CardsForever":2jb01wxq said:
I just had to come in here and say hats off to Seattle. That was probably the most dominant performance on defense I have seen all year. With their backs against the wall they totally delivered and are alive and well in the NFC. They played like Super Bowl Champions today.
I was really disappointed in Drew Stanton. I wanted to see how he would respond to adversity and it wasn't a pretty sight. The lack of a running game has completely caught up with this team. To me this was simply an unacceptable loss for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. Not once did Seattle lose a game in this fashion last year. My only hope as a Cards fan is that this embarrassing loss will somehow serve them well going forward.
The book on Stanton is that he's less accurate than Palmer, and not as good at reads as Palmer. The book seems to be accurate. Today, his receivers had several drops that were crucial, including a TD drop.
It seemed like Seattle's strategy was to challenge Stanton to beat them. He couldn't consistently get it done. At least, not without Larry Fitzgerald. John Brown was sure impressive, though.
Today the Cards offense was a smoke-and-mirrors deal that got exposed against the now-outstanding Seattle defense. Seattle's smoke-and-mirrors offense got exposed too, against the Cards equally outstanding defense, but the difference is we have Russell Wilson to make Houdini plays.
I think most likely Arizona goes 2-3 the rest of the way, with Stanton at QB, and winds up 11-5. That may or may not be good enough for the NFC West Division Championship.
It's remotely possible that AZ could go 1-5, and miss the playoffs at 10-6, but the AZ defense & special teams, and getting Fitz back, I can't see that happening. And 3-2 is a real possibility for a team with a defense that good and a team that overall opportunistic. I don't see teams scoring that much against that excellent AZ defense, so if AZ connects on some deep shots and general opportunistic play, they will be in a lot of close games.
I see the Cards losing to Seattle and KC, and having 50-50 games at St. Louis and at 49ers. There's a small possibility of losing at Atlanta too. I don't see better than 3-2, nor worse than 2-3.
The division title is still there for the Hawks if they win out, or win 4 out of 5, including the 2nd Cards game.