September 10, 2025 • 46 mins
After the Cardinals' season-opening 20-13 in New Orleans last weekend, Jess and Seth have their first game reaction show of the season. They react to what they saw and didn't see. They talk about the studs and duds in the game. They also talk about concerns and what went on in the NFC West.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Z Z.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is the Rise Up Sea Red podcast, all about
the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL, featuring insider and outsider perspectives.
Enjoy the best hour of Cardinals Talk on the web.
Now Here are your hosts, Jess Root and Seth Cox.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hello's and a Cardinals fans, and welcome to the latest
edition of the Rise Up sire At podcast sevest of
Cardinals Talk on the Web. I'm your host, Jessroot fromcardswire
dot com. You would say today's NFL wireside that covers
the Arizona Cardinals with me is my co host Seth
Cox from Revenge of the Birds dot com. Asp Nations
Arizona Cardinal's site. And we are in episode through six
hundred ninety five and guess what we get to talk about?
(00:55):
An Arizona Cardinals win. They defeated the New Orleans Saints
twenty to the team Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, opening
the season one and oh their first season opening wins
since twenty twenty one. And you know it's all good,
didn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah? It was nice. I mean, you have an interesting
game where they clearly were not trying to do too
much and then show too much and kind of kept
things fairly basic, and then they somehow almost let them
(01:33):
back in the game, but then pulled out a win.
So I mean, at the end of the day, that's
kind of all you can ask for in games of this,
you know, Pollober And that's really you know, that's the
difficult part of all of this, right, how how much
effort and time and things of that nature. You're looking
(01:55):
to see them, you know, put in it and see
them really get out of it. So it was almost
like they were playing like, hey, let's not shrow anything
too much, let's be really vanilla, and let's get on
to Carolina.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, and that's what we're going to talk about. We
want to talk about in this game, was it a
good win, was it a bad win? And then other
takeaways and observation we'll talk about as well, the player standouts,
the player does and then kind of look at what
are any concerns that we had from the game combined
with what we saw around the NFC West. So let's
talk about first good win or bad win in the end,
(02:35):
twenty to thirteen road win. They covered the spread. You know,
good teams win, great teams cover, right, but fans didn't
come away from that feeling good. Would you say it's
a good win or a bad win.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I mean, there's no such thing, in my opinion as
a bad win. Right, So you just sip back and
look at it, and you go, well, they need to
improve this, and if they're gonna be good teams, they
got to do this. But then you kind of take
it as a whole and you go again, you look
at it, and you go, okay, well, they really like
they weren't showing anything. Everything was very vanilla and base.
(03:15):
I mean, this was almost like a preseason game script
and so and so you look at it from that
point of view and you you go, Okay, you know,
it was good enough to get a win on that day,
and that's all that matters. I think. I think there
was a couple concerning things that we'll talk about, but
one of them being that you know, are not even concerning.
(03:38):
But you know, we talked about this in our group chat.
Like the reality of it was that they also were
wildly out of shape, especially along the defensive line. I mean,
h Josh Sweat, Kalais Campbell, you know, uh, Dalvin Tomlins,
like these guys looked gassed and it shouldn't be overly shocking.
(04:01):
They played I think as much as us in the preseason.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So you know it is true. So Tom Winson played
a handful of snaps, he plays zero.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
And so and even Darius right like, Darius didn't look fresh.
So you know, it's it is what it is. You
look at it and and all of that. It just
comes down to how they how they you know, move forward,
(04:34):
And that's how I kind of look at it, because
again I just thought it was an incredibly vanilla game,
and and I.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Would describe it. I mean, you're correct. I can't say.
I don't think you can really say that any win
is a bad win, but maybe maybe you can. You
can probably find one there where you you think that
it's going to be and it should be and you win.
But it's lucky. All wins are at some level good.
(05:02):
But it also wasn't. It wasn't on what you call
a good win because you didn't come away feeling good
from it. But it was at its core was an
ugly win. It was one hundred percent just an ugly win.
And and I was thinking about this after the game
and talking to my son about it. It was like, you know,
Orleans forced an ugly game because it's the only that's
(05:24):
they knew that was the only way they could win, right.
