can't hold back interior linemen, even on double teams. Sendlien has been and will be until he leaves, the most overhyped lineman for the Cardinals. He has never been good, never been strong at the point of attack, and is HORRIBLE at pre-snap. He makes our poor offensive line worse, if that is possible.

13. Heap drops a pass that hits him in the hands. 3 & out. Oh, and our offensive line is horrible

14. OOOOOOOOOOO BOY! Adrian Wilson gives out a little love on Torrence Copper. Sorry, Mr. Copper, that was a clean hit, deal with it.

15. No running game for the Cardinals tonight. The offensive line looks like they are lost. It is a good thing that our passing game looks poor as well, or I would have a problem saying our offensive line is horrible. Adam Snyder is really, really horrible. Our G-C-G situation is almost as bad as our OT's. Good thing we didn't draft DeCastro.

16. Skelton with some nice passes to Fitz.

17. Doucet looses his cool, gets an un-needed holding penalty and stalls the drive. Would have been a 1st down.

18. Pressure from the right side, and left, hits Skelton as he throws, falls incomplete.

19. Skelton does a good job scrambling away, as Levi Brown blows his block, and then commits a hold. Skelton gets out of the pocket, and throws a HORRIBLE pass in Fitz's direct. Poor decision to do so, and poor technique used to throw the poor pass. Thus it is picked, and returned. Skelton has to eat this ball, run with it, hit the check down, or even if he is going to throw a ball based on a poor decision, at least get his legs under him and throw the ball correctly. Just a extremely poor job by Skelton. Shows a lack of improvement in his game compared to last year. A dumb decision made at the beginning of a game. We are down 14-0 at that point. You cannot do that.

20. William Gay called for a ticky-tack P.I. penalty in the endzone.

21. Wilson/Bradley with a goaline stuff on a running play, Acho a good play against a naked-bootleg, and Schofield shows his ability to get pressure in the passing game, and our defense holds for a FG against the 2nd team offense.

2nd Quarter - Enter Kevin Kolb.

22. Nice pass to DeMarco Sampson.

23. Sacked. Levi Brown gives up another sack. -punt-

24. Jamell Flemming shows some size, and power on a good tackle for a loss

25. Noticed that Reggie Walker, Brandon Williams, and Colin Parker played a lot last night. Parker was around the ball a lot. Defense forces punt.

26. BLOK with a 3 & out. Chicken with his head cut off. -punt-

27. Flemming with another nice tackle in the trenches.

28. Rashad Johnson gets a present INT. Good coverage by Flemming, and awareness by Johnson.

2nd Quarter - Enter Lindley with 23 seconds in the half

29. And mind you, with Lindley in, and 23 sec left, the 1st team offensive line was STILL IN THE GAME. Why ? I can only assume that they sucked so bad that our coaches have finally, just finally, hopefully hit a point of "we gotta make some changes".

30. Lindley hits LaRon Byrd for 3 passes. Manages the clock beautifully, and Feely hits a FG before halftime. Well done.

3rd Quarter - Lindley at QB

31. Big run by William Powell, off Kelemete, and Floyd.

32. Dray with a nice catch and run

33. Nice TD run by Powell, off Kelemete again.

34. Couple boring series later, Chiefs with a big punt poor coverage/tackling, but defense holds Chiefs to a FG.

3rd Quarter - Bartel at QB

31. As I was writing "Wedgie looks good again" he then started to get absolutely dominated, and pushed around. He had a poor game.

32. Bartel with a fumble. Bartel looks old, slow, and a player who knows he is not going to make the team. Chiefs take the ball on the ensuing drive for a TD.

33. Kelemete with a extremely nice pull and block.

34. Kelemete on a nice pass block, only to have DJ Young have a holding penalty, and give up a sack.

35. A very nice play by Larry Parker who is showing up consistently at CB.

36. ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.......... This game is boring and hard to watch. My attention has matched the Cardinals effort tonight, half-asleep.

37. Steve Skelton with a nice catch and run. Again, he is showing he can be productive, and do his job.

38. Isiah Williams with a very nice 25 yard catch.

39. Skelton with another catch. He got hurt on the play, still caught it.

40. Bartel to Johnson for a TD. Good play since Nate Potter got torched on the play.

41. Groves with some pressure, and Bethel with some coverage.

42. Stewart at guard gives up a sack. Very poor. -punt-

43. Bartel looks pretty poor.

44. Bethel held on punt coverage, cause he was all over the play.

45. Elder with a few big hits in the run game. Vassallo with a run stop at the line of scrimmage.

46. Vassallo then beat in coverage, and then he comes back with another run stop.

-END OF GAME-

Thank goodness. Best part about the game.....it being over.

