Are the Arizona Cardinals for Real?

If you have followed the Arizona Cardinals at all, you will know why I ask this question. We the few, the proud, the long suffering Cardinals fan, wondering why our beloved team can't seem to pull itself up out of its own funk and be a real contender.

Watching the Cardinals last week against the Vikings was like watching a High School team play a pro team; we looked like chumps. So it begs the question: Why is there so much unpredictability and inconsistency with this team.

I mean honestly, you just never know who is going to show up to play on game day !!  This is a team that was 7-3 at one point not long ago, and now has a record of 8-6 with two games left.

Does anyone think that after Sundays game against the Vikings that we will win the last two games of the season for a 10-6 record? I think most Cardinals fans obviously hope for that, but more realistically figure they will drop them and end up 8-8, same record as last year.

The only bright spot is that the rest of the division is in worse shape than us, and so we, by default almost, are the NFC West winners and going to the playoffs. Well, good for us, but are we really good enough to be in the playoffs, and how far could we go ?

Well, if you Judge by the time tested adage that you must be playing good football in December to have any chance in the playoffs, I would say our chances are rather slim to go far in the playoffs.

But the real question is why are we playing so poorly consistently. I have read many articles that want to blame everything from the ownership, to coaches, players, and even the fans in the stands, but one thing remains a fundamental truth, only the people with their feet on the grass can determine how a game turns out. 

I look at Warner's frequent turnovers (fumbles and interceptions), I look at Boldin's fumbles of late, and the number of holding calls on him this year as a wide receiver. I look at Levi Brown's number of false starts, and the number of times he gets beat in the pass rush.

I look at the kickoff returns ran back for touchdowns, or the poor punting. I watch as the defense gets beat for the big pass play (usually because there isn't any pressure on the opposing QB), or watch as the other team's running back finds gaping holes in our defensive line.

Can there be any question that we have a lot of serious issues that need resolving ? Now I'm no expert on game planning, but I do know that when you can't run the ball, the opposing defense will start bringing the pressure and pin your ears back on every down. 

This sounds all too familiar to Cardinal Fans, where almost every snap is a passing play, usually this means an empty backfield, with no help for the tackles/guards to protect Warner. 

Now Kurt is as good as they come in picking apart a defense, but any quarterback has to have time to find the open man and deliver a strike. Kurt manages to do this fairly well, when he has the time. 

The main problem I see with the Cardinals is this lack of running game. It makes them far too predictable and lets the opposing defense lay on blitz after blitz, they simply don't have to worry about the Cardinals running the football with any authority.

So why can't the Cardinals run the ball? We went and got Edge for big money and Emmit Smith before him. We had Marcel Shipp for years and never used him, the same with J.J. Arrington.

Now we have Hightower. He seems to be good at the short yardage/goal-line runs, but we never seem to create the big holes for the long runs? We simply must stop giving up on the run; we do it in every game, usually because we are trying to recover from other mistakes we have made, and trying to come back form a deficit.

Even when you are behind, you can't stop running the ball!! Stop making the terrible punt/kickoff return coverage mistakes, the bad penalties, the turnovers that put you behind in the first place.

I was greatly encouraged by our first game this year when we played San Francisco on the road. We got an early lead, had some really good turnovers (although we never capitalized on them).

What impressed me the most was when we had the lead, we ran the ball, and ran the clock out. We played ball control, gave our defense a good rest, and kept their offense off the field. Nothing says "we are better than you" in football like lining up and moving people off the line of scrimmage, and winning the battle in the trenches.

In short, I don't think it matters so much who is in the Cardinal's backfield, it matters a lot who is in front of them on the offensive line, and whether or not they can beat the guy in front of them.

Now, before the offensive line shows up to beat me to a pulp, they do deserve some kudos as well. They have only, since Russ Grim arrived, got the kind of coaching I think they deserve. They have also for the first time been a starting group for a whole year together! Wow, imagine that. 

They have done a descent job at pass protection, considering that they rarely get any help (cause every other able body is going out for a pass, sometimes I wonder if Kurt just has too many people to throw too, and not enough staying home to help keep him upright).

I think the point to all of this is that if we were good at run blocking to complement the improvements we have made in pass protection, we would be a lot better off as a team, period!

Our basic offensive package shouldn't be an empty backfield! Other teams shouldn't know, at least with the certainty they seem to know now, whether it will be a run or pass play. I think we only rushed like six times against the Vikings!!

What does that say to the other team? We are afraid of you, we cant run against you, and we wont even try? Wow, talk about a recipe for disaster? Oh, so you can't run the ball, gonna pass every down?

OK, well, get ready cause here we come, lol. Frankly, I'm surprised Kurt is still healthy and able to play with the amount of pressure he has been under this year. This pressure caused us to lose Leinart for all of last year, and got Kurt's non-throwing elbow tore up. Luckily he was able to finish the season.

So, in short, the Cardinals, to have any chance in the playoffs, or to continue to stay atop the NFC West in years to come, had better find out how to run the ball and quick. 

They can either start figuring out their running game now (admittedly late, but what is the alternative?), or wait and try to start figuring out how to run next year in training camp, but that will not help them in anyway for the playoffs this year. 

In fact, for my money, the Cards should sit Warner these last two games, put Leinart in, and run the ball 90 percent of the last two games. Even if we lose these games, we are still in the playoffs, and who knows, the practice may actually do us some good!