Impressions from Sun Devil Stadium

[Sitting Bull]

Took my 5-year old to his first football game tonight. I think it's safe to say baseball is still his favorite sport. He was into his Gameboy before halftime. I wished I had one. The TV delay is on in 60 minutes. Here are a few random things I picked up so you can judge for yourselves when you're fast-forwarding thru the carnage:

Bledsoe looked horrible, although the line didn't give him much to work with. We ran a lot of plays for zero/negative yards. Darnell Dockett was too much for our interior line to handle, especially with a cigar-store indian in the pocket...

Nevertheless, Bledsoe's attempted screen pass midway thru the first (a flat, low fastball to a back five yards away from him) demonstrated that it actually is possible to execute that play worse than previous Cowboy teams...

Gurode does not have the mental makeup to handle the center position. His first quarter hold, which nullified JJ's only good run, cost us a first down and a 20-yard swing in field position. Whether it was bad calls or poor execution, he got owned several times by the Cards' DTs

Newman and Anthony Henry may very well be the strength of the D. Newman's textbook perfect coverage of Fitzgerald on the fly drew offensive PI; Henry is built like a safety but has CB closing speed. In the first quarter, he baited Warner into a 3rd-down slant to Charles Lee, effortlessly closed the gap, and stopped him three yds short.

Bradie James is an enigma. If you watch the 1st QTR Arrington fumble play, James bit horribly on an inside trap block, giving Arrington his huge lane. But he recovered quickly and appeared to lay the jarring hit that dislodged the ball.

Sorry, Al Singleton is not going to get cut. He may not make plays but he is never out of position (see Bradie James). Tonight, he appeared to be leading the D and directing pre-snap traffic with Roy. No way Parcells trusts that job to a rook.

Berry-O can play. He was exposed somewhat on late-developing crossing routes, but he's more nimble than I expected and would've been fine if we had any pressure (see "No Pressure" below).

We had no pressure. I'm deeply concerned about this 3-4. Not because the scheme is bad, but because I didn't like the way we played it. As you can imagine, my binocs were glued to Ware early-on. He appeared to be playing our infamous "read and engage" style on every play, even obvious passing downs, and looked tentative to me. We have no business lining him up like LT if we aren't going to turn him loose sometimes.

BTW, our 3-4 and 5-2-4 D's look identical in formation. You need to scan the line or count the DBs for the personnel giveaway. Early-on, the Cards had good success attacking our D with dumps to the flats. We stuffed the run but I need to see more; Green abandonded it somewhat after Arrington's fumble.

I wasn't watching the Fitzgerald TD close enough to catch who really blew the play. Fitzgerald is going to have a big year.

Merritt looked sharp in PR. Good form, protects the ball and has nice quicks. Can't wait to see more.

I left after 3qtrs. Romo definately provided a spark and showed great touch on his very first pass to Witten. He can be a capable backup. However, he showed his two significant liabilities on the end zone incompletion to Crayton. The rush blocked his line of sight, causing him to find Crayton late; and his pass didn't have the zip to compensate. Romo has moxie, and I like that, but I don't know if he could drive the bus for an extended period of time.

 

[Chief]

Took my 5-year old to his first football game tonight. I think it's safe to say baseball is still his favorite sport. He was into his Gameboy before halftime. I wished I had one. The TV delay is on in 60 minutes. Here are a few random things I picked up so you can judge for yourselves when you're fast-forwarding thru the carnage:

Bledsoe looked horrible, although the line didn't give him much to work with. We ran a lot of plays for zero/negative yards. Darnell Dockett was too much for our interior line to handle, especially with a cigar-store indian in the pocket...

Nevertheless, Bledsoe's attempted screen pass midway thru the first (a flat, low fastball to a back five yards away from him) demonstrated that it actually is possible to execute that play worse than previous Cowboy teams...

Gurode does not have the mental makeup to handle the center position. His first quarter hold, which nullified JJ's only good run, cost us a first down and a 20-yard swing in field position. Whether it was bad calls or poor execution, he got owned several times by the Cards' DTs

Newman and Anthony Henry may be the strength of the D. Newman's textbook perfect coverage of Fitzgerald on the fly drew offensive PI; Henry is built like a safety but has good closing speed. In the first quarter, he baited Warner into a 3rd-down slant to Charles Lee, effortlessly closed the gap, and stopped him three yds short.

Brady James is an enigma. If you watch the 1st QTR Arrington fumble play, James bit horribly on an inside trap, giving Arrington his huge lane. But he recovered quickly and appeared to lay the jarring hit that dislodged the ball.

Al Singleton is not going to get cut. He may not make plays but he is never out of position (see Brady James). Tonight, he appeared to be calling the plays and directing pre-snap traffic. No way Parcells trusts that job to a rook.

Berry-O can play. He was exposed somewhat on late-developing crossing routes, but he's more nimble than I expected and would've been fine if we had any pressure.