They had to they had to be they had to
get the ball out quickly. So it means it reminded me,
honestly of the way remember back when Cole McCoy played
and he was against the Rams, and the Rams it
(05:45):
was to get the ball out, get the ball out
others in twenty twenty two, and they couldn't do anything.
They couldn't move the ball at all because it was
just get the ball out. And all they did was
sit back and there. And the goal wasn't don't let
them do anything over the top, and we'll just tackle.
And that's kind of the way would happen. I think purposely,
the Saints tried to play not a dirty but an
(06:08):
ugly game because it was the only way that would
possibly deraar the Cardinals. And by look at by the
look of the final score, they accomplished what they wanted,
even if they couldn't quite execute down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, And and they got out of it, and it
was overall just one of those games where you're like,
just get get to the next game. At this point,
like they seemed over not overly enthused, and you look
(06:44):
at how the game was played, and there were some
there were some things that you can tell that they had,
you know, kinda kind of highlighted as like this is
what we want to see because we know in this
game it's probably not going to hurt us. And that
(07:06):
was that was interesting to me because again it was
almost like they had this as like their real preseason
warm up. Uh.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, I'd like to credit Brandon Staley. Now we did
have the stat going in that Kyler Murray was zero
and three against Brandon Staley. He finally got that monkey
office back. But I think I wasn't impressed by the
Saints offensively. I wasn't super impressed by Spencer Rattler. They
had a game plan that was to protect him, to
(07:39):
get the ball out quickly no matter what. And aside
from a couple of plays on the run against Alvin Kamara,
they did pretty well of slowing the run game. But
I think what people underestimated would be the impact of
Brandon Staley on that defense. And I will say that
(08:00):
you know, they might be in more games than most
would expect them, Like they could be like the Cardinals
were two years ago, that good bad team.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, definitely. That's what I was thinking too, that this
is a team that just doesn't really look like they're
they're that talented, but they play really hard and the
reality is they just have no depth. I mean, more
than anything else. It's something that we talked about with
the Cardinals in that first and in season, right Like,
(08:33):
obviously when you don't have a quarterback for most of
the season, that makes it tough. But to have no depth,
oh man, that's so bad.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, it's And credit to Statey because they did play
physically against the run, they did pressure Kyler Murray, they
did get they did get they get got to them
a lot. I think I.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Saw the the stat that came from PFF or Pro
Football Network or one of those sites are and and
Kyle Rudegard noted that the the time to pressure was
one point sixty three seconds.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, it was. And that's what I was you know,
And and that's the hard part, right. So I was
actually talking with somebody about this. There's there's a stat
I call it a fetish for anybody, right, like anybody
can find, you know, find what they're looking for to
make their their arguments, right, And so you go to
(09:31):
PFF right, and and the time to throw stat for
the game makes it not look great for Kyler, Right,
So his time to throw was like three points some seconds,
and so if you use that, yeah, three point one
to nine seconds. If you use that, that's like, huh,
(09:53):
you know, why was his why was his a dot solo? Right?
But if you use the actual NFL sight, he was
fourth fast. He had the fourth least amount of time
to throw at four or two point four to eight seconds. Yeah,
his average completed air yards was in line with the
(10:14):
other ones kind of right above him. So that's the
hard part, right, Like you can you can create whatever
narrative from this game that you want to create, and
and that's what makes things difficult. Uh he I mean,
unquestionably had the longest completed air distance throw of the
(10:38):
of the week, fifty one point four yards. That that
beautiful throw to Marvin Harrison. But you know, he was
one of the lowest in yards to the sticks throws.
But the guys above him are all guys that you know,
other fan or the Cardinals fan base you know, are
(11:01):
sometimes like clamoring over right, Like like Joe Flacco Jalen Hurt, C. J. Stroud,
Aaron Rodgers. Those guys were all like dinking and dunking
less than him. So that's the thing is, there's, like
I said, there's just kind of you can find a
stat for everybody that makes you makes you happy or
mad or whatever you want to be in that instance, right,
(11:24):
And and but the reality became that the pass protection
was not what the Cardinals want it or need it
to be. And and that was one of the biggest concerns.
