No... they "solved" us when they beat us 5 times in a row, including four consecutive meetings when they were coached by the incompetent Mike Singletary. Duh.
Jeff King is our starting TE. Has been all season. Todd Heap also played, clearing the way for Andre Roberts on a big catch.
This was a good win. So was last week's against the Cowboys. Both of them were really good. Finishing the year at .500 is exactly where I expected us to end up.
The beginning of the season was incredibly frustrating because the offense was as bad under Kevin Kolb as it was under Derek Anderson and Max Hall, when I believe that the offense was meant to keep us competitive while the defense found it's feet.
But finishing .500 when you had the easiest schedule in the NFL shouldn't be a huge achievement. It should be a disappointment. No one made the Cards give away Steve Breaston or bench Deuce Lutui. The roster turnover was almost entirely in depth players, especially on the offensive side of the ball. You can throw out as many excuses as you like for poor performance, but we lost to Washington and Minnesota, currently two of the worst teams in the NFL. We win one of those games, and we move from "in the hunt" to "controlling our own destiny."
Just don't get you at times...
Revisionist history does nothing to add to the debate. We knew, as we entered week one this year, what our situation was. We knew that Breaston, Hightower and the rest were gone. We knew Williams was lost for the year. We knew we had a brand new DC, a new QB, and that our roster was revamped more than any other roster in the NFL. And we knew that all of that change was amplified by the lack of a training camp.
So, based upon those facts, I really don't see how are current position can be viewed as disappointing. That just seems completely disconnected from the facts. And now, at this juncture where we sit at 6 & 7, winners of 5 of our last 6 and a slim shot at the post season, with our starting FS out for most of the season, the QB we invested heavily in missing most of the season forcing us to go with a 5th round stretch pick at QB, a less than 100% Beanie Wells, nagging injuries at RT that have caused us to have to continue to rotate Keith and Bridges, our best DT out for the majority of the season... Sorry dude... IMHO, I think it's a minor miracle that we sit where we sit at this point. Somehow, Whiz held onto this team. Sitting at 1 & 6 and steering right into the abyss, he somehow kept the team together. Somehow Horton has been able to piece his defensive scheme together in a way that our guys have matured and learned and improved tremendously over the past 6 weeks.
You can discount all of that all you want by bringing up our schedule... however, last I checked, the Cowboys were 7 & 4 and the 9ers 10 & 2 when we played them - and beat them.
I am not at all suggesting that the Cards are now some sort of a juggernaut. They're not. But, I have no problem saying that I am totally surprised that we are 6 & 7 with a remote chance at the post season, given all of the above. I am totally surprised that Whiz didn't lose this team. And I am totally surprised by the marked improvement of our defense.
It seems to me that regardless of what happens the rest of the way this year, we will enter 2012 on a very positive note with one big, glaring spotlight shinning on Kolb. Since he'll probably not play this Sunday, that means that at best, we'll have 2 remaining games to potentially learn something about him. In essence, we will have gone the entire season and not really learned anything about Kolb... That sucks of course, however, I'm ok with that seeing how the rest of the team has come together. And all I can do is hope that next season, with a full training camp under his belt (and who knows, maybe Haley is back!
), that Kolb will prove to be worth the money we spent... If not, it sure seems to me that we have another QB worthy of investing in - Skelton. I'm cool with that...