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Cardinals' Tuesday Night Hangover: Don't Blame The Defense

Cards

The night after, it is easy to blame the Cardinals deflating loss to the 49ers on the 7 turnovers, but there may be more to it.

5 separate Cardinals fumbled the ball on Monday night, Warner responsible for two, but only one was lost to the 49ers.

The seven turnovers gave the 49ers the ball for almost 37 minutes & a full quarter longer than the Cardinals at a little over 23.

The Cardinals also committed eleven penalties for 78 yards including three offsides calls on the opening 49ers drive.

All of San Francisco's 24 points came after Arizona turnovers.  All of them.

Here is a chart of each Cardinals possession and its consequences from San Francisco.  The first Cardinals possession came after an interception on the 49ers first drive.

First Half
Punt  -- Lead to a SF punt.
Fumble (Hightower) -- Lead to 8 yard SF touchdown drive.
Fumble (Stephens-Howling) -- Lead to 8 yard SF fieldgoal drive.
Interception (Warner/Breaston)  -- Lead to a SF punt.
Punt -- Lead to a missed SF fieldgoal.
Interception (Warner/Boldin) -- Lead to 68 yard SF touchdown drive.
Fumble (Warner) -- Lead to the end of the first half.

Second Half
Punt  -- Lead to a SF punt.
Field Goal  -- Lead to a SF interception.
Touchdown  -- Lead to a SF punt.
Fumble (Wells) -- Lead to 16 yard SF touchdown drive.
Punt -- Lead to a SF punt.
Fumble (Boldin) -- Lead to the end of the game.

Each time the Cardinals either punted, or scored, the 49ers failed to score on their next drive by either punting, turning the ball back over to the Cardinals, or by missing a fieldgoal.  

Three of San Francisco's four scoring drives were shorter than 20 yards.  

So in the end, the defense did its job forcing 5 punts, 2 interceptions, and a missed fieldgoal.  Two of the touchdowns allowed came after Arizona fumbled the ball inside their own red zone, hardly the fault of the defense.  

The only poor effort on the part of the defense came on the 7 play 68 yard drive by the 49ers late in the 2nd quarter which lead to 6 points.

For the most part, the Cardinals shook off the first half in the third quarter.  After a 5 turnover half that yielded no points, the Cards held the 49ers to 2 punts and interception while putting up a fieldgoal and touchdown of their own.

But when Rackers' extra-point was blocked, the wind was once again taken from the sails just as they were starting to roll back and threaten to take over the momentum of the game.

On the next possession Wells fumbled and gave the Niners the ball on the Arizona 16 yard line, which they promptly converted into a touchdown.  And that was all she wrote.

The Cardinals then punted, and then fumbled, and the game was over.  

I don't really think you can blame anyone.  Running backs fumbles, wide receivers fumbled, Warner fumbled, and threw two interceptions.  It was a complete offensive meltdown, the likes of which I have never seen before.

To clinch a playoff spot the Cardinals now have to win 2 out of their last three, or San Francisco has to lose any of their last three.  The later of which is more likely.

Filed under  //  Cardinals  
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Posted by Chris Cameron 
 

Suns Keep Spurs At Arms Length, Still Perfect At Home

Granthill

The Spurs lead twice in Tuesdays game in Phoenix.  The scores were 2-0 and 4-3.  After that the Suns took off and never looked back, except a quick glance over their shoulder in the third quarter.

The Suns lead 29-16 after one, 66-49 at half, but just 89-84 after three.  Instead of giving up another large lead and having to fight for a victory, the Suns closed strong and defeated the Spurs decidedly by a score of 116-104.

Nash and Stoudemire had double-doubles (in assists and rebounds respectively) and Dragic had 18 points off the bench from 25 minutes of play.  Tim Duncan lead the Spurs with 34 points, but he had no significant help from his teammates.