That was a very poor showing for our organization across the board. We were completely dominated in the 1st quarter. The defense looked weak, and the offensive looked clueless and talentless on the OL.

No headway was made in the QB battle. Skelton could have made a move to become the leader in the race, but threw a HORRIBLE interception. So, bad it negated what positives he had shown. Kevin Kolb did nothing as well, except remind us who Kolb is and how he plays football. A lot of running around, and not a lot of making plays. So, after two preseason games, and each QB starting a game, the competition is still a tie at this point. Sad really.

The offensive line is horrible. Nuff said.

Our defense is going to need some time. There is plenty of talent, but as a team they are not playing well. I have confidence on this side of the ball.

All and all it was a very boring game for a Caridnals fan. The team was not interested in what it was doing. They looked uninterested, tired, bored, and weak. Hopefully coming home will wake them up.

If I were Whiz.....I would be worried about the effort, and mindset of this team. I think he has his "starters" a little too confident in there roles on this roster.

Adam Snyder should not start next preseason. Put Kelemete in, see what he can do.

Let me put on my coaching hat:

Rugbymuffin's Cardinals Depth Chart - Post-Preseason Game 2:

QB:
Skelton
Kolb
Lindley

RB:
[Wells]
[Williams]
LSH
Smith - For a 4th stringer who plays well on ST. He is a perfect fit.
W.Powell
James

FB:
Sherman
[Dray/Skelton]

WR:
Fitz
Roberts
Floyd
[Doucet/Byrd]
Sampson

TE:
[King]
Housler
[Heap/Dray]

OT:
Brown
Bridges
????? <----

OG:
Kelemete
Colledge
Snyder

OC:
Sendlien
Hochstein
Wedgie

DL:
Dockett
Williams
Campbell
Carter
Eason
Holliday

OLB:
Acho
Schofield
[Haggans/Williams]
[Goves/Colin Parker]

ILB:
Washington
Bradley
Lenon
[Reggie Walker/Vasallo]

CB:
Peterson
Gay
Flemming
[Adams/Toler]
[Jefferson/Larry Parker]

FS:
Rhodes
[Johnson/Bethel/Sanders]


SS:
Wilson
[Gideon/Elder]

K:
Feely

P:
Zastidul

LS:
Leach

 

[Duckjake]

Dan Williams gets pushed all over the place on the opening drive, and then makes a stupid play and costs the team 15 yards. He looked weak, light, and played poor in KC. There was a reason the Chiefs ran all over us.

Looks like Stout and my concern over Williams loss of weight may be legitimate.

You also wrote that Snyder was horrible. As I told Darkside last night, I watched through to mid 2nd quarter doing nothing but watching Snyder and he was not horrible by any measure. He wasn't spectacular but he didn't get blown up, blown by, or whiff on blocks in the time I was keying on him.

You may be right on Sendlein as the Cards were using Snyder on double teams with him on several plays. Could be the staff has figured out Sendlein needs help.

Skelton makes one bad decision and it shows there's been no improvement from last year? I saw Aaron Rodgers air mail a wide open WR in a very important situation in a huge game just a couple of years ago. No QB is perfect. Even Brees missed on almost 30% of his passes last season.

 

[BigRedRage]

good job.

Kolb has a 0 QB rating after two games. Pathetic. A few passes looked good and the rest was hot garbage. Minus Skeltons scrambling hail mary interception, I thought he did great. Tough to get consistant first downs when you run twice and keep losing yards.

Poised, great pocket presence and seems more accurate than last year.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Skelton makes one bad decision and it shows there's been no improvement from last year? I saw Aaron Rodgers air mail a wide open WR in a very important situation in a huge game just a couple of years ago. No QB is perfect. Even Brees missed on almost 30% of his passes last season.

Same stupid decision making we saw from Skelton last year. Thus no improvement from last year. I saw nothing "new and improved" from Skelton in this game.

To improve, means to be better at something then at a previous time. I have not seen the improvement yet.

An improvement would to have been to handle that situation better, and not force it.

 

[BigRedRage]

Same stupid decision making we saw from Skelton last year. Thus no improvement from last year. I saw nothing "new and improved" from Skelton in this game.

To improve, means to be better at something then at a previous time. I have not seen the improvement yet.

An improvement would to have been to handle that situation better, and not force it.

Accuracy is better. Pocket presence is better. Still leaps and bounds above BLOK. Haterade cant stop those facts.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Accuracy is better. Pocket presence is better. Still leaps and bounds above BLOK. Haterade cant stop those facts.

I have to disagree. I don't see the accuracy, or pocket presence being any better than last year at this point.