We had no pressure. I'm deeply concerned about this 3-4. Not because the scheme is bad, but because I didn't like the way we played it. As you can imagine, my binocs were glued to Ware on nearly every play. He appeared to be playing our infamous "read and engage" style on every play, even obvious passing downs, and looked tentative to me. We have no business lining him up like LT if we aren't going to turn him loose.

BTW, our 3-4 and 5-2-4 D's look identical in formation. You need to scan the line for the personnel giveaway. Early-on, the Cards had good success attacking our D with dumps in the flats. We stuffed the run but I need to see more; Green abandonded it somewhat after Arrington's fumble.

I wasn't watching the Fitzgerald TD close enough to catch who really blew the play. He's a player.

Merritt looked sharp in PR. Good form, protects the ball and has nice quicks. Can't wait to see more.

I left after 3qtrs. Romo definately provided a spark and showed great touch on his very first pass to Witten. He can be a capable backup. However, he showed his two significant liabilities on the end zone incompletion to Crayton. The rush blocked his line of sight, causing him to find Crayton late; and his pass didn't have the zip to compensate. Romo has moxie, and I like that, but I don't know if he could drive the bus for an extended period of time.

Good summary.

On the TD, it looked like Keith Davis got lost on the play. That may actually surprise his legion of fans.

 

[Cbz40]

Excellent summary.....thanks Sitting Bull

 

[Rack]

However, he showed his two significant liabilities on the end zone incompletion to Crayton. The rush blocked his line of sight, causing him to find Crayton late; and his pass didn't have the zip to compensate

That pass would of been perfect if he'd thrown it a half second earlier. If he had put "Zip" on it it would of been an Int. He put very nice touch on it and threw it where the WR had a chance to make a play on it. Crayton played very good, but I think on that play he should of treated it like a rebound and went up for it instead of trying an over the shoulder catch. It was a good play by Rolle nonetheless.

 

[STSINAZ]

good analysis...

 

[Sinister]

Gurode does not have the mental makeup to handle the center position. His first quarter hold, which nullified JJ's only good run, cost us a first down and a 20-yard swing in field position. Whether it was bad calls or poor execution, he got owned several times by the Cards' DTs

What scared me is that we have Gurode who has trouble with line calls and then to see Johnson just getting blown up while pulling. :bang2:

 

[Sitting Bull]

Just watched the TIVO and Rivera actually gave up a few of the plays I had attributed to Gurode. Safe to say the entire o-line looked poor.

 

[TwoDeep3]

However, had Romo put the "touch' on the ball to the outside back corner of the endzone, it surely would have been a touchdown. Even throwing late.

 

[morasp]

I was at the game too. It was nice to see that the Cardinals have some fans and preseason no less. I remember going to Cowboys game there when Aikman was playing and it was all cowboys fans. As far as Ware was concerned, he started out in pass coverage and did an amazing job closing on the receiver who only got a short gain. When he did pass rush, the first time he almost got to Warner and after that it looked like they double teamed him the rest of the game. One of our goals was to improve our front seven in the offseason and they were definitely a strength, on the first string, second string and even third string. We should be a lot better up front in the fourth quarter since there didn't look we will have too much of a drop off when they rotate the lineman. The linebackers looked very good as well. Burnett, Shanle, Dat, Fowler, Singleton, Love all made plays. James looked liked he was playing faster than the rest of the players. It was funny when Newman was covering Fitzgerald on the deep ball and they called the interfernce penalty the crowd thought it was on Newman but it ended up being on Fitzgerald. I later saw Fitzgerald walking off the field with a trainer. Hope he wasn't hurt too bad. Our offense did stink but it may be a combination of Arizonas attacking style, our first pre season game, and tendancy not to game plan pre season games had something to do with it. I hope so becuase with Bledsoe in there we didn't look very good. Witten looked good, Crayton looked good, Thompson is just fast, he ran by guys and made them look like they were standing still. Pierce had a really cool one handed catch from Romo.

 

[junk]

I was at the game too. It was nice to see that the Cardinals have some fans and preseason no less. I remember going to Cowboys game there when Aikman was playing and it was all cowboys fans. As far as Ware was concerned, he started out in pass coverage and did an amazing job closing no the receiver who only got a short gain. When he did pass rush, the first time he almost got to Warner and after that it looked they double teamed him the rest of the game. One of our goals was to improve our front seven in the offseason and they were definitely the strength on the first string, second string and even third string. We should be a lot better up front in the fourth quarter since there didn't look like there will be too much drop off when they rotate the lineman. The linebackers looked very good as well. Burnett, Shanle, Dat, Fowler, Singleton, Love all made plays. James looked liked he was playing faster than the rest of the players. It was funny when Newman was covering Fitzgerald on the deep ball and they called the interfernce penalty the crowd thought it was on Newman but it ended up being on Fitzgerald. I later saw Fitzgerald walking off the field with a trainer. Hope he wasn't hurt too bad. Our offense did stink but maybe a combination of Arizonas attacking style, our first pre season game, and tendancy not to game plan pre season games had something to do with it. I hope so becuase with Bledsoe in there we didn't look very good. Witten looked good, Crayton looked good, Bledsoe looked like a rookie who wasn't used to the speed of the game.