Dragic said in an interview after the game that he worked on arching his shot higher this week when his coach from Serbia came to visit.  It seems to have worked.  His height and speed mimic Steve Nash, and now that his shot is getting better he is a threat off the bench.

Louis Amundson left the game in the third quarter with a mild ankle sprain, but he said in a post-game interview that he thinks he's fine: "It's a little sore but there is not too much swelling. I don't think it's that bad."

Amundson is a key addition off the bench, especially with rebounds.  The Suns had 16 offensive and 31 defensive rebounds.

The Suns shot 51% tonight, and 61% from downtown thanks to Dragic and Dudley.

Richardson, still hampered by an injured shooting hand, played 22 minutes and had just 3 points.

The Suns remain 3 games behind the hot Lakers in their division, who have won 9 of their last 10.  The Suns are 5-5 in their last 10.

The next game is Thursday in Portland.

Filed under  //  Suns  
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Posted by Chris Cameron 
 

Anthony, Billups Help Nuggets Claw Back To Defeat Suns

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Arriving at 3:30 in the morning, the Suns came into Saturday's game against the Nuggets having gone 1-4 in the second half of back-to-back games.  Their road woes continued.

Nash gave the Suns a hot start, draining his first 6 field goals for 13 points, but the Nuggets fought back and lead by three at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter was all Suns, as they went on a 12-0 run with big help from Dudley and Amundson who lead the Suns bench to 22 points in the first half.

After the Suns outscored the Nuggets 34-18 in the second, the tide turned to Denver's favor as they outscored Phoenix 30-17 in the third with 20 points from Billups and Anthony.

The fourth quarter was a shootout, as Denver held onto a small lead late in the game.  With the clock winding down Nash drove to the rim to tie the game but missed the shot while drawing lots of contact under the hoop.  Nash didn't get the foul call and Coach Gentry was subsequently tossed from the game for arguing the call.  Denver sunk their free-throws with 2 seconds left and won 105-99.

Quick Facts

Denver went without a field-goal for 7 minutes between the 1st and 2nd quarters.

Robin Lopez, who had 4 fouls in 5 minutes last night, had 3 fouls in 3 minutes tonight.

The Suns had 26 points off the bench, but only 4 in the second half.

The Nuggets out-rebounded Phoenix 15-5 on offense for 19 second chance points.

The Suns had 12 turnovers in the second half.

Amundson had 8 points and 10 rebounds and 2 blocks in the first half. 

The Suns biggest lead was 17 points in the third quarter.

The officials called 18 second half fouls on the Suns, and just 9 on the Nuggets.

Billups and Anthony had 17 and 20 second half points respectively.

Filed under  //  Suns  
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Posted by Chris Cameron 
 

Cardinals More Balanced On Offense, Less Balanced On Defense

Hightowerwells

Though the Cardinals offense is scoring fewer points and gaining fewer yards than last year, they have managed to balance their offense from their previous pass-heavy ways.

They are averaging 20.5 more rushing yards this season from last, while averaging 25.3 fewer passing yards.

In 2008, Tim Hightower and Edgerrin James shared 81% of the Cardinals rushes, totaling 913 yards.  Hightower was mainly a short yardage runner, with 34 first downs and 10 touchdowns, but averaging just 2.8 yards per carry from his 143 touches.

So far this year, as James was let go by Arizona, Hightower has already eclipsed last seasons numbers, gaining 545 yards on 119 touches, an average of 4.5 yards per carry.  He has ben aided by rookie Chris "Beanie" Wells who has managed 517 yards on 121 carries for 4.3 yards per touch.

Together the two backs have rushed for 139 yards more than Hightower and James did in 2008, and there are still 4 games remaining to be played.  They are averaging an extra yard per carry than last season, and have picked up 53 first downs.

The downside to handing the ball off more this season has been the increase in fumbles.  Last year, James and Hightower only lost one of their two fumbles, but this year, Hightower and Wells have lost four of seven fumbles.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Cardinals have continued to struggle in the secondary.