I am not talking about who Skelton is better than. I am talking about what Skelton has to do, to become a better QB. I am comparing him to what I saw a year ago, and so far, his play is about where it was at the end of last year.

He can't make that throw, and all the excuses that can be made for him, won't change that.

 

[BigRedRage]

I have to disagree. I don't see the accuracy, or pocket presence being any better than last year at this point.

I am not talking about who Skelton is better than. I am talking about what Skelton has to do, to become a better QB. I am comparing him to what I saw a year ago, and so far, his play is about where it was at the end of last year.

He can't make that throw, and all the excuses that can be made for him, won't change that.

beyond his swatted pass and the hail mary I thought he was very accurate.

What we need at the MINIMUM is a game manager and he did that very well Friday when you look at what he was handed. The horrible running game put it all on him and he still moved the chains. Without the wild hail mary we would have had them pinned within the 20 and if the D turns into what its supposed to you get another shot starting from your 20-50.

 

[Duckjake]

I have to disagree. I don't see the accuracy, or pocket presence being any better than last year at this point.

I am not talking about who Skelton is better than. I am talking about what Skelton has to do, to become a better QB. I am comparing him to what I saw a year ago, and so far, his play is about where it was at the end of last year.

He can't make that throw, and all the excuses that can be made for him, won't change that.

Again that's ONE throw. Out of 12. I understand your point but I'll bet the Packers fans forgot all about Rodgers blowing the game vs Arizona when he took the Pack to the SB.

Completion % is up to 58.3. And that's only because Heap has dropped a couple. THE big difference I see in watching the replays is that he is doing a far better job of reading the field. You can see his head move as he looks from one WR to another or tries to look off defenders.

Another thing I see different from last season is that Skelton and his receivers are getting first down yardage instead of 7 yards on 3rd and 9 like we saw so much of last year.

 

[PJ1]

Also thought Skelton was fine. Other than the pick he looked good and with third and fourth string RB's not easy to do. No comparison between him and Kolb so far. Kolb doesn't even look like he wants to be out there.

Also focused on Snyder last night and an not seeing this horrid play others are. Levi was bad as usual and the center position from Sendlein on down was horrendous last night.

Why is Heap on this team? I also hope the Reggie Walker and Jim Dray experiments end this year. King, Housler and Skelton at TE is fine with me.

Liking both Fleming and Bethel.

Need to get Dan Williams back at the buffet table.

 

[Darkside]

Looks like Stout and my concern over Williams loss of weight may be legitimate.

You also wrote that Snyder was horrible. As I told Darkside last night, I watched through to mid 2nd quarter doing nothing but watching Snyder and he was not horrible by any measure. He wasn't spectacular but he didn't get blown up, blown by, or whiff on blocks in the time I was keying on him.

You may be right on Sendlein as the Cards were using Snyder on double teams with him on several plays. Could be the staff has figured out Sendlein needs help.

I rewatched the first half again this morning: Snyder played better than I thought originally. Our Oline's really hurting right now (that's about the nicest thing I can say about it). As of now I honestly think it's worst than last year, if that's possible. Snyder helped out with Sendlein several times with chips (while holding his own blocker) and was also able to release his guy on several plays to pick up free rushers. Snyder also played well in the run game, able to push dudes back (didn't get to the 2nd level alot though) or at least hold his ground.

Dan Williams is a concern for me. Watching the game again, it's worse than it looked live. He got blown off the ball on runs and showed terrible technique. He was trying to reach through blocks to tackle guys. He's got great sideline to sideline speed and great range for his position, but it looked to me like he wasn't fully engaging his blocks and was more interested in disengaging his blocks to make the tackle, rather than beating his man. That's what a Linebacker does (shedding), not a nose tackle. I was surprised by his ineptitude, I really was, and for me it's the 2nd game where he's been blown up (seemingly) on every run play. He's better on pass plays but against the run he's a liability right now. I know he's strong, but he's not going to arm-tackle dudes like Hillis and Charles. Many times in the run game his job is just to eat space and occupy 2 Olineman, but he seems totally uninterested in doing that. Right now, in my estimation, he plays more like a 4-3 nose rather than a 3-4. I'm not even sure his weight loss is a good thing anymore.

 

[Darkside]

Also thought Skelton was fine. Other than the pick he looked good and with third and fourth string RB's not easy to do. No comparison between him and Kolb so far. Kolb doesn't even look like he wants to be out there.

Also focused on Snyder last night and an not seeing this horrid play others are. Levi was bad as usual and the center position from Sendlein on down was horrendous last night.

Why is Heap on this team? I also hope the Reggie Walker and Jim Dray experiments end this year. King, Housler and Skelton at TE is fine with me.

Liking both Fleming and Bethel.

