Defense played poorly?

[dargonking999]

Larry Fitzgerald had 5 receptions for 85 yds and 1 TD in a quater and a half.

On that pace he would have had 10 receptions and over 160 yds recieving. And that's without Anquan Boldin on the other side. I can't see how you can't be concerned about that.

Not to mention that people keep mentioning that the defense was vanilla. But how vanilla was the Cardinals offense?

it wasnt thats the point they played o win, while we palyed to evaluate, they ran plays for the D we were playing while we ran playsto evalute the players we had. and w still came up two points shy.

 

[Redsz]

The Cardinals defense and offense was just as vanilla as the Cowboys. Denny Green was looking at what he had, just as much as Parcells was.

The score is meaningless, really. As about half way through the 2nd half the Cardinals and Cowboys both had their 2nd stringers in.

But when you look at the fact the Cardinals had out gained the Cowboys 2:1 in a quater and a half, you have to raise some questions about the Cowboys on both sides of the ball.

 

[Dale]

One of the main reasons Warner completed such a high percentage of his passes was because the Cowboys stayed in their base defense when the Cards were in their three receiver sets. Parcells said last week they would play that way against the Cardinals and that it might create some problems for the Cowboys, for what it's worth.

 

[dwmyers]

We gave up 13 points. All teams play Vanilla this early in season.

Nors is right. The 3-4 is predicated in part on surprising the offense. It should be played vanilla during preseason. Let the opponents learn your bag of tricks during the regular season.

 

[Sinister]

The Cards were lacking two starters on their OL. Next excuse?

The Cowboys were missing two defensive line starters Ferguson and Spears.

It's only the first preseason game with a completely new defense. This is not going to happen overnight.

Enough excuses.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

For anyone that watched the game, the Cards played anything but vanilla. They were blitzing and running stunts and such from the get go. On offense, they played their 3 receiver sets against a 3-4 defense in most cases, that had Ware in coverage against wide receivers. You can bet that won't happen in a regular game.

 

[Nors]

For anyone that watched the game, the Cards played anything but vanilla. They were blitzing and running stunts and such from the get go. On offense, they played their 3 receiver sets against a 3-4 defense in most cases, that had Ware in coverage against wide receivers. You can bet that won't happen in a regular game.

Wooohooo for Cards.

They won 13-11. IN THE MOST MEANIGLEST GAME OF THE SEASON. Both teams have 40 guys out there pumping gas in 3 weeks. We did not have all our starters out there and did not go after Cards.

Cards played this to win - kudo's to them and a mental note to kick their *** down the line by Parcells......

 

[clifinaz]

Wooohooo for Cards.

They won 13-11. IN THE MOST MEANIGLEST GAME OF THE SEASON. Both teams have 40 guys out there pumping gas in 3 weeks. We did not have all our starters out there and did not go after Cards.

Cards played this to win - kudo's to them and a mental note to kick their *** down the line by Parcells......

Keep telling yourself that.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Keep telling yourself that.

to the board!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hollywood Henderson]

I agree Nors & others, the Cards played to win, Green did in fact game plan for this one...
No biggie...

I would think we will play much better and put more pressure on the other teams to gell more & gain confidence...

Its not how you play in preseason, but by the first game that matters.

 

[dougonthebench]

all I can say is that it's the 1st. preseason game,RELAX!the D will get better.

 

[Billy Bullocks]

I would be kinda dissapointed if we were in midseason form for our first pre-season outing. Is it me, or don't you want to start hitting your stride towards the third pre-season game? I agree, the defense played pretty well. I would like for someone to find San Diego's first pre-season game result from last year.

yes and no. I mean its always good to be very good from the start...but alot of the guys who started, and other guys who were playing were getting evaluated. Game 2 and 3 usually is a better indication of who will actually start the opener. Game 4 is for bubble type playesr.

 

[Redsz]

For anyone that watched the game, the Cards played anything but vanilla. They were blitzing and running stunts and such from the get go. On offense, they played their 3 receiver sets against a 3-4 defense in most cases, that had Ware in coverage against wide receivers. You can bet that won't happen in a regular game.

In comparison to what the Cardinals usually do on defense that was vanilla.

They only used the 4-3 base defense. They didn't even show 3-4, 3-3-5 and the 5 man front looks that are utilized during the season. And again, for team that is blitz heavy, they hardly blitzed at all.

On offense, the 3 reciever set is the base offense. And there was hardly any motion used at all. Which is what the offense is about, moving those three recievers around to create mismatches.

The result is meaningless. But to suggest that the Cardinals where throwing the kitchen sink at the Cowboys isn't what I saw. Both teams where holding back from digging into their bags of tricks. And both teams had players out.

 

[Bizwah]

The Cardinals defense and offense was just as vanilla as the Cowboys. Denny Green was looking at what he had, just as much as Parcells was.

The score is meaningless, really. As about half way through the 2nd half the Cardinals and Cowboys both had their 2nd stringers in.

But when you look at the fact the Cardinals had out gained the Cowboys 2:1 in a quater and a half, you have to raise some questions about the Cowboys on both sides of the ball.

Actually, this is wrong.

The Cards defense was anything but vanilla. They blitzed on every down.

And Dale is right about the 3-4. Parcells said he was going to stay in it the whole game and did. Even when the Cards went to three wides, we didn't bring in a nickel-back. We played a soft zone when this happened, and that's what allowed the big plays. We even had Ware covering Bryant Johnson.

I'm not complaining about what the Cards did. Nothing wrong with it at all. Teams work on different things in the preaseason. Parcells said he wanted to see how the players responded, and knew they would be in some difficult situations.

He said he wasn't surprised by what happened.

