That Other Cardinals Team I Follow

The Arizona Cardinals are a quarter of the way through their season and they're 2-2. Which isn't too bad; I'm used to them being 1-3. But they've been more lucky than good, and more terrible than lucky. Their two wins were by a combined 4 points (and they only beat Oakland because Janikowski missed 3 field goals, when even 1 would have brought victory), while their losses were by 65 points. Ugh.

The team has multiple problems. The defense has been poor against the run and the pass. Some of that seems attributable to the defensive coordinator, Bill Davis. He seems to blitz too often, leaving opposing receivers in single coverage. Antonio Gates destroyed Arizona last week, though the Cardinals have had problems with TEs for years. Part of the struggle might be the switch to a 3-4 defense. It's a curious choice considering linebacker is the position the Cardinals are thinnest at, while they're supposed to have considerable depth on the defensive line.

The offensive line hasn't been anything to write home about, either. Their run blocking has been fair, but that's not much help when the team is losing by 3 touchdowns before halftime. That's when it's time to throw and unfortunately, this line couldn't form a stable pocket around their QB if they were being rushed by an old ladies' bridge club. I'm not certain what the answer to that problem is, beyond "Don't fall behind so much".

The quarterback position itself hasn't been worth a damn so far. Derek Anderson had one decent game against St. Louis in Week 1. Since then had had two consecutive games completing fewer than 50% of his passes, and last week, his QB rating was 22 before he was benched. Admittedly, he's taking a beating behind that line, but it doesn't help his accuracy is for shit. Larry Fitzgerald has been the target 46 times this season, and only 19 times has the pass been completed. Given Fitzgerald's size, speed, jumping ability, hands, and flexibility, that's pathetic. Anderson might do better if he was blindfolded and spun around three times before throwing. He couldn't do much worse.

It's a moot point for now, though. He's been benched in favor of rookie Max Hall. If it were me, I'd have given Anderson one more chance, rather than throw Hall in against the Saints' defense, which has been pretty solid. If Anderson crashed and burned again, then Hall has two weeks to get ready for Seattle, since Week 6 is the Cards' bye week. It could be though that Whisenhunt doesn't want to lose the fans' support by keeping Anderson starting, or that he figures it's better to let Hall make his first at home, rather than in Seattle, where the Seahawks have been tough this year.