Arizona Cardinals Regular Season - Cardinals

The Setup
We had beaten the Rams and had clawed our way up to 4 & 7. The Cowboys were on the upswing atop a very unpredictable NFC East. They benefited from extraa rest and prep time due to the longer workweek after playing on Thanksgiving night.

The Bottom Line:
Cards won it in OT after a a couple of bizarre circumstances reminiscent of our two other most recent meetings ending in overtime wins by the Cards over the Felons. At the beginning, it looked like a Cowboy blowout - with our offense repeatedly bottled up by the Cowboy punter, the O-line helpless to protect Kevin Kolb and Tony Romo seeming to operate at will. But the Cardinal defense kept them in the game until adjustments could be made and Kevin Kolb was able to get into some sort of semi-effective groove.

A missed Cowboy FG at the end of regulation set up Leshon Stephen-Howling's overtime 50+ TD run. Coach Garrett's decisions (a) not to use one of two remaining time outs to run an additional play and get closer to the end zone and (b) call a time-out a split-second before his FG kicker (Bailey) split the uprights resulted in (c) the botched FG attempt by Bailey that sent the game into OT.

The Lede
Dallas coach ices "game-winning" field goal; Howler makes him pay.

Game Recap

1st Quarter

Touchback on the KO. Dallas picked up a 1st down and reached the Cardinal 46 before punting. fair caught by Peterson at the Cardinal 11. Cards went 3 & out and punted from their own 19. A fair catch interference call on Adams gave the 'Pokes the ball on their own 44. They picked up a first down but stalled at the Cardinal 36, where Bailey's 53 yard FG attempt was wide left. Cards started with good field position from their own 43. After a couple of 1st downs (on a completion to Robertsd and a run by LSH) got us to the Dallas 27, Kolb was sacked and Fitz was flagged for a false start. But Feely's 48-yard attempt was good. Cards 3 - Dallas 0.
Jones returned the KO 69 yards to the Cardinal 35. But Lenon sacked Romo on the first play from scrimmage and forced a 3 & out.McBriar's punt (on 4th & 10 at the AZ 35) was downed at the AZ 10. Cards got to their own 18 as the quarter ended. 1st Quarter Score: Cards 3 - Dallas 0.

2nd Quarter

Kolb was sacked for minus-6 and again for minus-3, and the Cards went 3 & out, punting out-of-bounds at the Cowboy 28. A 36-yard completion to Lauren Robinson was undermined couple of three-yard losses on runs by Murray helped set up Dockett's minus-11 sack of Romo. Dallas punted from their own 47. O-O-B at the Cardinal 3-yard line. Cards went 3 & out. Punt was muffed (but recovered) by Cowboys at their own 48. Penalty helped move them back to their own 38. Romo dinked and dunked his team down to the Cardinal 32, where the drive stalled and Bailey was good from 50. Cards 3 - Dallas 3.
LSH returned the KO to the Cardinal 13 (lousy field position yet again!) Kolb's sack by Ware contributed to another 3 & out. Zastudil punted from our 2. Punt qwas returned to the Cardinal 33 where a 28-yard completion to Whitten (vs. R Johnson) set up a 5-yard TD pass from Romo to Dez Bryant (Yikes! Here we go!). Dallas 10 - Cards 3
3:09 left til halftime. Touchback on the KO. 3 & out. Zastudil's punt was fair caught at the Cowboy 21 with 1:52 left. Romo dinked and dunked his way to the Dallas 45 where time ran out after Campbell sacked Romo for minus-7. (It could have been worse, but we're only down by a TD). Halftime Score: Dallas 10 - Cards 3

3rd Quarter

LSH returned the 2H KO to the Cardinal 21. (It seemed as though Kolb and his O-line made some adjustments that borrowed him a split-second more time to throw the ball and opened up holes for Beanie for occasional positive yardage). They drove to the Cowboy five-yard line in 8 plays and reached the one, but a false start penalty (on Keith on 4th & goal) forced us to settle for a Feely 23-yarder. Dallas 10 - Cards 6.
KO was returned to the Felon 16. Dallas mounted a 13-play drive which got themas close as the Cardinal 17, but Schofield's minus-7 yard sack forced the "Pokes to settle for a 37-yard Bailey FG. Dallas 13 - Cards 6.
LSH returned the KO to the Cardinal 21 to end the quarter. (We're still within a TD!) Third Quarter Score: Dallas 13 - Cards 6.

4th Quarter

Turnaround plays of the game - Kolb hit Roberts for a 40-yard catch & hit him again for +22 a few plays later to set up an impossible, twisting 4-yard TD run up the middle by Beanie to tie the score. Cards 13 - Dallas 13.
KO was returned to the Dallas 17. An aborted snap by Romo helped halt a Dallas mini-drive at their own 39. McBriar's punt was returned O-O-B at the Arizona 20. Kolb managed to move the offense out to the AZ 20, but a minus-2-yard sack followed by a false start call on Colledge forced us to punt from our own 46. Touchback. 6:27 left in the tie game. Romo moved his team to the Cardinal 44 where they punted on 4th & 1 (I realize we'd be closer to a FG if Dallas went for it and didn't make it, but I was kind of surprised they punted). Ball was downed at the Cardinal 5 (Field position still again! That's probably why they punted). Cards pushed it out to their 9 (on an underrated Wells 4-yard run up the middle) and then punted.
The log says otherwise, but what appeared to be a terrific return by Dez Bryant was nullfied by penalty , and the Cowboys started from their own 32 with 2:54 left. They made it to the Cardinal 45, but a couple of penalties moved them back to their own 45 with 1:01 left on the clock. Romo completed consecutive passes to Bryant for +9 and +15 to set up a Bailey FG from the Cardinal 31 with 0:31 left to play..
Although the Cowboys had 2 remaining time outs and plenty of time to try to get a little closer to the end zone to make Bailey's 49-yard attempt a bit closer. Instead, Coach Garrett allowed the clock to run down to 0:07 before Romo spiked the ball to stop the clock.
Time for Bailey (who had missed a FG earlier) to boot home the game-winner. It appeared that he had done just that - splittling the uprights from 49, but a nano-second before the snap, the Dallas head coach inexibly "iced his kicker" by calling a time out. Bailey had to kick it again - no big deal; except that now "he had time to think" and that was enough for him to pull the kick wide left and short. Kolb then took a knee at 0:02 and time ran out. End of Regulation Score: Cardinals 13 - Dallas 13.

