Mitch
Crawled Through 5 FB Fields
Sweet 15
Last week I was tempted to write that for the first time that I can remember since becoming a fan of the Cardinals on November 24, 1963, the Cardinals not only won 13 games in the regular season, but they were IN EVERY game.
That kind of consistency in today's NFL is extraordinary.
It is a testament to the arduous daily and weekly preparation that BA, his coaches and the players have put forth since the season ended so bitterly last year in Carolina.
Furthermore, it is a credit to SK for the job he is doing with the roster. When the team has been missing some puzzle pieces---SK has been doing all he can on a very limited budget to make the team as deep and talented as he possibly can.
I didn't write this last week because the regular season wasn't over yet and I wondered whether the Cardinals could make it a clean 16 highly competitive games in a row---which would be an all-time record, as any long-time Cardinals' fan knows.
The Run of 9
I also wanted to wait until the end of the regular season to mention the Cardinals' outstanding, unprecedented nine game winning streak, which happened to take place during the most challenging stretch of their schedule with 5 of those games on the road and, as it turned out, an unprecedented 5 games in prime-time.
In that span, the Cardinals rightfully became the darlings of the NFL. It wasn't just because they went an impressive 5-0 in the prime-time games, it was because of HOW gutsy and fast they played.
Cardinals' Envy
Let's face it---this, more than anything else---is what motivated Pete Carroll and the Seahawks to play this last game like their hair was on fire. The Cardinals this time around didn't give the Seahawks a chance to win the NFC West on the last game of the season.
When the Cardinals wrapped up the NFC West title in Philadelphia---do you think the Seahawks took notice of the Cardinals' NFC West "LOCK" t-shirts?
Not only that, after the Cardinals beat the Seahawks in Seattle---did you notice how the Seahawks, QB Russell Wilson and OC Darrell Bevell turned right around and started to open up their offense?
Stuck Between the Scylla and Charybdis:
BA and the team were stuck between a rock and a hard place in this game. The truth is the Cardinals had closed out the Seahawks a couple of weeks ago, and then they closed out the first round bye.
If anyone actually thought the Panthers were going to lose at home to the Bucs or that there was even a chance, he or she was dreaming.
After the Packers' game on SNF, an exuberant Carson Palmer spoke of how "banged up" the football team was. Palmer was not kidding. The toll of playing 15 high effort, competitive games in a row is enormous---so to ask the players to box another 12 rounds when the fight was already won was excessive and in terms of risking injury to key players, it was potentially reckless.
But, did you notice how quickly Pete Carroll, following the Seahawks' loss at home to the Rams, announced that he and his team were going to go full bore after the Cardinals?
What was BA to do?
Carroll threw down the gauntlet at him.
BA and the players did what any competitor wants to do---they accepted the challenge because they felt they had to.
But, when the reality of risking injury in this far less meaningful game hit home, you could see it in the players' faces---they were playing not to get hurt. And who can blame them? So many of them are nursing hurts and injuries as it is.
Do you think it was a supreme fluke that on the first play from scrimmage a Seahawk took a dive at Carson Palmer's leg?
Was it a fluke that the Seahawks' backup guard took a cheap shot at Cory Redding's knee?
Pete Carroll may have been basking in all his so-called glory in this game in trying to re-establish his team as the team to beat in the NFC...but....what was the potential cost?
They don't get a bye week.
They don't get a home game. Not one.
I can guarantee you that many of his players are real sore today.
They have to recreate this same energy this week at Minnesota. And if that works out for them---they have to go to Carolina to play the one team in the NFC that played competitive football in all 16 games.
Wouldn't it have been wiser to give his key players some much needed rest?
We will see.
Playing Possum?
It struck me very profoundly during this game that while the Seahawks were providing the Cardinals with a tape full of all of their schemes and creative play calling, BA and the Cardinals were being about as vanilla as vanilla gets.
Twice the defense let the Seahawks escape from huge holes---the first was when the Seahawks were backed up because of a holding penalty and they go into their wide double twins formation---which the Cardinals defend by sending twin cover men to both sides---but then right before the snap the Cardinals' FS vacates the middle and comes running up to the left side of the Seahawks' line. Instead the Seahawks run an off-tackle play to Christine Michael to the right side and he breaks through the hole and is off to the races. A total gift.
Next, on a key third and 12, the Cardinals, off of a Seahawks' timeout where the Cardinals were threatening a blitz, decide to go into a 3 man rush. Raise your hand if you think the 3 man rush is a good idea.
