Sacked! The Arizona Cardinals Perfect Season Goes Up In Flames In Loss
By Scott Allen
October 4, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kevin Kolb (4) is tackled by St. Louis Rams cornerback Bradley Fletcher (32) during the first half at the Edward Jones Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE
I’ll just say 17 sacks. Yep, 17 is the number of sacks the Arizona Cardinals offensive, and I mean offensive in every aspect of the term, line has given up in the last two games, nine of them coming tonight in a 17-3 loss to the St. Louis Rams. The Cards weren’t ready. They weren’t ready for three and four man rushes beating them and just throwing Cards quarterback Kevin Kolb around like a raggedy doll.
Don’t blame this one on Kolb. Sure, he could have made a few better throws. Doesn’t help he has receivers like Michael Floyd and Early Doucet who can’t catch. Doesn’t help his offensive line basically laid down on him. Doesn’t help he had to play from behind all night thanks to a very less than spectacular secondary that got torched on a few plays again.
You read this so far and you’d think we were talking about a 1-4 team rather than 4-1. The reality is, they are 4-1. The bigger reality though is that they are 4-1 with Minnesota, San Francisco, Green Bay, and Atlanta coming up after next weeks game against Buffalo. The reality is, they could easily be 4-6, 5-7, 6-4 probably at best after that stretch. They just have proven they aren’t better than that right now.
Now granted, give the Rams some credit. Their defense is a beast. They made the Cards offensive line look silly. The 17 sacks by the way is a record for consecutive games. Just astounding.
Also missing in action once again was a running game. You can partly thank the offensive line for that too. Kolb threw the ball 50 times. If he is throwing 50 times, you know your running game is non-existent and you are probably playing from behind most of the night. The Cards played from behind in all but the first couple of minutes of this game.
So, now the Cards are off for 10 days until they face Buffalo on the 14th. I don’t expect either the defensive secondary or the offensive line to improve much and work on things enough to turn it around in that short time. What it does do though is give Kolb 10 days to rest from his beating before he goes back out and takes one all over again. Don’t ever question his toughness. I know many fans have. They are dead wrong. That man picked himself up time and again and still made plays. Tonight, it just wasn’t enough.