While Arizona has allowed over 7 few points per game this season from last, they have been burned for 36.5 more passing yards per game this season, the largest change in their division.

Opponents have passed for over 3,000 yards against the Cardinals this season, a number which will likely eclipse last seasons mark after the final four games.

Overall, the Cardinals are allowing over 30 more yards per game of total offense, so their run defense has remained largely unchanged.  

For the Cardinals to continue to win on into the playoffs, they will need to keep their rushing defense strong, especially against Frank Gore this Monday night.

The Cardinals have already tied last seasons interception total of 13, so if the secondary fails to keep coming up with key interceptions, they could be taken advantage of.

Filed under  //  Cardinals  
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Posted by Chris Cameron 
 

Suns Hold Off Magic To Remain Undefeated At Home

1211_orlphx_as_t1

The Suns avoided what would have been an upsetting loss to the Magic edging them out 106-103 after blowing a 19-point lead.

While many were placing part of the blame for the Suns 1-4 skid on the fact that they were playing tough teams on the second half of back-to-back away games, the Magic nearly proved that logic wrong by coming into Phoenix and challenging the Suns after losing to the Jazz the night before.

Phoenix got off to its normal hot start, and lead the Magic 41-22 with 9 minutes remaining in the first half, but the Magic methodically chipped away at the Suns lead until eventually taking their first lead since early in the first quarter with 8:29 left in the game.

Too often have we seen the Suns fail to closeout a close game, but the Suns fought the Magic until the final nail-biting moments.

A key turnover by the Magic late in the game gave the Suns the ball with 35 seconds remaining and a one point lead, and the ensuing play call was brilliant.

The play was perfectly designed to give the Suns the best chance at victory.  Nash drove hard to the right and dished to Dudley who was covered by Dwight Howard in the corner.  The play removed Howard from any possibility of rebounding the ball (he had 18 rebounds already), and gave Stoudemire the edge inside.  So either Dudley makes the three and the Suns go up by 4, or he misses and Stoudemire is the tallest guy left rebounding.  And somehow he slams the ball home with three defenders standing there unable to hack him to put him on the line.  Suns go up by three with just six seconds remaining.

The next sequence of plays was as dumbfounding as the previous ones were impressive.

Off the inbound from a timeout, Lewis missed a three and the ensuing rebound resulted in a jump ball between Stoudemire and Pietrus with just 2.5 seconds remaining; still time for Orlando to tie the game.  

Amare out-jumped Pietrus but knocked the ball out of bounds, but the officials ruled for a re-jump.  Officially the clock stopped with .1 seconds remaining, but the referees reviewed the play and ruled that the ball went out of bounds with 1.9 seconds remaining.

Just to be clear, Amare tipped the ball towards the Suns bench, but it bounced once before finally landing out of bounds.  Watching ESPN's replay showed that at 1.9 seconds, the ball hadn't even taken its first bounce IN BOUNDS yet, and that the ball didn't land out of bounds until at most .7 seconds were left (and that's being generous, it was more like .5).

The other strange thing about the play is that the referees ruled a re-jump even though Stoudemire clearly tipped the ball out of bounds.  

So to review, instead of Orlando inbounding with .5 seconds, they performed a second jump-ball with 1.9 seconds left.  Okay, whatever.

Amare got the second jump also, but this time he batted it towards the Orlando end of the court where it eventually went out of bounds as time expired.

Game Facts

The Suns remain undefeated at home this season, and have won 17 straight at home since last season.

Nash had 18 assists, leaving the Suns undefeated (10-0) when he gets over 10 assists.

Dwight Howard had just 1 field goal attempt, and made just 8 free-throws.

The Suns had 5 players with 12 or more points, the Magic, just 2.

The Magic have lost 8 straight in Phoenix.

The Magic's 21 turnovers made up for Phoenix's 47% shooting.

