Things Are Trending Down

Since I last posted, Arizona has lost two in a row. They went to Seattle and lost a game where the Seahawks had 7 red zone possessions, but scored only 1 touchdown. They lost because their offense was inept. Max Hall was terrible, and Tim Hightower ruined his consistent large rushing gains by fumbling, costing himself the starting job in the process.

Last week they lost to Tampa, in what's probably the offense's best showing to date. They even threw 2 touchdown passes! Unfortunately, their QBs also threw 4 INTs, and the Bucs scored 38 points, and that's how a team loses a game.

Now Whisenhunt has named Derek Anderson as starting QB again, after 3 mostly poor starts by Max Hall. I don't know whether Hall isn't cut out to be a starter in the NFL, or if he simply isn't ready right now. He's only had 3 starts, it's hard to say, though the negatives seem to outweigh the positives. The only thing he seems to have in his favor are the intangibles, since those are what his teammates and coaches keep praising him on, rather than any particular skill like accuracy, or decision-making.

At any rate, it's rearranging chairs on the Titanic. Anderson has shown flashes of effectiveness when called on to relieve Hall, but he's also shown at least as much of the same poor aim and lousy reads of the defense that got him benched in the first place. There's no indication Anderson has somehow become a better QB over the last month. He's still an inconsistent, mostly terrible player.

The argument among the fans (besides the one about whether Warner was responsible for all Whisenhunt's success) is that the Cardinals should be running the ball more. Which sounds swell, except teams are loading up in the box expecting them to do that (especially when Beanie Wells is in there, since apparently his pass catching and blocking are a work in progress), daring the Cardinals to beat them through the air. It doesn't help matters that in most of their losses, the Cards have fallen behind by a lot. Against the Falcons, Arizona was losing by 17 at the half. Against the Chargers, it was a 21-point deficit at halftime. Seattle was up 16-0 in the 3rd quarter before Arizona put points on the board, and Tampa lead 31-14 in the 3rd before the Gridbirds mounted a comeback. Hard to run much when you need to score quickly.

I imagine the reasoning behind starting Anderson is that he's shown more flashes of competence than Hall, and the division is right there for the taking. Arizona is 3-4, Seattle is 4-3 (with a victory over Arizona in Seattle). I'm guessing they figure if the passing game can just move the chains and stop shooting the team in the foot, they can make the postseason, and Anderson provides a better chance of that. I'm not sure I buy it. I think the Rams, even without any top-flight receivers for their #1 draft pick QB to throw to, have a much better chance than Arizona doe. In which case the only reasons to not start Hall is injury concerns, or because they're worried his poor performance will destroy his confidence. Though if the latter were a concern (and from what I've read of Max Hall, I doubt it is), then he probably can't be the guy for them anyway.