And I'd say on the flip side, the the or
you know, but I thought the biggest like concern coming
out of this game is you kind of intimated at
(11:47):
was the fact that you have you weren't able to
run the ball. And so again was that was that
because the designs were so vanilla, you know, their rushing
yardage looked a lot better than it was if you know,
you and I talk about that all time, one big run,
(12:08):
all all of the Trey Benson fifty yard rush changes
everything because or fifty two yards excuse me, you know,
because they go for one hundred and forty six yards
as a team in that game, and everybody's like, hey,
they had another you almost said, one hundred and fifty yards.
You know, had had over a five yard per carry average.
(12:30):
But it's like that there's basically one run like you
know that that got them over the hundred yards. That
all of that is just like what you look at
and you go, okay, there's there was some there were
some good and there were some bad. Oh.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
And if you take the way I looked at it
was that, well, the average five point four yards per carry,
but they here's yeah, the fifty two yards accounted for
a third of the team's rushing attempts. So he ended
(13:10):
up having eight seven carries for seventeen yards. That's a
little that's about two and a half. Connor had twelve
for thirty nine, just a little over three. So it
was it was tough sledding. It was tough sledding.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But I also thought, you know, you mentioned Staley, he
he didn't even hide it. They were going to sell
out to stop the run like that was yes, they
were going to you know, force Kyler Murray to the
air and to beat them, and it seemed like they
were up to the task so.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Well. In the passing game is to take away from it,
we talked about in the in the in training camp,
the usage of Harrison and McBride, and it was very
much the case. Eleven of the twenty one catches. Now granted,
Tyler completed passes to nine different receivers, so he spread
(14:08):
it out, but eleven of the twenty one receptions were
to McBride Harrison. Fifteen of the twenty nine targets and
one hundred and thirty two of one hundred and sixty
three yards came from McBride and.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Harrison, and I talked about that before the season. I mean,
that was the reality. It was going to run through
McBride and Marvin Harrison this season.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And you know, a couple of
takeaways the Cardinals didn't tak the ball over. That was
that was critical. Tyler was you know, you could say
that Kyler played unevenly, but and the sack numbers look
worse because they got sacked five times. Two of them
were stupid. Two of them. They drove me mad because
there were the two Kyler plays where he ran out
(14:53):
of bounds behind the line of scrimmage rather than throwing
the ball away. In another one, he slid before getting
hit and it was before the line of scrimmage, and
so basically he sacked himself twice when he could have
thrown the ball away, but the three other sacks looked bad.
Now I would say, I will say that the one
on the the Alante Taylor won, where he was a
fifteen yard loss. I saw on X just the number
(15:17):
of people say, he's got to get rid of that ball,
But like, how is he going to get rid of
that ball when he's in the tackle box. He can't
just throw it away. He can't. He was in the
tackle box the entire time. Yeah, well, and it was.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
It was one of those situations where they thought they
were going to get away with it with a play
action right like they thought that running a hard play action.
But again Staley had that schemed up perfectly where well.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
They rushed seven right where seven, But.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
There was a there was a play earlier in it.
When you look at it, you see that they would
bring an extra guy and just have him Chase Murray
on the play action because their thought process was I
(16:06):
don't care, right like, I don't care what happens. We're
just not going to allow him to play action boot
and get out of the tackle box. So that's that
was excellent, excellent by by Staleya in the Saints defense,
(16:27):
and something that you wonder if more teams are going
to do now, like you know they're gonna say, okay,
hand the ball off, right, we'll have we'll have seven
in the box. Well, we'll leave six at the line
of scrimmage to play the run and bring a free
rusher to Kyler on the boot action and and you know,
hand it off against six in the box? What are
(16:49):
you going to do?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah? Offensively, there were a couple of different wrinkles, and
we saw that Trey Benson was gonna We were told
that Benson was going to have a greater role than
the offense this year. And you know how he did it.