Filed under  //  Suns  
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Posted by Chris Cameron 
 

Cardinals Live and Die By Warner and Turnovers

Kurt_warner_wide827

On Monday night, Kurt Warner has a chance to become the first NFL quarterback to record 5 straight games with a passer rating of 120 or higher, breaking his current tie at 4 with Johnny Unitas.

But what does that mean? After all, passer ratings are derived from a complicated formula which includes completion percentage, yards per completion, touchdowns per pass attempt, and interceptions per pass attempt.  

What it means is, in 4 straight games, Kurt Warner has, well, put up great stats.  Here is what Warner has done in those three games that the passer rating does not tell you.

In those four games, Warner has completed 88 of 121 passes for 1,089 yards, giving him a completion percentage of 72.7% for an average of 12.38 yards per completion.  With 12 touchdowns, Warner earns the Cardinals 6 points every 7.3 completions.  

But the most important stat for Warner over those last four games, and the biggest factor in his prolific passer ratings, is the number zero.  Zero interceptions for Warner in his last four games.

All of this started after Warner had one of his worst games of his career, throwing 5 interceptions in 34-21 loss to Carolina.  Warner came out the next week and threw 5 touchdowns, so perhaps the Carolina game was a wake-up call for Warner.

In fact, Warner is playing better in his last four games that he did in his first six before the Carolina game.

In those first six, Warner completed just 66% of his passes for an average of 10.58 yards per catch, with 9 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.  Compare that to 72.7% and 12.38 yards per completion and its clear that Warner is doing much better in the latter half of the year.  

Only one of Warner's first six games boasted a passer rating over 120, and just two others were over 100.  With the exception of a 24-17 victory over the Giants, the Cardinals lose when Warner's passer rating drops below 100.  The reason the Cardinals prevailed over the Giants was that Eli Manning had a worse game than Warner, throwing 3 interceptions.  

The only other loss came at the hands of Vince Young's 99-yard comeback drive, a game which Warner did not play.

Many coaches have said it, but the Cardinals are living it; win the turnover battle, win the game.

Before the Cardinals' 6 turnover day against Carolina, they had 10 turnovers in their first six games.  Since then, in the last five games, they have just 4 turnovers.  

If the Cardinals want to keep winning through the season and into the playoffs, they need to continue to win the turnover battle, and that starts with Kurt Warner continuing to hit his receivers.

Filed under  //  Cardinals  
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Posted by Chris Cameron 
 

Max Scherzer Surprised By Trade To Detroit

Max_scherzer

Apparently Scherzer didn't see the trade coming and is responding to the trade with words like "shocked" and "blindsided".  But look on the brightside, Max, the Tigers were just one game from the playoffs last year, thats much better than the Dbacks could say.  Have fun pitching against those AL sluggers though.

More on Max from Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic here.

Filed under  //  Dbacks  
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Posted by Chris Cameron 
 

Robin Lopez Loses Temper, Shatters Glass Door

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Phoenix Suns seven-foot center Robin Lopez broke a glass door after storming off the practice court on Thursday. Apparently the 3-on-3 game he and the other bench players had didn't go so well for the angry giant.

There is even audio of the incident as Coach Gentry was being interviewed at the time.

Full story here. Photo from KTAR620.

Filed under  //  Suns  
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Posted by Chris Cameron 
 

Dbacks Pick Up Starting Pitchers Kennedy and Jackson In Three-Way Trade

Kennedyjackson

The Diamondbacks acquired Ian Kennedy from the Yankees and Edwin Jackson from the Tigers in a three-way trade on Wednesday.

Jackson had 14 wins for the Rays in 2008 and 13 for the Tigers last season.  In three years with the Yankees, Kennedy has spent most of his time in the minos and has just 12 starts in New York.

The Dbacks gave up pitchers Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth, which leaves them with no players with last names starting with "Sch-".

The Tigers dealt All-Star Curtis Granderson to the Yankees in exchange for reliever Phil Coke and outfielder Austin Jackson.

More on the trade here.

Filed under  //  Dbacks  
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Posted by The Basinonian