Harry
ASFN Consultant and Senior Writer
My grandfather would have said this game was a case of chickens coming home to roost. If you don’t speak country, he meant these occurrences were easy to anticipate. If a player can’t look forward to winning, the NFL season can seem very long.
The Good News
The Cards did a good job of running the ball considering the loss of Connor. This came as a result of good play design and improved O-line blocking. Dobbs did not have a good overall game, but he had a fine game as a runner. Williams looked like a good addition at RB. The Cards finally remembered McBride was on the team. He’s rarely the main target and since Dobbs rarely uses progressions, he just gets plenty of exercise. Sadly Wilson is following the same pattern. I’d love to see what would happen if they were each getting 7 targets a game. Prater continues to be a solid weapon. Dortch is still looking solid on punt returns. He played some snaps, but no real targets.
On defense I thought Hamilton had a decent game. He’s one of their best open field tacklers. Gardeck continues to impress me with his hustle. On the whole I thought the pass rush was decent and at times excellent, but they still leave a midfield running lane.
The Bad News
It starts again this week with Dobbs. It was what’s becoming the usual stuff. He displayed terrible footwork, no progressions, no field vision, throwing into double coverage and no sense of an impending hit coming. I was curious why there weren’t more rollout passes, 2-man games and screens to slow the pass rush. The Cards got run happy in the red zone, likely because they feared Dobbs passing. I’m not sure why they didn’t at least try to target the TEs in the red zone. Dobbs also stays too upright running a QB sneak
Speaking of disappointing performances, Moore may not know where the line to gain is, but I’ve never seen a player with better awareness of where the field boundary line is. He is most effective when running misdirection plays. Sadly the Cards didn’t try any of those with him.
The shallowness of the DL became evident as the game wore on. By the second half the DL was pushed all over the field. They just don’t have the personnel.
Clark took a significant amount of post game abuse. He did play like a rookie, but keep in mind Kupp has schooled far more experienced CBs. At least Clark challenged him.
Cards once again committed some careless penalties, but even without them the Cards lose. Tackling was sloppy, especially Wallace. Humphries had his worst game of the season.
The Cards got out-coached. There was too much jumping around right before the snap; confusion. The Cards tried to pull linemen, but the Rams’ DL just went straight to the QB. I don’t like fair catching at the 7. Demercado needed more carries. Hard to intercept with that much cushion. Ojulari got a good view of several plays. Just several small points that collectively made for a generally weak performance.
The Good News
The Cards did a good job of running the ball considering the loss of Connor. This came as a result of good play design and improved O-line blocking. Dobbs did not have a good overall game, but he had a fine game as a runner. Williams looked like a good addition at RB. The Cards finally remembered McBride was on the team. He’s rarely the main target and since Dobbs rarely uses progressions, he just gets plenty of exercise. Sadly Wilson is following the same pattern. I’d love to see what would happen if they were each getting 7 targets a game. Prater continues to be a solid weapon. Dortch is still looking solid on punt returns. He played some snaps, but no real targets.
On defense I thought Hamilton had a decent game. He’s one of their best open field tacklers. Gardeck continues to impress me with his hustle. On the whole I thought the pass rush was decent and at times excellent, but they still leave a midfield running lane.
The Bad News
It starts again this week with Dobbs. It was what’s becoming the usual stuff. He displayed terrible footwork, no progressions, no field vision, throwing into double coverage and no sense of an impending hit coming. I was curious why there weren’t more rollout passes, 2-man games and screens to slow the pass rush. The Cards got run happy in the red zone, likely because they feared Dobbs passing. I’m not sure why they didn’t at least try to target the TEs in the red zone. Dobbs also stays too upright running a QB sneak
Speaking of disappointing performances, Moore may not know where the line to gain is, but I’ve never seen a player with better awareness of where the field boundary line is. He is most effective when running misdirection plays. Sadly the Cards didn’t try any of those with him.
The shallowness of the DL became evident as the game wore on. By the second half the DL was pushed all over the field. They just don’t have the personnel.
Clark took a significant amount of post game abuse. He did play like a rookie, but keep in mind Kupp has schooled far more experienced CBs. At least Clark challenged him.
Cards once again committed some careless penalties, but even without them the Cards lose. Tackling was sloppy, especially Wallace. Humphries had his worst game of the season.
The Cards got out-coached. There was too much jumping around right before the snap; confusion. The Cards tried to pull linemen, but the Rams’ DL just went straight to the QB. I don’t like fair catching at the 7. Demercado needed more carries. Hard to intercept with that much cushion. Ojulari got a good view of several plays. Just several small points that collectively made for a generally weak performance.