Even worse---if you are rushing three, that means you can play man to man on all 5 eligible receivers AND play 3 deep safeties. How in the world, then, is there no deep middle safety there to help Justin Bethel cover Tyler Lockett on a deep post? On a play where the Cardinals gave Russell Wilson all the time he could ever want? Another out and out gift.
Neither of these plays make any sense.
Like on third and eight on the Cardinals' first drive throwing a jump ball to Michael Floyd who is being blanketed by Richard Sherman. It makes no sense.
Like punting the ball beyond the coverage to Tyler Lockett---not just once but two times in a row and the even three times.
Like not even covering the FB on a play action pass. Or the 3rd and 4th string TEs on their basic play action bootlegs.
Like giving Russell Wilson the edge any time he wants it.
It was as if the Cardinals had done zero preparation for the Seahawks.
That's not like this year's team at all---sure, there are some mistakes in every game---but to look so ignorant of what the other team's schemes are is very odd indeed.
Ghostbusting:
If there was one key thing I learned from this game---those Seahawks' dusty gray road uniforms make them look like ghosts. Honest to goodness, when the camera was right behind Drew Stanton when he threw his first interception---even I, at first, had a difficult time seeing Earl Thomas sitting there underneath the route.
Maybe---seeing as the Cardinals play far better against the Seahawks when they play in white---heck, next time at U of P---make the Seahawks wear their blue jerseys. Go with the white. Just a thought.
Malcolm Gladwell---the 10,000 Hour Rule
Interesting that today SK called this game an "outlier."
What SK knows and what I believe we can all appreciate is how hard the Cardinals have worked to put themselves in this position.
In Malcom Gladwell's best-selling book, Outliers, the Story of Success, he talks about how it takes generally 10,000 hours of hard work and practice for anyone or for any group to get real good at their craft.
The Cardinals under MB, SK, BA and his staff have inspired this team to work for every little thing they've earned. Would anyone be surprised at the notion that he Cardinals this year have put in more meaningful hours of work and preparation as any football team on the planet?
The Cardinals have all the motivation in the world---and they also have all the hard work to help push them through. They have the leadership, more so than any other Cardinals' team in ages. They have leaders who are on a mission and coaches who push the players to their limits. They have a GM who is tireless. And they have an owner who a first-class human being, who lives by the mantra: "team is what it takes."
Last week I was tempted to write that for the first time that I can remember since becoming a fan of the Cardinals on November 24, 1963, the Cardinals not only won 13 games in the regular season, but they were IN EVERY game.
That kind of consistency in today's NFL is extraordinary.
It is a testament to the arduous daily and weekly preparation that BA, his coaches and the players have put forth since the season ended so bitterly last year in Carolina.
Furthermore, it is a credit to SK for the job he is doing with the roster. When the team has been missing some puzzle pieces---SK has been doing all he can on a very limited budget to make the team as deep and talented as he possibly can.
I didn't write this last week because the regular season wasn't over yet and I wondered whether the Cardinals could make it a clean 16 highly competitive games in a row---which would be an all-time record, as any long-time Cardinals' fan knows.
The Run of 9
I also wanted to wait until the end of the regular season to mention the Cardinals' outstanding, unprecedented nine game winning streak, which happened to take place during the most challenging stretch of their schedule with 5 of those games on the road and, as it turned out, an unprecedented 5 games in prime-time.
In that span, the Cardinals rightfully became the darlings of the NFL. It wasn't just because they went an impressive 5-0 in the prime-time games, it was because of HOW gutsy and fast they played.
Cardinals' Envy
Let's face it---this, more than anything else---is what motivated Pete Carroll and the Seahawks to play this last game like their hair was on fire. The Cardinals this time around didn't give the Seahawks a chance to win the NFC West on the last game of the season.
When the Cardinals wrapped up the NFC West title in Philadelphia---do you think the Seahawks took notice of the Cardinals' NFC West "LOCK" t-shirts?
Not only that, after the Cardinals beat the Seahawks in Seattle---did you notice how the Seahawks, QB Russell Wilson and OC Darrell Bevell turned right around and started to open up their offense?
Stuck Between the Scylla and Charybdis:
BA and the team were stuck between a rock and a hard place in this game. The truth is the Cardinals had closed out the Seahawks a couple of weeks ago, and then they closed out the first round bye.
If anyone actually thought the Panthers were going to lose at home to the Bucs or that there was even a chance, he or she was dreaming.
