Coach Green built this offense on putting up 30 to 35 points a game. Sort of like his Vikes in the late '90's. He built this offense on scoring with quick strikes and down field bombs. But what I saw on Monday was a disgrace. Even Edge was a part of a high powered O in Indy. It's amazing that a coach who was supposed to be pretty smart offensively made a very talented group look so college and mediocre.
The run, run, run, run and run some more offense was a slap in the Cards fans faces. Everyone konws that when the Cards play they are an high powered offensive team. Yeah their O-Line is weak so what. They didn't seem to have trouble putting up points last year, and Russ Grimm was supposed to fix the Line anyway. What we saw was a total lack of use in the Cards' main weapons; Boldin and Fitzgerald.
I also don't want to hear about how the 49ers defense was all that great either. They are a solid defense but if you compared tham to the Cards offense in terms of talent the Cardinals win everytime. It's just a matter of how you use the talent. Mike Nolan uses his defensive talent perfect, while Ken Whisenhunt uses his offensive talent poorly.
We'll see if Whisenhunt makes the adjustments to allow this offense to take flight. If he doesn't and the Cards have another loosing season he will be looked at as a failure especially if the Cards aren't around 7-9 or 8-8. This team has the talent and the ability to be a playoff contender. If the Packers can go 8-8 like last year or the Redskins and Bucs can go to the playoffs in '05 then the Cards can make a run at the divisional title.
Not too sure where you are getting your info, but the Cards offense under Green was nowhere near 30-35 pts. per game. But rather:
2004 season- 17.8 points per game, 26th in the league.
'05-19.4 PPG, 17th in the league
'06-19.6 PPG, 19th in the league
As for Monday night's game, I thought it was a very good game to watch. Gimme that over a 48-45 game any day. Putting aside the Cards' past failures, I thought their defense was much improved, and kept them in the ballgame. Their running game was also much improved. Their downfall was the passing game. Like it or not, that was affected at least a little by the Niners much-improved secondary. And for all his hype and potential, we need to remember that Leinart has been a starter for less than a full season, and he's not quite there yet. We all know it takes at least a couple years for most QBs in the NFL, unless your name is Dan Marino. What the Cards must avoid is losing too many games that they can win, like they did Monday. But the fact of the matter is that 8-8 or 9-7 may be a reach for them this season. Not impoossible, but not likely either.
Last edited by ricko on September 12th at 11:41 AM.
I actually think I saw some improvement in the Cards on Monday, tho I haven't spent much time watching them lately. No, there were no big plays, but for the past few years it seems the big plays mostly netted a 1st down in the red zone with no results. On Monday they showed a running game, which IMO is absolutely necessary to convert red zone attempts to points.
I think the big plays will come as the schemes of the new coach become more natural, as the young players (i.e. Matt Leinart) grow in ability and execution, etc. Early offenses are normally behind D, especially young ones, so early struggles are expected. With the talent they have it should eventually show through. They looked improved on D which will make games easier to win, keep their O from being 1 dimensional. It'll come.
What I ment by 30-35 ppg was that the Cards are built to put up big numbers, all they needed was some help in the run game and some O-Line chemistry to put them in elite offensive status. Green built this team with offense in mind. And on Monday night we saw the exact opposite.
after that loss i was still a little impressed with our line now we just need better pass play calling our defense cant do anything in the closing minutes eric green cant pick up a football i mean thats what costed us the game but im over it bring on seattle 35-0 cards lol jk its possible though i do think ken needs to bomb it a couple times and get warner in there look for leinart to get comfortable and get 250+ yards and our run game to only improve from here our line is awesome im out go cards!