Overtime

Cards won the toss and (heh heh) elected to receive. A 14-yard completion from Kolb to Roberts was nullified by a holding call on Colledge. But we got it back 2 plays later on on a pass interference by Newman (who was covering Roberts). Another 16-yard completion to Roberts made it 1st & 10 at the Cowboy 47, but a false start on Levi pushed us back to our own 48. On the next play from scrimmage, Kolb rolled to his right and, by doing so, enabled LSH to get outside Cowboy coverage (on what evidently was an aborted screen where the blocking broke down). He hit the Howler in the right flat, and LSH simply used whatever blocks he could pick up to zig and zag his way 52-yards to daylight - and ultimately across the goal line to paydirt. Game over! We did it again! Final Score in OT: Cardinals 19 - Dallas 13.

Game Stats

Most of the comparative stats (net yardage, penalties, sacks etc.) were pretty even between the two teams.
We held Dallas to 75 net rushing yards on 20 carries.
We ran the ball 25 times and threw it 25 times.
There were no turnovers by either team.
We sacked Romo 5 times/Kolb was sacked 5 times.
Dallas kept the ball for 33:42 (vs. our 29:35)
Bailey missed 2 FG's (Feely didn't miss any attempts)
Beanie gained 67 rushing yards on 20 attempts. (Murray gained 38 yards on 12 attempts)
Kolb went 16 for 25 and 247 yards and a TD (although it was thru mainly LSH's catch and run). I don't have the stats, but he did far better in the 2H to pull his overall numbers up).
Roberts caught 6 passes for 111 yards. (Fitz caught 4 for 55).
Daryl Washington led the defense with 9 tackles, followed by Marchall, Peterson, Jefferson, Lenon and Wilson with 5 apiece.
Sacks were credited to: Campbell, Dockett, Haggans, Lenon and Schofield (one apiece).
Zastudil had a net punting average of 44.7 (vs. 38 for McBriar, though McBriar kept us bottled up inside our 10 for most of the game, and Peterson was never given the chance to break one).

Bright Spots

Once Kolb shook off a bit of rust (and the coaches made enough blocking and route adjustments to give him a bit more time to operate), he seemed better able to control events offensively, escape pressure and make the plays he had to make.
Gotta give some love to the O-line, which (despite looking overwhelmed, outmanned and incompetent for the first part of the game) gave Kolb the time he needed to make just enough plays plus also enough wiggle-room in the run game to enable Wiz to establish a 50-50 run/pass ratio, keep their pass rushers honest and set the stage for LSH's final 52-yard scamper. (Let's not forget that these guys were up against superstars like Ware and Spencer coming off either edge and Ratliff wreaking havoc up the middle).
Andre Roberts (6 grabs for 111) was Mr. Clutch out there yesterday and gave us the second weapon we needed opposite Fitzgerald.
The entire defense held the Dallas offensive juggernaut to 13 points!
Five sacks (& countless other hurries) by our Front Seven.
Seldom if ever was Romo able to roll out to his right without having some Cardinal moving into position to contain him or, even better, get into his face.
Peterson is starting to look comfortable turning, going and looking back on deep routes. Marshall's physical presence - either at starting or nickel corner - frequently disrupts a pattern or prevents a longer gain. He displayed surprising speed running down a Dallas returner (I think it was Bryant) and pushing him out of bounds to prevent a long score. Jefferson has the longest way to go, but he too was showing brief flashes of excellence.
Good distance and hang-time by Zastudil.
I didn't see much of how they played, but our 2 NT's (Eason and Carter) had to do pretty well to hold Murray to 38 yards and Dallas to 13 points.
While the Cards are far from perfect, it seems as though (with few exceptions) each player is playing pretty close to the top of his current game and this has been enough to keep us in a lot of football games (& actually win most of those suckers).

The Dark Side

Although the O-line did make the necessary adjustments to make a game of it in the 2H, they still gave up 5 sacks and hurt us with penalties at key moments of the game. They're still not playing at a consistently enough high level to take over games (or enable Kolb or Beanie to do so with any degree of predictability).
Doucet dropped a couple of catchable passes in clutch situations. Not acceptable.
Where were the TE's?
I'd like to see more dependible play from Haggans (Although he's usually good for one or two impressive plays per game, there are too many other times where the other team does good things on his watch).

Last Word:
The Cards are now 5 & 7. If they were somehow able to run the table, they could wind up 9 & 7 (with an outside shot at a playoff spot). Now I realize that, with the Niners next on our schedule, this is not likely to happen. (Not only has SF clinched its playoff spot, but they're fast emerging to join Green Bay as the "gold standard" of the NFL for consistently high play). But once you get past those two teams, anything's possible, and there have been teams in the past who were in a position similar to the Cardinals and who have somehow done it before.

So permit me to dream.

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