After the Packers' game on SNF, an exuberant Carson Palmer spoke of how "banged up" the football team was. Palmer was not kidding. The toll of playing 15 high effort, competitive games in a row is enormous---so to ask the players to box another 12 rounds when the fight was already won was excessive and in terms of risking injury to key players, it was potentially reckless.
But, did you notice how quickly Pete Carroll, following the Seahawks' loss at home to the Rams, announced that he and his team were going to go full bore after the Cardinals?
What was BA to do?
Carroll threw down the gauntlet at him.
BA and the players did what any competitor wants to do---they accepted the challenge because they felt they had to.
But, when the reality of risking injury in this far less meaningful game hit home, you could see it in the players' faces---they were playing not to get hurt. And who can blame them? So many of them are nursing hurts and injuries as it is.
Do you think it was a supreme fluke that on the first play from scrimmage a Seahawk took a dive at Carson Palmer's leg?
Was it a fluke that the Seahawks' backup guard took a cheap shot at Cory Redding's knee?
Pete Carroll may have been basking in all his so-called glory in this game in trying to re-establish his team as the team to beat in the NFC...but....what was the potential cost?
They don't get a bye week.
They don't get a home game. Not one.
I can guarantee you that many of his players are real sore today.
They have to recreate this same energy this week at Minnesota. And if that works out for them---they have to go to Carolina to play the one team in the NFC that played competitive football in all 16 games.
Wouldn't it have been wiser to give his key players some much needed rest?
We will see.
Playing Possum?
It struck me very profoundly during this game that while the Seahawks were providing the Cardinals with a tape full of all of their schemes and creative play calling, BA and the Cardinals were being about as vanilla as vanilla gets.
Twice the defense let the Seahawks escape from huge holes---the first was when the Seahawks were backed up because of a holding penalty and they go into their wide double twins formation---which the Cardinals defend by sending twin cover men to both sides---but then right before the snap the Cardinals' FS vacates the middle and comes running up to the left side of the Seahawks' line. Instead the Seahawks run an off-tackle play to Christine Michael to the right side and he breaks through the hole and is off to the races. A total gift.
Next, on a key third and 12, the Cardinals, off of a Seahawks' timeout where the Cardinals were threatening a blitz, decide to go into a 3 man rush. Raise your hand if you think the 3 man rush is a good idea.
Even worse---if you are rushing three, that means you can play man to man on all 5 eligible receivers AND play 3 deep safeties. How in the world, then, is there no deep middle safety there to help Justin Bethel cover Tyler Lockett on a deep post? On a play where the Cardinals gave Russell Wilson all the time he could ever want? Another out and out gift.
Neither of these plays make any sense.
Like on third and eight on the Cardinals' first drive throwing a jump ball to Michael Floyd who is being blanketed by Richard Sherman. It makes no sense.
Like punting the ball beyond the coverage to Tyler Lockett---not just once but two times in a row and the even three times.
Like not even covering the FB on a play action pass. Or the 3rd and 4th string TEs on their basic play action bootlegs.
Like giving Russell Wilson the edge any time he wants it.
It was as if the Cardinals had done zero preparation for the Seahawks.
That's not like this year's team at all---sure, there are some mistakes in every game---but to look so ignorant of what the other team's schemes are is very odd indeed.
Ghostbusting:
If there was one key thing I learned from this game---those Seahawks' dusty gray road uniforms make them look like ghosts. Honest to goodness, when the camera was right behind Drew Stanton when he threw his first interception---even I, at first, had a difficult time seeing Earl Thomas sitting there underneath the route.
Maybe---seeing as the Cardinals play far better against the Seahawks when they play in white---heck, next time at U of P---make the Seahawks wear their blue jerseys. Go with the white. Just a thought.
Malcolm Gladwell---the 10,000 Hour Rule
Interesting that today SK called this game an "outlier."
What SK knows and what I believe we can all appreciate is how hard the Cardinals have worked to put themselves in this position.
In Malcom Gladwell's best-selling book, Outliers, the Story of Success, he talks about how it takes generally 10,000 hours of hard work and practice for anyone or for any group to get real good at their craft.
The Cardinals under MB, SK, BA and his staff have inspired this team to work for every little thing they've earned. Would anyone be surprised at the notion that he Cardinals this year have put in more meaningful hours of work and preparation as any football team on the planet?
The Cardinals have all the motivation in the world---and they also have all the hard work to help push them through. They have the leadership, more so than any other Cardinals' team in ages. They have leaders who are on a mission and coaches who push the players to their limits. They have a GM who is tireless. And they have an owner who a first-class human being, who lives by the mantra: "team is what it takes."
Last edited:
