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The Setup:
(Note - The way things are setting up in my
home town, I may still not have power back by tomorrow evening and
may miss still one more last and final week of the Cardinals on TV).
The entire preseason will have flashed by in a blink!
A side interest will be differences and
similarities to typical Game 4's. Similar in that coaches will want
to emerge from the game injury free but may also want to polish some
of the rough spots from shaggy offenses, defenses and special teams.
Different in that - at this point in the preseason - the coaches of
most teams probably have less complete pictures of the 80 players
competing for 53 roster spots from lack of exposure due to the
lockout. It will be interesting to see how
Coach Wiz balances the conflicting priorities:. What I'll be looking for:
On Offense:
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No injuries.
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Continued chemistry between Kolb,Fitz and the
other receivers.
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Another 150+ yard ground performance.
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The Kolb to Fitz connection.
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Whether Alfonso Smith comes back to
demonstrate why he deserves to be our #3 RB.
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Do we keep Skelton? Or do we put him on
injury waivers or IR (or risk losing him trying to sneak him
onto the PS) and keep Croyle?
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The WR battle - I'm guessing we'll keep Fitz,
Doucet, Roberts, S Williams and Sampson. That's 5. Stuckie
figures to be #6 (but will he be)?
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More big days from our refurbished TE group;
notably Heap and (if he plays) Housler.
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Are any of our young offensive linemen (like
Batiste, O' Dowd or Louis) ready to dislodge a few grizzled vets
(like Pork Chop or Claxton?
On Defense:
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Carter vs. Dan Williams
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Run stubbordness inside
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A pass rush. Who will be the heros? Joey P?
Schofield?
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Our ILB's (Bradley joining Lenon and DWash)
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How our 4 corners (Jefferson, Marshall ,
Peterson hold up
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Which new backup corners (if any) step up?
Bennett? Turner? Nnanbuife?
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Can A-Dub overcome his injury to remain a
mainstain or will guys like R Johnson, Abdullah or Ware have to
shoulder some of the road? How effective will our secondary be
with/without A-Dub?
On Special Teams:
Wrapping Things Up
I started off my analysis of Game #1 by observing that "Icannot remember coming into a new preseason with as many
unanswered questions as the Cardinals have this year." I added "but
fortunately there are many potentially positive and exciting answers
to those questions." Injuries of two budding young stars (Ryan
Williams and Greg Toler) have dealt a double body-punch to that
observation.
It was also my opinion that
"only a quality QB stood between our actual record and the playoffs
and that (all other things being equal) if we landed a competent QB,
there should be no reason why we shouldn't be in the thick of things
this year." So far, Kevin Kolb hasn't let us down; and if
Bartel can resist "doing harm" once per game, he looks equally
lethal potentially as KK.
Despite the loss of Toler, I like the depth and
talent of our corners, The remake of the TE position (with the addition of Todd
Heap,Jeff King & Rob Housler adds important weapons to both our
passing attack and run blocking. We didn't acquire an outside pass
rusher, and will have to hope that Joey Porter will regain
his mojo and/or O Brien Schofield will continue to come back to full
health and flash more of his pre-injury potential. I'm also very
excited about what our defense might look like with Stewart Bradley
returning to full health. At the very least, he adds
depth at ILB. At best, he solidifies what, in my view, has
traditionally been a somewhat "soft" position for us.
Bottom Line - It seems to me that Wiz and
the Cardinal staff are stocking their roster with high-talent but
malleable balls of putty they can mold into Pro Bowl athletes and
they are methodically doing just that. There may be a few exceptions
(i.e. OL and NT) but it's exciting to watch Wiz and his coaches
develop guys like DWash, Schofield, Jefferson etc. and then watch
those efforts bear fruit.
And that's a wrap!
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