And to those folks that are projecting stats like......"Warner threw for 150 yards, that projects to 300 for the game".....or....."Fitzgerald had 80 yards receiving that projects to 160 yards for a game".......

Well, that's ridiculous. You can't do that. It makes no sense. There are all sorts of adjustments that will happen in a game. And how many times do you see a player get 150 yards in the first half, and 150 yards in the second half? Who's to say that we wouldn't have completely shut him down?

Anyway, the fact remains that we need improvement...especially from the pass rush. But to say that the defense played poorly is not accurate. They played ok......played the run very well.....Newman and Henry covered very well.

There's no way that you can look at that game, and get an idea about how our defense will play the whole year. This game was about evaluating individual players......

 

[Bizwah]

In comparison to what the Cardinals usually do on defense that was vanilla.

They only used the 4-3 base defense. They didn't even show 3-4, 3-3-5 and the 5 man front looks that are utilized during the season. And again, for team that is blitz heavy, they hardly blitzed at all.

On offense, the 3 reciever set is the base offense. And there was hardly any motion used at all. Which is what the offense is about, moving those three recievers around to create mismatches.

The result is meaningless. But to suggest that the Cardinals where throwing the kitchen sink at the Cowboys isn't what I saw. Both teams where holding back from digging into their bags of tricks. And both teams had players out.

I've seen the game twice. The Cardinals brought a blitz nearly every down.

And we knew the Cards base offense was a 3 WR set, but we needed to evaluate the players in our 3-4 defense.....so we stayed in it even though we knew the matchups would not necessarily work for us. That's why you saw Ware trying to cover LF and BJ.

 

[Dough Boy]

On offense, the 3 reciever set is the base offense. And there was hardly any motion used at all. Which is what the offense is about, moving those three recievers around to create mismatches.

You are also wrong about the offense not being in motion. LTN posted an article herE that goes into some detail about the motion of the offense.

Here is a snipit of the article

At first, the Cardinals offense looks conventional.

There's one running back in the backfield, a tight end at the line and three receivers spread out wide. Then quarterback Kurt Warner starts his cadence, and chaos begins.

The running back, tight end and even the receivers shift one-by-one, motioning to Warner's every word.

Then silence.

All of a sudden, there's no running back in the backfield, no hint of a tight end at the line, and five wide receivers ready to create havoc on a defense primed to surrender a mismatch.

That's the 2005 Cardinals offense that debuted Saturday in a preseason 13-11 victory over the Dallas Cowboys before 36,787 at Sun Devil Stadium: part bedlam, part brilliant.
Their offense started slow and simplified in the first series. The most significant motion came from the entire unit trotting off the field after a three-and-out.

Then brilliance happened.

In the offense's fourth possession of the game, Warner completed 5 of 6 attempts for 84 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown to Larry Fitzgerald. When the first-team units jogged to the sidelines for good, the Cardinals led 10-0.

"We're just trying to get completions and try and (throw) the ball down the field," Warner said. "We're going to continue to get better. It's not bad for the first day and a new offense."

And for at least one series, the Cardinals showcased what their offense is capable of.

Did you watch the game? How long have you been a Cards fan?

 

[Redsz]

Actually, this is wrong.

The Cards defense was anything but vanilla. They blitzed on every down.

I didn't see that. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this.

But from watching Pendergast and the Cardinals defense all last year, that was vanilla.

And Dale is right about the 3-4. Parcells said he was going to stay in it the whole game and did. Even when the Cards went to three wides, we didn't bring in a nickel-back. We played a soft zone when this happened, and that's what allowed the big plays. We even had Ware covering Bryant Johnson.

I never disagreed with Dale about the 3-4. The Cowboys stayed in the 3-4 the whole game. And I agree with the observations based around zones, no nickel etc.

My point of contention was about the 3 reciever set. From from reading the post, it suggested that the 3 WR set was more than just the base offense. It isn't.

And to those folks that are projecting stats like......"Warner threw for 150 yards, that projects to 300 for the game".....or....."Fitzgerald had 80 yards receiving that projects to 160 yards for a game".......

Well, that's ridiculous. You can't do that. It makes no sense. There are all sorts of adjustments that will happen in a game. And how many times do you see a player get 150 yards in the first half, and 150 yards in the second half? Who's to say that we wouldn't have completely shut him down?

It was totally possible he could be shut down.

But with 5 receptions, 85 yds and 1 TD in the first quater and a half. I would say he was more likely on pace to put up 100 yds recieving by the end of the half.

 

[Redsz]

You are also wrong about the offense not being in motion. LTN posted an article herE that goes into some detail about the motion of the offense.

Here is a snipit of the article

Yes, I saw that article in the AZ republic. But it also confirms what I saw:

Their offense started slow and simplified in the first series. The most significant motion came from the entire unit trotting off the field after a three-and-out.

The opening paragraph or so is not necessary a report of what happened. But to give the reader an idea of what the offense is capable of.

With a number of offensive starters out and it being the pre-season I don't think they went that deep with it.

Did you watch the game? How long have you been a Cards fan?

I watched the first half. As I was only really intreasted in the first team, not the backups. After the 1st team is out, the game starts to lose alot of shape and becomes harder to watch. I listiened to the 2nd half on the radio. So I can't comment on that half.

I have been a Cardinals fan for years. Not here to troll. Just intreasted in the oppositions POV of the game.

 

[jimmy40]

whoever said i was givng excuses, our d didnt play poorly, say what you want at the end it was 13 points given up. that better than the what 20+ points a game last year.

If it looks like an excuse and smells like an excuse, well it's probably an excuse.

 

[The30YardSlant]

If it looks like an excuse and smells like an excuse, well it's probably an excuse.

Or maybe you are just overly pessimistic?