Nice article Kearly, always looking forward to these.
I went and re-watched it as well.
I dont' think it was luck that made the Cardinal's offense looked like it did. We were already up 30-6 after the first batted pass, and at that time it was a good play by Bennett. The next batted pass by Avril was a great diagnoses of stopping the screen pass as the O-linemen went pass him. If he had gone for the sack instead that play would of been converted. Isn't that what they taught the Defensive players is that if you can't get to the QB you put your hands up. If Avril had caught it instead that would of been a pick 6.
Palmer was off and when I looked at those throws where he was throwing to no one, we got pressure on him. He took quite a bit of hits early in the first quarter and I think it had affected him after when even the small amount of pressure was forcing his errant throws.
In a rematch I see the Cardinals putting up another TD or 2, also we put up 30 points in the first half.
On the 3rd and 10 in the 3rd Quarter where Carroll had called a time out, if he hadn't I think Doug gets that TD, I know it was close to an expire clock but it looked like the ball was snap before. You can see Wilson was smiling and looking like there was one he should of had. On the next play if Coffman just run straight into the defender he would of gotten the first down, instead he elected to lower his head. We would of score a TD a few plays later.
I agree that if Lockett had stayed in the whole game he would of gotten 300 kick/punt return yards easy.
Great overall team win, there were still mistakes but this team seems to fix it when they need to.
The O-line didn't make the run happen. Michael made it happen. He made alot of guys miss on the first tackle, and he played out of his mind. I hope he keeps playing with that intensity. That's the type of back we need in this system. Gotta run hard and through people and dish out the punishment.