AADQ: Brodie Or Damon?

Tough question. I think you go with Brodie Croyle when he returns, because theoretically he gives the Chiefs the best chance to win long term. Damon Huard gives us the better chance right now, but a 35-year-old career clipboard holder shouldn’t be anything more than a stop-gap option at this point. Well, that and Tyler Thigpen repellent. Additionally, we don’t need to delay our Brodie evaluation another year. For better or worse, we need to decide on him by the end of this season.

Should Brodie or Damon start when Brodie returns?

If The Playoffs Started Today…

This is going off the standings from NFL.com and who they have listed for the top six in the conference. Now it is kind of confusing because not everyone has played everyone and some have played more division games than others and the Cardinals, Packers, and Saints are all 2-2. And the fact that the Saints have a better conference record than the Cardinals and Packers, but are listed underneath them, even though all the teams have undefeated division records. As you can see it is all rather confusing and I started to use the NFL’s 12 steps to determining tiebreakers, but with all the rules and mathematics and net point differences and strength of schedules and success rates on third down conversions in the first half and amount of Gatorade used between divisional opponents in the third quarter, I just chose to take the NFL’s word for it on who is in and who is out. So, here are the current playoff standings for the league:

NFC
1. New York Giants
2. Carolina Panthers
3. Arizona Cardinals
4. Green Bay Packers
5. Washington Redskins
6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

AFC
1. Buffalo Bills
2. Tennessee Titans
3. Denver Broncos
4. Pittsburgh Steelers
5. Baltimore Ravens
6. New England Patriots

What They Are Saying About the Cardinals

Darren Urban from azcardinals.com says the Cardinals need to tighten up the defense.  He also thinks the Cardinals would do themselves good by scoring first.  I couldn’t agree more!

Jason Harris of the AZRedReport on scout.com reports the Cardinals are the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.  That was also my fear if the Cardinals went 0-2 on this trip.

Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic discusses the Cardinals humbling visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past Friday in Washington D.C.

Mike Sando of ESPN.com thought the Cardinals decision to stay back east was not necessarily a bad one, however viewed it as a missed opportunity.

Michael Strahan of the NFL on Fox thinks Anquan Boldin is a tough player and also had a take on the Cardinals stay back east, saying he thought it wouldn’t have made a difference if they had stayed back east or came home between games.

Some excellent thoughts and very good reading in all aspects.

Go Cards!

Scott Allen

AZScott

What They Are Saying About the Cardinals

Darren Urban from azcardinals.com says the Cardinals need to tighten up the defense.  He also thinks the Cardinals would do themselves good by scoring first.  I couldn’t agree more!

Jason Harris of the AZRedReport on scout.com reports the Cardinals are the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.  That was also my fear if the Cardinals went 0-2 on this trip.

Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic discusses the Cardinals humbling visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past Friday in Washington D.C.

Mike Sando of ESPN.com thought the Cardinals decision to stay back east was not necessarily a bad one, however viewed it as a missed opportunity.

Michael Strahan of the NFL on Fox thinks Anquan Boldin is a tough player and also had a take on the Cardinals stay back east, saying he thought it wouldn’t have made a difference if they had stayed back east or came home between games.

Some excellent thoughts and very good reading in all aspects.

Go Cards!

Scott Allen

AZScott

Nashville is going to be off the hook for the next week!

We’ve got ESPN’s College GameDay coming to Vanderbilt for the first time ever as the Commodores look to go 5-0. I’ll be there to see it as they take on the (sometimes) mighty Auburn Tigers. It should be a good one, and while deep down I’m an Auburn fan, I’ll be happy to see Vandy get off to such a great start if they are able to pull off the upset.

and

The second Presidential Debate will be held on Tuesday, October 7, at the Belmont University’s Curb Event Center. This will will be a town hall-style debate in which voters, both present and through the Internet, will pose questions on any topic to the candidates.

That’s big time people. Let’s please try and act right.

Read more here.

Bradie James Says Media Is Blowing Up Terrell Owens Again

Blogging the Boys has an inteview with Dallas Cowboys linebacker Bradie James and it’s a good read on what the Cowboys locker room is like right now. 

First off, James says that Terrell Owens is humble and his comments are once again blown up by the press because they have nothing better to do. Here is his answer from the interview.

Bradie: I mean you just said it, the media said that stuff, T.O. isn’t saying it. What’s crazy is, for you to say it like that shows you guys know (the fans) that the media just wants to blow it out of proportion because part of it is their job and they want to have something to talk about. Is it right, is fair to us? No. But nobody cares about that, they just think that we’re supposed to go out there and play football. But, you know, we’re not going to allow the media to come into the locker room and stir up a mess, that’s basically what they’re doing. They want to stir up some things to tear us apart but you know that’s part of the job, this is not our first rodeo. As long as we know that T.O. is humble and we’re not at each others’ throat, it’s fine.

TV Crew Announced for Cardinals-Bills game

ESPN.com’s Mike Sando reports that the game this week between the Buffalo Bills and the Arizona Cardinals on CBS, will be called by Bill Macatee and Steve Beuerlein.  They rank seventh out of seven CBS crews.  I’m surprised after last week they even wanted to send a crew to televise the game.  Well, I guess the Buffalo fans, oops, I mean Toronto (does Toronto even get CBS?) fans will have something to watch.

