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

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. 

Beanie can run at the NFL level. The boy was breaking tackles and pounding out some pretty impressive gains. Off 7 carries, he managed to grind out just shy of 30 yards, not massive numbers, but remember, it took Frank Gore over three times as many carries to get the same number. In addition, Arizona were playing from behind, and in first or second and long thanks to poor discipline often throughout the game,  and running is typically abandoned by most in this sort of situation. 

When he did get even the smallest of crease, Wells was able to make something of it. He was often not taken down until the second or third attempt to do so, and demonstrated impressive hands as many rookie running backs fumble the ball often when they finally make it to the NFL.

In addition, Hightower demonstrated that he can still have a part to play, posting some impressive numbers receiving. Given a few weeks, this tandem can, I believe, finally add a genuine running dimension to the cardinals game, which, again, can only improve their receiving game in turn.

5. The Cards were not ready for prime time, but aren't far off. 

Let's be clear, watching last nights game was like watching a pre-season game. The Cards players heads just weren't in it. They clearly miss Todd Haley, and as of yet, things haven't quite clicked.

Warner was clearly a little rusty, Boldin was certainly not fully recovered from his injury, and is obviously still not 100% in terms of his head space either, and most of the players had obviously neglected the fundamentals over the summer break.

I can't imagine what it's like to have to pick yourself up after being literally seconds away from holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and it is apparent some players haven't quite done so yet. 

They will pick themselves up though, I'm sure.

Seeing that one in the L column has to bring home that it is actually real, and, soon enough, I do think the Cardinals will return to form. They are still in the easiest division in the NFL, so a loss doesn't end their season just yet.

And we saw glimpses of just what they can do. Fitz going up in traffic, and coming down with the ball, Kurt throwing inch perfect passes under huge pressure and Rackers kicking like we know he can. 

There were echos of the NFC Champion Cardinals throughout, and, encouragingly, significant improvements over last year, particularly with Beanie and on the defensive side of the ball.

The Cardinals biggest problem, clearly, was themselves, and their concentration. Without a doubt, things will improve given time. I'm sure the coaching staff have already blasted the players over the fundamental failures last night, and are already preparing to pick up the pace going forward. 

Yes, if every cloud has a silver lining, there is definitely a lot to take away from this.