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- Jan 2, 2003
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What is so disheartening about this particular loss though, and what might be kind of winding people up, is that, even though we played poorly, and even though there was some questionable officiating, we still had the game right there for us to win, and we didn't do it.
It wouldn't have taken a hail mary, or recover an onside kickoff, or anything rare like that. We just needed another 10 yards or whatever to get into game winning field goal range, and then to make the kick. Fairly routine stuff. But, we couldn't make a couple of routine plays.
And leads us to what has me a little worried.
When Warner was on (not bad Kurt), he would make great throws no matter how pressure-packed the situation. As a result, we won a lot of big games against good teams. Think about that last drive against the Eagles in the NFC championship game. Trailing in the biggest game of the season, in the biggest game in the history of the franchise even, there was no room for error, and Kurt made ever play.
Palmer sailed two throws yesterday at the end of the game. Throws that he had made all game long. All season long in fact. The rams didn't put a lot of pressure on him on either throw. The only thing unique about those two throws was, when he was asked to make them, the game was on the line
I don't like how he reacted in that situation. It looks like he might have tightened up a little in a big moment.
Now don't get me wrong, I freaking love what CP has brought to this team. He's a top five QB in this league, and our runaway MVP. His overall talent, experience, and leadership give us a chance to win the superbowl. A chance we would not otherwise have with a Nick Foles for example.
But I'm a little worried by what I saw yesterday at the end of the game. We can fix all the other stuff that happened yesterday that made us lose. But we can't fix CP's poise. It's too late for that.
And there's going to come another point in this season, it might be against the Seahawks, or the Packers, or maybe even the Patriots, where the Cardinals don't go any further unless, on 4th and 7, Palmer makes a good throw. It'll be either he makes the throw and we (go on to) win, or he misses and we lose.
Is going to make that throw? Right now, I'm not sure.
to be fair to Palmer, he was making all those big throws last season. Had a big comeback against SD in the last minute and nailed that perfect bomb to Smokey against the Eagles. He's not Brady/Rodgers which means we can't always depend on him to be super super clutch, but he's still solid.
what bothered me more yesterday was that both the offense AND defense failed at the end of the game BIG TIME. Even after the 4th down miss to DJ, there was still 1:44 left and we had 3 TOs. If the D came out and forced a 3 and out, we still get the ball back with probably 1:20 left and needing a FG, which isn't out of the question. But the D rolled over and died also. That's what was concerning to me. Last year's club seemingly picked up for each other, especially in the 4th quarter and this was the first time this team had a chance to prove it's meddle and they failed to do so.