He completely replaced a Mario Demarcado. Benson is the third
down back. Now he he spells Connor, but he completely
bumped the Mercado out of the rotation and it was
(17:14):
Benson in on those passing downs, which means he's progressed
as a pass blocker. But I think that's how that's
what they're that's how they're going to increase him without
decreasing Connor, right, and so he'll still get the spells
for Connor. But now he's also getting all the third
down like all of those passing down things, so that
(17:35):
he can it's a way for him to increase his
role without Connor decreasing.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
His Yeah, and you know that that was one of
the question marks we had coming into it, right, like
what was the snapcount going to look like for the
running backs? And when it was all said and done, Yeah,
James was out there for forty three thirteen runs. Trey
was out there for about out half twenty two eight runs,
(18:02):
So that I think, you know, I think that's how
it's going to be, that kind of sixty forty sixty
five thirty five split unless Tray is running real hot
in the game, right, But for the most part, I
think that's what it's going to be.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
It was It was also interesting to see that they
kept all four they dressed all four tight ends. They
even had they did a lot of three tight end
they had one four tight end set and.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Correctly, what's that vocalleg got three snaps like offense snaps.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, that was that was fun to see. And then
like they were planning on it. I think they were
planning on a ugly game. And then he looked defensively,
and they talked about how they wanted to get Rabbit
more playing time, and they did. They they like, they
played a lot of nickel, even when it looked base,
and it came at the co at the at the
expense of a King Davis Kather And so they did
(19:01):
a lot of three safeties, Like even in their base
set when they only had two cornerbacks, they went with
three safeties. And I guess when you have a Buddha
Baker who can do linebacker things and and in farness,
Rabbit is kind of the same thing. You can get
those guys too, to be physical and to be strong
(19:24):
in the tackle game. And and then we saw that
it was Max Melton and Garrett Williams getting all the
all the cornerback snaps, and will came in as the
number three, still got plenty of time, and that Baron
Browning got the start over Zavian and Browning played pretty well.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, And and I thought the rotation was interesting. I mean,
here's here's the first thing. It's always interesting to me
when a team has such a poor defense of game
but then holds them to minimal points, right, like they
(20:05):
were just not able to consistently get off the field
in situations. The other crazy thing was how did the
how did the Saints run? So I mean not so
many more, but nine more plays in seven and a
(20:26):
half least minutes of game time. Like all of those
little things you look at and you go, you go, Okay,
this was a Saints team that is not very good,
as you stated, and the Cardinals kind of got away
(20:48):
with a lot right like, and so that's what the
interesting thing was for all of this is that you
had this this defense that was on the field for
seventy five plays Browning forties. They haven't Collins thirty seven.
So you know, it was interesting how I don't want
(21:11):
to say little, but how little Will Johnson was on
the field right only forty five snaps in the game.
I think people would be surprised to see that. Do
you think maybe they're not super I don't want to
say confidente because I think that's wrong, but like that
they don't want to put him in a position to
(21:32):
play the run quite yet because like it was so
heavily coverage snap based as opposed to his run defensive snaps.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, that makes sense. Well, and they use him I
think it's you know, I don't. I don't think it's
necessarily so much about him as that they they trust
that they like Garrett should be playing every down and
that Max should be playing every down. Maybe they're a
little more versatile. And then because and naturally because.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
He's yeah, he's a rookie as well, right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
So because he would come in in nickel package, just
not that he's going to play in the nickel because
that's what Garrett does. Williams slides into the slot. But
when by by nature, because you are playing nickel, you
are far more likely to be playing pass, if that
makes any sense. That it's just by nature of that.
And yeah, it was a case where the Saints they ran,
(22:33):
you know, more plays in less time, but they were
also cheating, cheating at it too, because they they ran
a lot of hurry up.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
They ran a lot of hurry up and they just
nickel and dying things. But yes, you know that was.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Partially because of the way the Cardinals played defense, because
they knew they were going to get the ball out
fast because you had to protect Spencer Rattler and so
you had to get the ball out quickly, and so
it was just you know, don't give it any like
Gannon said, don't give up anything over your head. And
they survived that. And you know, would we have liked
to see them blow them out. Yeah, And ultimately I
(23:10):
convinced myself it was going to be a blowout, but
it was a cover. They picked up a win. They
make the end was scary, but ultimately it wasn't. I mean,
the Cardins would have had a chance again, and so
it's not like they were in danger of losing, unless
(23:31):
they would have decided to go for two, then that
would have been something different. But they just basically just
they took care business. They they did what they needed
to do. They really they got to win. And that's
that's what I mean. When you're on the road, especially
in New Orleans, that's a team as bad as they are.
