Giants 31 Cardinals 27
I should start off by saying I actually like Kevin Kolb. I think he's going to be good. He has great leadership tendencies and has a rocket launcher type arm. So I just want to be clear, I like him. Okay? Okay. Now that we have that clear; he sucks. Bad. Right now, he is absolutely losing the games for the Cards. I am stunned that he hasn't been pulled to the sidelines and ripped an new exit hole for how bad he's playing. In the preseason I was very concerned at how long he tended to hold on to the ball. He seemed to be waiting for the perfect play to open up. I initially wanted him to get rid of the ball quickly because I thought this line was going to get him killed. Well, I was wrong. This line is keeping him alive in spite of him. Now I want him to throw the ball because receivers are open.
There are two things glaringly wrong with him right now. 1) His pocket presense and 2) his reads. Too many times in the last few games he has refused to step into the pocket and would instead flush himself out to throw the ball away. He gets intentional groundings weekly now. It was so bad today that even Goose and Moose were ripping him nationally for abandoning his line. He's got happy feet. He's playing like a wuss. And its killing this team. Kevin: Step up into the pocket and make a completion.
His second problem is that he isn't firing the ball in there. I really have no idea why. It could be because he's nervous of a pick, but I refuse to believe its his receivers anymore. They are wide open sometimes and he doesn't even see them. He's staring down his receivers and DB's are starting to pick up on it. Wait, no, they totally are locked into him from week 2 on. Kolb is terrible right now. He is the partial reason this team lost last week and he is the main reason they lost this week. Yes, he has to learn the offense, but Tarvaris Jackson looks better than him right now. Cam Newton looks better than him right now. Freaking Andy Daulton looks better than him right now. None of those guys were with their teams before this year either. Let's face it. Right now Kevin Kolb is one of the worst starting QB's out there.
That being said I wouldn't trade him for any of those guys. Whisenhunt just needs to get his attention. Whether that be a butt kicking, or a benching I don't know. But this can't continue. However this game had a different component for a Cardinals loss.
I am very much the type of person that would rather ridicule my own team than give credit to the other team. I also don't like to spend much time on bad officiating because it usually balances out for both teams. That being said the refs handed the game to the Giants in the 4th quarter. Victor Cruz makes a reception with about 2 and half minutes on the clock. They have no time outs and they were down 3 points. During the run he stumbles to the ground. No Cardinal player touches him. Thinking that he is down he drops the ball and walks away. The Cards defenders realize the ball is live and pounce on it. No one touched him. The officials say he was down even though no one touched him. Coach Whiz throws the challenge flag. The officials say that because Cruz had 'given himself up' the play couldn't be reviewed. The league official that commentates on live games came on with Moose and Goose and said the officials completely blew the call. That should have been Cardinal ball. Game over. He said it was a no brainer. Later this week the NFL offices will officially release a statement: "Oops, sorry about that." Sigh. Only the Cards.
Apart from all the above, the Cards played a hell of a game today. Beanie and the offensive line were monsters today. Beanie gained 138 yards on 32 carries with 3 TDs. Absolutely amazing football. Levi Brown and D. Colledge ran over them for most of the game. Even Fitz was blocking the snot out of guys. They owned the Giants defensive line. They still stink on big conversion downs. But I mostly attribute that to shoddy play calling and poor QB play.
The defense kicked the crap out of the Giants rushing offense. Campbell, Carter, Williams, and Dockett just owned them. They held the Giants to 54 yards rushing on 24 plays. I noticed the LB's don't seem to have a problem playing run defense against an offense that doesn't rely on a one cut back. Teams should note that and take advantage of the Cards undiscipline. But the Giants didn't. The Cards rush defense was absolutely stellar today. Pass defensewise... not so much. They only got one sack, and had very little pressure The biggest problem was when the Cards needed a big defensive play in the 4th and they got zero pressure on Eli. He responded by ripping them to shreds. He threw for 321 yards, but I didn't see the DB's get beat much at all. It just seemed the Giants WRs made great plays. PP21 and A.J. played much tighter D than the last 3 weeks. As the season progresses, I see them both becoming lock down corners. Even A.W. played great today.
Whiz has a bigger problem on his hands. He's about to lose his job. This team is 1-3 and should be 3-1. He sold the Cardinals brass that Kolb would solve the problems from last year. Instead, this year looks eerily similar to last year. Bad QB play. Plus Kolb is getting worse. That stinks of bad coaching. Do I think he will get fired this year? No. He gets to ride the wave of 2 playoff appearances and a Superbowl appearance. But how long did Bob Brenly get to ride a World Series victory before he was let go? It won't be long till the national media picks up on that and he's in the hot seat. Then its all over. Only Tom Coughlin and Norv Turner seemed to escape that seat in recent years. And they were going to the playoffs. My only light of hope in all this is the Cards actually ran the ball well today. If that becomes a trend, then this team will turn it around. If they go back to throwing 60% of the time then they will lose. Its just, they won't lose enough to get Luck.
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