Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruhskins
I think in the second half, the Cards took advantage of our banged up secondary to run the ball. They came out several times in the spread, and given the status of the secondary, we didn't pressure much and defended the pass trying to contain Fitz. Of course, they ran the ball very well against our spread defense. If Wilson doesn't get hurt, we probably do a better job against the run.
Although NTs are not supposed to be flashy on a 3-4, I do agree with you that Cofield has looked very average. I'd be curious to see what the folks that review the games can say about his play. I just hated seeing getting manhandled by the Giants' rookie center last week.
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With the exception of just a couple of plays where the Cards won the line of scrimmage (not enough to change the course of the game), their best play was draw with Beanie Wells.
In short, we had different DL personnel in the game throughout the second half, and so we struggled to make the adjustment to the Cards running so many draws. Plus, it didn't help that Rocky got blocked out of one play by a receiver and ran past the back another time.
It was nice that the Cardinals found a rushing play that worked for them, but the biggest actual (sustainable) difference in the second half was the injuries in our secondary and the matchups the Cards were able to win on the outside.
They had the Fitzgerald-Hall matchup there all day, but it took considerable injury and short passing for them to set up that double move. Give them credit on that one: they saved it for a good time, and it really should have been a clinching TD. We were lucky to escape with a win.