They they'd been winning, they'd won six straight season openers.
(23:54):
It's hard to play on the road in Week one.
The fan base is juiced because they haven't been beaten
down by disappointment yet and so honestly, even though this
wasn't aesthetically pleasing, it was it was acceptable. And do
you start with acceptable? And as the Cardinals go through
(24:17):
this quote unquote light part of their schedule. If this
is the only way they went, okay, then we're gonna
have to worry about later in the season. But worrying
about week one on the road when you are honestly
you know, in terms of game planning, there were a
lot there were many unscouted looks that they only had
to kind of prepare for from what they saw defensively
(24:40):
and offensively. So it's not a bad thing. So coming
up next on the Residceever podcasts are Cardinal's Talk on
the webit's move on to talk about the players. Who
are our standouts? Okay, who was our standouts and who
are our duds from that game? That's coming to next
in Recipsy Red, we're back of the resid Sered podcasts
our Cardinals Talk on the web. So yeah, what we
(25:01):
need to do is talk about who stood out? I
think number one. Do we need to simply say that
Will Johnson is probably our number one stand out of
the game just the three pass breakups. It would have
been a fourth pass breakup slash interception had they not
flagged Max Melton for illegal contact on the other side
of the field. He just and he had that truck
(25:23):
stick hole. My gosh, that hit on Chris o'lave in
the backfield. He looked every bit of a star in
the role that he had.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Yeah, and that's the thing is again, I thought was
excellent just put him in a position to be successful
early and kind of go from there, you know. The
secondary as a whole I thought looked really good. But
the other guy I would shout out was Rabbit. I
thought Rabbit had a great game. You know, he's a
(25:56):
guy that again there being careful with and that if
we needed to see more, they're not going to do
that yet, right, And again I think that's okay, Like
you've got Buddha, You've got you've got Jalen. Those are
(26:17):
your guys. They're still your guys. There's still you know,
elite level run defenders, tacklers. Let let will let Rabbit
kind of get into a role in a system and
and learn and then grow from there instead of being like, okay,
(26:40):
we just need to be the dudes right now. Right, Yeah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Thought it was. It was good to see Buddha had
a fantastic game. He ended up with ten tackles. He
had that well, he and he and the Jalen Thompson
combined for that pass breakup in the end zone, that
critical pass breakup, and you know Jawan Johnson, he's not
he's a good player for for him to use that
ball in the end zone, that was that was a
big play. But it was a big moment and one
(27:06):
of their big players made a big play. That's like,
if you're looking big picture, sure it was on almost play,
but you had it a critical part of the game.
You had one of your best players make a play
in the biggest moments. That's a sign of a good team.
That's a sign of a good team. And so that
that you know, if we look at that, that is
(27:26):
a definite positive for that.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It is and that's what we're kind of waiting or
not waiting, but enjoying this portion of it, right, Like
the small growth that we're seeing from this this this
group right especially you know in year three, we've talked
ad nauseum about it, like just making that taking that
(27:52):
next step as a team. But we've also talked about
like it's weird, and you know, we don't need to
rehash the past too much, but like it's weird that
what happens when you invest early in premium positions like
corner right like that. And this isn't to take anything
(28:14):
away from Rabbit, because I think Rabbit's going to be
a very excellent player, but is there It's odd to
me that the past regime never realized that you can
get a player like Rabbit in round four or five whatever.
They got him, right, but you can't and you rarely
(28:37):
get a Will Johnson in round four or five. You
rarely get Wilson, I know, a Max Melton in round
like That's what was always weird to me is that
they just never understood that. And again, the only reason
this regime got Garrett Williams in around three is because
he had a torn acl.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
YEA. Honestly, dear Williams fell because of the torn a CEO.
