Cardinals Limelight Turns Sour
By Scott Allen
Reverse course. The Arizona Cardinals changed their minds and decided to keep everyone guessing as to who they are as they were embarrassed in front of a national television audience on Monday Night Football by the San Francisco 49’ers 24-9.
If not for the Niners own mistakes, this could have been a true blow out. San Francisco’s own inept passing game kept the Cards as close as a touchdown early in the 4th quarter.
Too many mistakes though. These were the types of mistakes a playoff team, or even just an above average team don’t make.
Ugly:
Three offside penalties on the defensive line on the Niners first drive of the game. This shows the Cards did not have any focus or discipline, two things a team must have in order to be successful, not just in the playoffs, but in the regular season too.
Mike Gandy’s blocking. To his defense somewhat, he was coming off an injury that had him sit the Vikings game last week and eventually had him pulled from the Niners game. However, if he was going to be that limited, why rush to put him back in the game to start with? Leave Jeremy Bridges out there. He did a great job on the Vikes Jared Allen last week. He should have been out there from the beginning.
Uglier:
Tim Hightower. How does this guy do it? He manages to be a pretty good NFL back between the 20’s, but put him inside the red zone, he doesn’t protect the ball very well.
Ugliest:
Seven turnovers. Seven! How do the Cardinals expect to accomplish anything by doing that? That’s not just the Niners taking the ball away, that’s the Cardinals giving the ball away. There is no focus at all, none when you give the ball away that many times in a game. It it amazing to me though that the Cards still had a chance to tie the game after five of those turnovers. That shows you just how poorly the Niners were on offense outside of running back Frank Gore, who played a great game.
It’s time to move on and forget. San Francisco has our number. That happens quite a bit in this league. Fact is, the Cards still have a two game lead in the division and the Cards can still clinch with either a Niners loss or Cards wins over the Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams. It’s important to note, if the two teams were to tie, the Niners would win the division. It’s still a longshot, however it’s a possibility. Give the Niners credit for putting pressure on the Cards all night and for the next two weeks. At the very least, they didn’t allow the Cards to win the division on their own field. Time to move on..
Scott Allen