Always Look On The Bright Side. What Arizona Must Learn From Defeat

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

The NFL is back, and for Arizona, their home opener didn't quite go to plan.

The night started with the unveiling of the NFC championship banner, a permanent, poignant reminder of just how far the Cardinals came along last year, and just how close they really were to the Superbowl title. Arizona took the field to face divisional rivals, the 49ers in a game most expected Arizona to win, and all expected would be a high scoring affair, dominated by poor defence, and huge passing plays by the cards, and Frank Gore running all over the Arizona Defence. 

In reality, the game did not play out according to any-ones predictions. The game was mostly dominated by defence, short drives, penalties and a few significant plays. 

It was a home loss for Arizona, and a less than perfect start for the defending NFC champions.

But if every cloud has a silver lining, what can we take away from this? Actually, there is a lot we can learn here, and I want to highlight just five key things that The Cards need to learn from last nights game.

1: The Arizona Defence is the Real Deal

For most of the night, Arizona kept frank Gore and Shaun Hill in check. In fact, more than that, for most of the night, the Cards absolutely dominated them. Gore ended the night with just 30 yards from 22 carries, a measly 1.3 yards per carry, and End around and trick plays didn't do much better. It seems he was dropped for a loss more often than he passed the line of scrimmage at times.

And Shaun Hill, in spite of one inspired drive, was pretty well contained all night too. It seemed that Arizona's veteran defensive line had the read on him nine plays out of ten. This D seems much more polished than it did last year, and could go a long way to making this team an even bigger threat but for one big problem.

2: The Cards discipline and concentration suck. 

12 Penalties for 82 yards.

Let me say that again 12-82. The 49ers superstar running back managed 30 yards, their top receiver, future hall of famer, Isaac Bruce managed 74. Arizona gave away 82 yards in penalties. 

And they were rookie mistakes. Falling for hard count's, jumping the snap and just plain getting it wrong. It seemed that, both on offence and defence Arizona weren't playing smart football. Call it the Superbowl hangover if you like, but it seems more deep routed than that. Arizona need to work on their discipline, and pay attention to the game at hand. 

Penalties keep opposing drives alive, and kill your own dead, any high school football player will tell you that. Even with Fitzgerald and Boldin, Warner is going to have a hard time doing much with 1st and 25. And speaking of Fitz and Q...

3: The Arizona receiving corps is definitely missing Steve Breaston.

Here it is, I'll just come out and say it. I think Steve Breaston could just be the cards most valuable receiver.

He is a really talented guy, maybe already well on his way to supplanting Q, and humble with it. He is a legitimate threat, as proved by his 1000 yards plus last season, even with Q and Fitz both topping the mark too.

But, what Arizona really miss in Breaston is someone to draw cover away from numbers 11 and 81. Last night, it was more than obvious that the 49ers were more than happy to let players like Urban and Hightower have some room to make sure Fitzgerald and Boldin are kept under lock and key. This is a strategy that would not have worked had Breaston been on the field. 

Unlike Urban who, though a solid catcher is not a legitimate threat down field, given an inch, Breaston would, and last season did, take a mile. With Breaston on the field, you can no longer concentrate only on containing Fitzgerald and Boldin, and, unsurprisingly, this frees up all three men to make a huge impact, even Urban benefits from it, and made some great plays, and by the looks of things, we have another solid pair of hands in Hightower too. 

4: The running game is finally a real part of the Cards game.

'What's that' I hear you cry, 'I thought you said the game was dominated by defence for both teams'.

I know, I know, there wasn't a whole lot of running going on for either team, and the Niners kept our runners almost as tightly contained as we kept theirs, however, I remain confident that the running game showed signs of being genuinely devastating this year. 

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