Will Johnson, he fell because of supposed longevity concerns. Yeah,
that's that's pretty good another play. Honestly, I thought they
know the PFF grade, which I don't really like PFF
(29:20):
grades because it doesn't tell me much, especially when you
when you look at and say, someone who played this
small role, they have a really high PFF grade, but
they had like ten snaps. I'm like, really, yeah, there's context.
I thought Max Melton played really well. Did he did
he have the pat one and in one flag? Yes,
(29:41):
I thought I thought Melton played well. And that's that's
important to see. That's important to see from their second
round pick from a year ago, especially when Starr got
hurt and lost for season, Sean Murcray Bunting's out for
the season. But to see Williams play well, to see
Max play well, to see will Johnson play well, that's
just all of that are great positives. I also thought
(30:02):
that Trey Benson. I liked the increased role in how
he did and that that fifty two yard run that
isn't it Honestly, isn't that exactly the type of thing
that Benson offers. He's because he's got now he's nearly
as big as Connor now because he put on weight,
but he has that breakaway speed that and the footwork
(30:25):
to be able to bust those.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, and you know, he's got to be able to
run like he did if the if the run blocking
is going to be that bad, I mean, there's just
really no way around it. So to see him, you know,
get out of those arm tackles this year and be
able to turn the corner and utilize that speed, even
though I got hooked down by a defensive end. We
won't talk about that too much. You know, it was impressive.
(30:52):
I thought we need to shout out, you know, Para Johnson.
He's starting on that elite trajectory that we've discussed with
him right like this. This performance was again I don't
want to say like against too bad of an opponent,
(31:13):
but it was just such a strong performance.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
And Darren Browning showed some showed some juice. That was
good to see. Then the key with him he's got
to stay healthy. That that's what's kind of derailed his
last couple of seasons were his injuries. But other than that,
what was if any I think with our duds, who
who were the ones that we didn't that who kind
(31:40):
of stepped backs? And I think I think number one,
I mean if Evan brown right, who had two penalties
all last season and was really really consistent, and he
was bad. He was bad against the Saints.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
I think both of the both the guards were borderline terrible.
And that's that's unfortunate because Isaiah Adams had had such
a strong camp. We always joke around around about it,
right like, oh is it is it? The Cardinals defensive
line or the Cardinals offensive line. That's bad and and
(32:14):
you know right now it's it's neither. But this was
a This was a really really poor game for both guys.
Evan Brown and Isaiah Adams both had penalties. Both did
not move people in the run game, which is what
their job genuinely is like at the end of the day,
That's that's all that's really required of them. The last one,
(32:39):
you know, again, I'm gonna be brief with this because
I feel like he's not in shape at all. But
Darius Robinson was just kind of there right, like, didn't
have an impact, seem to get moved a little too easily.
But it's game one. We'll chalk it up to the
entire defensive line being out of shape and named Dante
(33:03):
Still's case, uh, you know, dealing with that that injury
that he had, you know, potentially would have missed the
game with and probably a lot of guys would have
missed the game. Right, So you know all of that,
I think you look at and you go, okay, uh,
not ideal, but we can we can improve from there.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Sounds good coming out next on the Rights of He
Read podcast Best Our Colonels talk on the web. Let's
move on to our final segment, and that's our concerns
and then just a little bit what we saw on
the NFC West that's coming to exit rhymes he read,
We're back on the rest of her podcast, miss to
our Cardinals talk on the web. We don't. We kind
of talked about the concerns, right, but the things that
(33:47):
we have to worry about, right is number one, the
guard play, right, we have to we have to now
wonder that the struggles in the run game will carry
over from week to week or if the pressure because
we know we felt that the offensive line has been
pretty good. Was that Brandon Staley's game plan or is
(34:10):
there a concern with the offensive line interior?