Need to get Dan Williams back at the buffet table.

Nice post, totally agree with everything you said.

Have to say, regarding Kolb not wanting to be out there: his body language was again horrible. Coaches get on that all the time. Last year even Cam Newton was derided by his coaches for his body language and it wasn't near as bad as Kolb's and he was playing spectacularly. Same thing with Sanchez. Kolb's body language was pretty pathetic both games. He doesn't instill confidence even for fans, let alone his players. It's depressing, because I really wanted him to succeed, but I doubt he can lead this team. Skelton looks like he has leadership skills: to me he looked like he wanted so bad to be out there and make plays. He wanted to extend drives to get more playing time. He didn't even want to come out...Kolb looks relieved when he's pulled.

 

[Duckjake]

Many times in the run game his job is just to eat space and occupy 2 Olineman, but he seems totally uninterested in doing that. Right now, in my estimation, he plays more like a 4-3 nose rather than a 3-4. I'm not even sure his weight loss is a good thing anymore.

I'm starting to belileve that that is what he is being told to do. It is what Carter does when he plays the nose. I'm beginning to wonder what Horton is thinking with his version of the 3-4. The more I see it the more it looks like a 4-3 or 4-2-5 depending on the down and distance.

 

[b8rtm8nn]

I'm starting to belileve that that is what he is being told to do. It is what Carter does when he plays the nose. I'm beginning to wonder what Horton is thinking with his version of the 3-4. The more I see it the more it looks like a 4-3 or 4-2-5 depending on the down and distance.

I wonder if Horton is playing with options and scenarios in pre-season, just to see if it's possible. It wouldn't be surprising to me for him to call a bunch of strange formations or techniques that do not match the opponent because it IS preseason

 

[Duckjake]

I wonder if Horton is playing with options and scenarios in pre-season, just to see if it's possible. It wouldn't be surprising to me for him to call a bunch of strange formations or techniques that do not match the opponent because it IS preseason

I was thinking the same thing last night. In fact I think he's just told the guys to go out and attack the football and we'll run our plays in September. Which explains the over pursuit and reaction that has them out of position to make tackles all the time.

Anybody seen DWash blow through a gap and blow up a runner the last two games or Dockett do anything last night? We're laying low boys. It's the Texas Possum Defense.

 

[PJ1]

I was thinking the same thing last night. In fact I think he's just told the guys to go out and attack the football and we'll run our plays in September. Which explains the over pursuit and reaction that has them out of position to make tackles all the time.

Anybody seen DWash blow through a gap and blow up a runner the last two games or Dockett do anything last night? We're laying low boys. It's the Texas Possum Defense.

If that is the case we play it perfectly because we certainly looked dead.

 

[Duckjake]

I have to disagree. I don't see the accuracy, or pocket presence being any better than last year at this point.

I am not talking about who Skelton is better than. I am talking about what Skelton has to do, to become a better QB. I am comparing him to what I saw a year ago, and so far, his play is about where it was at the end of last year.

He can't make that throw, and all the excuses that can be made for him, won't change that.

Hey Rugby, woke up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep so while I was up it suddenly dawned on me that if Skelton played all 16 games and just did what he did last year we'll be 12-4 this season!

 

[Chopper0080]

Haven't seen the replay on NFL network yet, so I will comment on some of the comments.

1-Senio Kelemente sounds like he is doing well, hopefully he keeps it up. I have have said for awhile now I think he can be a player.

2-Dan Williams: It has been a long time since Williams has been in the trenches and if you aren't playing with the right leverage at NT, it can look ugly. Judge him more at the end of the preseason rather than right now.

3-QBs. Not suprising that there is a lack of consistency, that has been the problem since day 1.

4-RBs: Keep in mind RBs can make a line look really good of really bad. Lets wait to see how they do with our top 2 in before judging too harshly.

5-OL: It's my belief that the Cardinals struggle in the run game due to a lack of athleticism at the OG position, or maybe a lack of strength at the OC. This prohibits our OGs from getting to the second level and cutting off scraping LBs.

6-Defense: I would much rather see the defense flying around and failing to finish than not flying around. Finishing plays on defense is something that comes and young teams can struggle with, but is totally correctable. Sometimes when young athletes are developing they have to adjust to the speed in which they get to the play when they make the right read and react at full speed. There is a transitional process from thinking, moving, and finishing to reacting and finishing.

That is it until I get to watch the game

 

[JeffGollin]

I got to see the final 1.5 quarters of the KC game so far, and it looked to me that our Front 7 backups were getting physically pushed around by KC's backups (On offense, Bartel got to see a lot of sky).

If our first and second stringers got pushed around the same way (which is the way it sounded over the radio) we should be very concerned.