The feed I watched had Cardinals' announcers. Needless to say, they were terrible in every aspect of their job and on top of that they were definitely behind the Cards.

Anyway, on that play, I thought "Nice coverage by Newman, stride for stride down the field, good play". Immediately the Cards announcers went off on how Newman "mugged" Fitzgerald.

A replay, of course, showed Fitzgerald grab Newman and prevent what may have been an interception.

They also boffed more players calls than I have seen in my life. At one point, the ref said there were two penalties on the Cards and said they were on #51 and #29. The announcers blamed Al Singleton and Keith Davis.

I'll give the Cowboys announcers some credit (got them in the second half), they obviously talked in detail about the Cowboys, but weren't afraid to hand out criticism where it was due.

 

[lspain1]

The feed I watched had Cardinals' announcers. Needless to say, they were terrible in every aspect of their job and on top of that they were definitely behind the Cards.

Anyway, on that play, I thought "Nice coverage by Newman, stride for stride down the field, good play". Immediately the Cards announcers went off on how Newman "mugged" Fitzgerald.

A replay, of course, showed Fitzgerald grab Newman and prevent what may have been an interception.

They also boffed more players calls than I have seen in my life. At one point, the ref said there were two penalties on the Cards and said they were on #51 and #29. The announcers blamed Al Singleton and Keith Davis.

I'll give the Cowboys announcers some credit (got them in the second half), they obviously talked in detail about the Cowboys, but weren't afraid to hand out criticism where it was due.

You bring up another point. The refs were obviously in pre-season form as well. They made inconsistent calls, had to have on-field conferences on a number of occasions to sort out their own problems, and did a poor job identifying the penalties and who was responsible. They definitely struggled with the new rules permitting teams to have a choice in how particular penalties are going to be applied (not just accept or decline).

 

[Outlaw Heroes]

Your analysis was insightful and a pleasure to read, Sitting Bull.

 

[Lifetimeboyzfan]

The feed I watched had Cardinals' announcers. Needless to say, they were terrible in every aspect of their job and on top of that they were definitely behind the Cards.

Anyway, on that play, I thought "Nice coverage by Newman, stride for stride down the field, good play". Immediately the Cards announcers went off on how Newman "mugged" Fitzgerald.

A replay, of course, showed Fitzgerald grab Newman and prevent what may have been an interception.

They also boffed more players calls than I have seen in my life. At one point, the ref said there were two penalties on the Cards and said they were on #51 and #29. The announcers blamed Al Singleton and Keith Davis.

I'll give the Cowboys announcers some credit (got them in the second half), they obviously talked in detail about the Cowboys, but weren't afraid to hand out criticism where it was due.

I also had the displeasure of watching on Gold 33 here in Vegas which is deffinately a cardinals homer feed. I totally expect some homerism but these announcers were down right rediculous. I even commented to the wife last night that I wanted to send in a petition about those clowns. Going to have to watch the tivo on mute today

 

[junk]

You bring up another point. The refs were obviously in pre-season form as well. They made inconsistent calls, had to have on-field conferences on a number of occasions to sort out their own problems, and did a poor job identifying the penalties and who was responsible. They definitely struggled with the new rules permitting teams to have a choice in how particular penalties are going to be applied (not just accept or decline).

I agree. It almost looked like they were training that head ref. He kept conferring with the other referee when he attempted to tell us what was going on.

 

[Juke99]

We had no pressure. I'm deeply concerned about this 3-4. Not because the scheme is bad, but because I didn't like the way we played it. As you can imagine, my binocs were glued to Ware early-on. He appeared to be playing our infamous "read and engage" style on every play, even obvious passing downs, and looked tentative to me. We have no business lining him up like LT if we aren't going to turn him loose sometimes.
.

On the nosey.

Ware was doing his impersonation of the jitterbug on several plays.

Line him up, turn him loose. Don't overload the kid right now.

That's one of the problems with the 3-4 and how many teams attack it....spread the formation....put a WR out there and the fourth LB has to walk out there to cover him. Or release a back into the vacated spot.

I've watched the game three times, Ware looked like he was having a difficult time last night. First game, let's keep our fingers crossed and hope the staff figures out a way to utilize him more effectively.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Thanks Sitting Bull! Nice feedback for someone like me who had to listen to the game.

 

[theWave21]

Is it me, or was the center/quarterback exchange in slow motion? It seemed like the Cardinals DE's had two steps across the line of scrimmage before our QB's even had the ball.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

He appeared to be playing our infamous "read and engage" style on every play, even obvious passing downs, and looked tentative to me. We have no business lining him up like LT if we aren't going to turn him loose sometimes

I wasn't worried about that too much. Even though Zimmer likes to use that "read and engage" style, Ware is playing a slightly new position and will have to learn how to play the run and drop back in coverage. Could be that Parcells and Zimmer know that Ware can rush the passer, but he needs work in run defense and coverage. Better have him working on it in a meaningless preseason game instead of worrying about sacking the passer.

The fact is, they hardly blitzed at all on defense and Arizona was using a lot of short dropbacks.

Rich........