Arizona Cardinals certainly not Super Bowl contenders
By Jim Koch
Optimistic fans of the Arizona Cardinals will tell you the season is still young but a championship no longer appears to be in the cards
It’s painful to admit but the Arizona Cardinals are not a championship football team. Championship teams don’t get blown out by teams like the Buffalo Bills.
Any Cards fans who watched Sunday’s game without feeling ill is probably not of the diehard sort. The list of players (and coaches) who contributed to the disgusting defeat is long.
Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians has never been a good judge of when to challenge and when not to but Sunday was unforgivable. For some odd reason he neglected to throw the challenge flag on a first quarter “catch” by Bills receiver Robert Woods. There’s a good chance the play would’ve been overturned. LeSean McCoy scored from 24 yards out on the very next play.
Cenjter A.Q. Shipley has to snap the ball before the play clock runs out. It cost them dearly on a 4th and 2 play that they had lined up to go for. Instead of possibly converting the 4th and 2 they ended up botching a field goal attempt.
Rookie long snapper Kameron Canaday should’ve been gone after his bad snap contributed mightily to their opening night loss. He did it again Sunday and this time it resulted in a touchdown for the opponent. He needs to go, Daniel Dillon’s phone number should still be in GM Steve Keim’s Rolodex.
The injury to punter Butler may be a blessing in disguise for the team. Why he wasn’t given his release after the 2014 season is mind-boggling and he wasn’t much better last season. His replacement will prove to be a better choice, so Butler’s days in Arizona should be numbered.
Assistant coach Amos Jones, the head man of the special teams unit needs to go also. Special teams has been a problem for too long now. Loyalty to bad coaches won’t lead to a Super Bowl victory.
Safety Tyrann Mathieu deserves all the credit in the world for fighting back from his knee injury. But he’s not the same player and needs to take a seat until he can play better. He MUST recover that Tyrod Taylor fumble on Sunday, that would’ve been huge for the team and he blew it.
Quarterback Carson Palmer maybe some blame for the interceptions and miscommunication goes to the receivers. But his four picks in the fourth quarter raised doubts about his ability to take this team all the way. Confidence in him has severely waned.
Obviously there’s plenty of time for the squad to turn things around. But losing to a wretched team was a huge step in the wrong direction. Many NFL “experts” had Arizona finally bringing the Lombardi trophy to the desert this season.