The Cards (gas, best, metro)

[AZgarden]

It's too bad weather prevented more fans from going to Charlotte. Cards had no support in the sea of blue and cheering fans do make a difference. There were about 1000 redbirds in the stands, clearly not enough. I turned it off after the first hour. Too sad.

[ajonesaz]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

And I don't care what you say, Bettcher took a superb defense and made it worse. No fly zone became Fly the Friendly Skies. No pass rush. Poor game planning that had to be changed at half time almost every game. Left Tyrann in after they had the game out of reach. He'd be the first guy to get his pink slip if I were calling the shots.

I agree, Betcher should be worried about his job. Blitz, blitz and blitz is not an effective game plan. I admire their ability to make second half adjustments. Cam is a guy that can't really be blitzed - look how that worked out. Cam is taller and heavier than almost every guy on our defense. Look what Todd Bowles had done in New York, he is a great coach.

[SMG]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

It is not that Palmer doesn't have talent and ability. He choked! Badly. Against Seattle, GB and Carolina. He had bad games all year that the Cards won by luck. He will be back though, for sure, and hopefully will get past his big game jitter problem. I don't know if quarterback whisperer BA can figure it out or not.

And I don't care what you say, Bettcher took a superb defense and made it worse. No fly zone became Fly the Friendly Skies. No pass rush. Poor game planning that had to be changed at half time almost every game. Left Tyrann in after they had the game out of reach. He'd be the first guy to get his pink slip if I were calling the shots.

Here is a chart by NFL teams on total defense for 2015. Appears to me that we are in the top five. I will take that any year. You can toggle to 2014 and see we gave up a lot less total yardage and we ranked considerably higher than we did in 2014. What is wrong with that?

2015 NFL Team Defense Statistics | The Football Database

[KurtAZ]

Because people always want to blame someone. They had a bad game. Get over it.

[azriverfan.]

The most glaring need that both fans and coaches miss is the lack of a consistent inside running game. They are just alluding to the QB play and the defense. However, our offensive line still gets no push inside. Carson wouldn't be under so much pressure if we could run the ball and not force him to pass over 70% of the time. This would also run clock and keep the defense rested and enable them to play better. Any run we made was a result of a great play by the running back (David Johnson) in which he broke tackles. But you just don't see our offensive line push back defenders and create those large holes consistently that other teams are capable of doing. If we could do that, there would be a lot less pressure on the QB and receivers would get open as well.

[goolsbyjazz]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

It is not that Palmer doesn't have talent and ability. He choked! Badly. Against Seattle, GB and Carolina. He had bad games all year that the Cards won by luck. He will be back though, for sure, and hopefully will get past his big game jitter problem. I don't know if quarterback whisperer BA can figure it out or not.

And I don't care what you say, Bettcher took a superb defense and made it worse. No fly zone became Fly the Friendly Skies. No pass rush. Poor game planning that had to be changed at half time almost every game. Left Tyrann in after they had the game out of reach. He'd be the first guy to get his pink slip if I were calling the shots.

I had to chuckle at that line!! I too was surprised at how bad our secondary looked yesterday. My initial concerns going in were containing Cam and giving Palmer enough time to throw. As the game went on I started searching the sides of milk cartons looking for our missing secondary and receiving group on offense. It became evident early on that Carolina was the stronger team. We just got owned. Period.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by goolsbyjazz

I had to chuckle at that line!! I too was surprised at how bad our secondary looked yesterday. My initial concerns going in were containing Cam and giving Palmer enough time to throw. As the game went on I started searching the sides of milk cartons looking for our missing secondary and receiving group on offense. It became evident early on that Carolina was the stronger team. We just got owned. Period.

I'm not convinced the Panthers are that good. Bad play made them seem better than they are. Anyway, lesser teams win every week in the NFL. PPs fumble followed by Palmer's INT was the game. Neither of those were forced. We missed Okafor and, especially Mathieu. There's a big drop off after them.

[AlohaAZ]

We blitz a lot because we have no one on the line who can win one-on-one matchups. Plus, for most of the season we had one of the best DB units in the league. We could afford to get away with blitzing. I don't care how great of a secondary you have, when you have all day to throw, there's going to be big plays. Guys can't cover forever, no matter how good they are.

[Ponderosa]

I wonder if we will ever see Daryl Washington again and, if so, if he still has gas in the tank. Man I loved watching him play. Too bad he let all those personal problems wreck what might have been a Hall of Fame career.

[azriverfan.]

We should also place a lot of the blame on Arians. He is calling playaction passes with no running game. The play-action only works if you are able to run the ball and get a defense to bite on the run. But defenses were not fooled by it. Also, calling for deep passes when the secondary is sitting back playing zone is foolish. It took Arians until the end of the second quarter to start running a spread with quick throws. The Panthers were vulnerable to that and displayed that against the Seahawks as well. In fact, that is what startled me most about Arian's game plan. It's as if he didn't watch the Seahawks game and learn anything from it. When the Seahawks tried to run and be balanced, they got into a 31-0 hole. When the Seahawks went 4 wide spread, they scored quickly. Running sweeps and pitches was also pretty foolish as the Panther's line backers are fast and easy cover the outside if you try to run laterally.