Look at the bright side, at least this is the same crew that called the Dolphins-Cardinals game at University of Phoenix stadium three weeks ago and we all know how that one turned out.

Go Cards!

Scott Allen

AZScott

If You Want To Know What Death and Insanity Looks Like, Watch This

The lies? The propaganda? For how long? Will I get paid? Oh my God this guy is completely out of his mind. Folks, meet the one and only, Al Davis. 

Around the Fansided Network

Looking at what’s going around the NFL, more so around the Fan-Sided Network and what bloggers are saying about their teams today.

First and foremost, I have to mention the Dallas Cowboys.  One of their bloggers, and I say one cause I know not everyone over at The Landry Hat agree on this, but it seems that said blogger is upset over a field goal called good when he believes it was not good.  Click on TLH’s link I provided and decide for yourself.  He even thinks the missed call was made on purpose because of comments made about the officiating by the Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.  I highly doubt that.  Again though, decide for yourself.

Neil Keefe at GMen HQ doesn’t think much of the ESPN Monday Night Football crew.  The only one I question on that crew really though is Tony Comb-Over, uh, I mean Kornheiser.  I agree with Neil that he is great on PTI, but the booth could do without him.

FanSided’s Adam Best does a great job with his lead-in perspectives on FoxSports.com in his  introduction to the networks weekly NFL Breakdown.

The Crowe over at Just Blog Baby is about ready to trade in his Raiders allegiance and join the 49ers.  Not a bad move in my opinion.  Al Davis is a joke.  He fired coach Lane Kiffin and also is not going to honor the contract and pay Kiffin for the rest of the season.  I hope Kiffin sues for every penny Davis owns.  Someone needs to tell Al the nursing home is calling.

Please say a prayer for the Jacksonville Jaguars Richard Collier.  He is paralyzed from the waist down and had to have his leg amputated.  He obviously will never walk again.  A nice write up from Jeanne over at Black& Teal yesterday on this.

Vinnie over at Ramblin Fan reports Marc Bulger is back under center this week.  Personally I think it’s the best move to make.  I think Trent Green did everything he could to keep his team in the game for three quarters on Sunday, however I also think Bulger is the better QB and so does interim coach Jim Haslett.

Scott Allen

AZScott

How far have we come since last year?

We’re a quarter of the way through the season and it is time to take stock.  Where are we now, and where have we been?  Last year, we had the bye week in week four, but after week 5, we were 3-1 and just like we are this year.

Last year at this time we just finished womping the Lions and it looked like the offense might have just made a huge leap forward.  Our only loss, strangely enough, was to the Giants.

So, 3-1 with a loss to the Giants, not much has changed right?  And yet so much has.  New coach, new system, but same old last place Eagles.

And the loss of Sean Taylor seems so long ago, and yet that may be the biggest difference in the future of the team this year.  At the start of the season, many people argued we only made the playoffs because of a late season surge of emotion for Sean.  I would argue that what we lost in Taylor was far worse than the gain we got from any emotional surge. And our quality is showing through this year.  Let’s compare some numbers:

Last year’s offense at this time was averaging 21.75 pts per game and 340 yardsper game.

This year’s offense is averaging 21.5 pts per game and 342 yards per game.

Last year’s defense at this time was giving up 13 pts/g and 268 yrds/g.

This year’s defense is giving up 20.2 pts/g and 315 yrds/g.

So does that mean we’re worse than last year?  Well, we are playing better opponents this year.  The Giants are better now than they were week 4 last year.  The Cowboys were widely considered the best team in the league, and the Saints and Cardinals had playoff aspirations at the beginning of the year.

Last year, the Dolphins were one of the worst teams in the history of the league, the Lions, while 3-0 coming in to play us, went on to have a bad year, the Eagles were pretty average.

Given that, its hard to argue we are any better or worse than we were last year.  Of course, it is unlikely that we’ll lose one of our best players to a similar tragedy, but we have have an aging defense prone to injury and losing Marcus Washington or Shawn Springs to a blown ACL might be no easier a blow to take.

Some might say I’m trying to be a downer but I consider being about the same place as we were last year to be a real victory.  First off, we went to the playoffs last year so going again seems like a pretty good start.  Second, a lot of people thought JZ couldn’t hack the job and didn’t belong.  Here he is coaching as well as a legend.  And last, unlike last year, this is a team that is still capable of growth.  We’re still learning our offensive system, and Jason Campbell is getting noticably better.  The offensive line is only improving in health and last year it was decimated. Last year’s offense got worse as the season progressed (until a noticable uptick from Todd Collins).  I don’t expect that to be repeated.

In other words, this is a team with the talent and current production to go 9-7 that could easily improve, and 10-6 or 11-5 is not out of the question.  Our schedule is about to go into the easiest section with games against Philly (who looked very human against Chicago), St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh before the bye.  It seems unlikely we’ll go into the bye worse than 6-3 and could easily be 7-2. That seems like the kind of momentum a team can build on even with a tough division schedule and games against the Ravens and a healthier Seahawks team coming up.

I like where we are.  I like where we’re going.  I even liked where we’ve been.  There is still a long way to go in the season, but with a quarter of it done, things feel pretty good. Hail Skins!

-DW

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