One Set Of Cardinals Start A Season, Another Tries To Extend Theirs

I've chosen to not pay much attention to the NFL offseason. All of it can sound good in theory, but it only matters what actually happens, so might as well focus on actual sports, right? Anyway, I knew the Cardinals had managed to upgrade their QB position with Carson Palmer. OK, it's more of an upgrade by default, since a blind man would be an upgrade on Lindley or Skelton.

And Palmer did play better. He threw for 300 yards, 2 TDs, the Cardinals scored 24 points. Too bad they still lost, in no small part because Levi Brown played the role of turnstile yesterday. He gave up three sacks, two of which resulted in fumbles, one of which the Rams recovered. So the offensive line is still a problem, and since that's going to affect Palmer's effectiveness, and the presence or absence of the running game (mostly absence yesterday), that's a real problem.

Oh well, I'm sure Larry Fitzgerald was glad to have a QB capable of getting the ball to him more than once a game.

The defense did fairly well. I'm not thrilled with Sam Bradford throwing for almost 300 yards, or the fact he wasn't sacked once. And Jared Cook going for over 100 yards receiving is not something I'm thrilled about, but the Cardinals have had trouble with guys who are built like tight ends by run like receivers for years. Anyway, they did force two turnovers, and held the Rams to an even worse rushing day than the Cardinals had. I feel like if this had been in Arizona, the Cardinals would have won. It was close enough.

Stepping over to baseball, the NL Central is a surprisingly interesting race considering it involved three teams that will almost certainly make it into the postseason. It's very back and forth. The Cardinals beat the Reds two out of three in St. Louis, then lost 2 of 3 in Pittsburgh, then 3 of 4 in Cincy. Then they went back home and swept the Pirates. And the Reds just finished sweeping the Dodgers, so everybody's within 1.5 games of each other.

The Reds and Pirates are going to hopefully beat the crap out of each other over the last 20 games, while the Cardinals mostly face off against lousy teams. Which guarantees nothing, but it's encouraging to me. Wainwright bounced back from consecutive starts where the Reds kicked his teeth in with 7 shutout innings against Pittsburgh. After him, though, the rotation's looking a little shaky. Miller's inconsistent, Lynn is consistently crap, which leaves Kelly and Wacha. Not sure how much they can be relied on in the postseason, and more critically, how much Matheny is willing to rely on either one. I'd definitely rather see them make important starts than Westbrook.

Allen Craig's out for the time being with an ankle sprain. Which means extended run for Matt Adams, unless Matheny does something stupid like start Brock Peterson a bunch. The middle infield is still a problem, since Kozma's not hitting, Kolten Wong isn't hitting, they won't use Ryan Jackson, and Descalso's not doing anything much. Well, it's been a problem all year, guess it's too late to fix it now.