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Yeah, and that's the question mark, right, like, is that
going to be something that we're gonna have to watch
moving forward? I think you you chalk it up to
week one, a bad a bad performance. Week one. It
was just unfortunate. They attacked the guards, they went after them,
and they the guards weren't up to the task, and
you go, Okay, that was week one. Let's see what
(34:36):
happens moving forward. You know, in the end, I don't
think that you can ever be concerned, if that makes sense,
Like you never you never come out of out of
this week and go, oh, I'm really concerned about this, right, Like,
but you do have things that you're like, hey, these
are things we got to watch moving forward.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
And and.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
And seventy six yards of offense. You know, they're not
going to win a let many games if they can
if they only do that.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
No, but I also thought that there were some things
that they were overly conservative with. Yeah, in the game,
and you always, like I said, it was almost like
they were like, hey, let's just get out of this
healthy and with the win. And that's kind of what
they did. I mean, you look at that after the
first drive, right, which in and of itself was kind
(35:27):
of the thing right three yards past the Trey McBride
for eleven yards, and so you're like, okay, and then
the next play they run that boot action and Kyler
Murray gets sacked literally on that play, you know. And
so then it's second twenty one and they basically surrendered,
just pun and I get it, like you're looking.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
At it those second and super long third and super
long draw plays.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, And and so then they come out this or
they kick a phil goal, right, and then they got
to stop and then they or no, then they gave
up the touch on the tred. But then they come
out and they you know, they score, and then they
come out again, they score again, and you're like, okay, well,
you know, it is what it is. And then and
then they got to stop to start the third quarter
and they go down and kick another field goal and
(36:19):
you're like, okay, they're just you know, they're just moving
the ball at will. And so, you know, you look
at all of that and you go, they probably just
kind of been into cruise control. Probably shouldn't have, probably
was not the best idea, but they they didn't do
(36:40):
anything too aggressively, and that's what that's what comes of it,
you know. But again, I just I just look at
all of it as a whole, and you say, okay,
you know, like you said, running game, definitely something to
watch it. This is the first year without saying Adams, right,
(37:01):
so how is this going to look now?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
You know?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Was it was it more Adams or is it Drew Petsing?
And so that's you know, that's one thing to watch.
And then you know, so just little things like that
That's kind of how you look at it, and then
you go, okay, can they can their wide receivers get separation.
I mean Michael Wilson was one of the like worst
separators in the league this in this game, you know
(37:27):
in Week one.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, he did not. He did not look good in
that sense. Now around the NFL, I will say this,
forty nine ers play the Saints this next week. They
don't have George Kittle, they might not have Rock Purdy,
Juwan Jennings is banged up. The Saints might beat the
forty nine ers if they play the way they did
(37:49):
dance the Cardinals.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, and you know, you look at it the the Anthers.
The Panthers, you know, didn't look good in their game
and then like you said, you get a ah, you
(38:17):
get a hurting. I mean, Rock Parting may not play right.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
It might be Back Jones.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Right, and and so you look at it and and
those you know, it's just it makes it difficult, man, Like,
it just makes it really really difficult to even kind
of go okay, like how does this how does work out?
Like where are they fitting into all of this and
(38:51):
things of that nature, and the the forty nine ers
could be you know, a one win team coming into
their matchup with the with the Cardinals in Week four.
I still expect them to be fine, right like not yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
But it's funny to see. You know what, did the
forty nine ers have issues with last year's injuries? They
can't avoid it right now. They keep keep having the
injury bug. Brandon and I you still out grown Jennings
on herb drogers Kittle is going to be out. He
just was put on injured reserve. Brock Purty's hurt. They
cannot stay healthy. Brock Purty through two interceptions in that game,
(39:31):
yes he had through the touchdown pass that Jake Tungus
late in the game. Seattle's defense looked really good. And
then Sam donald Sam Donalds fumbled in the red zone
at the end of the game, and so you and
he wasn't spectacular. He only had one hundred and fifty
(39:53):
yards passing.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
The Seahawks only had two hundred and thirty total yards
of off so their offense sputtered forty nine ers. I
think what saved the Seattle's defense was the two interceptions.
Because San Francisco had nearly four hundred yards of offense
and I guess that's going to that. Now the Brock
Party's paid. Can he still be efficient? Can he avoid
(40:17):
the toner olers? Can they do the things that they
need to to Christian McCaffrey. Can he handle the the
load he had thirty one touches in week one? Can
he sustain that with his health? But here's the thing,
Los Angeles that is now five of their last six
(40:39):
regular season games they haven't allowed ten points.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Right and and there they look like the class of
the NFC West. Still this, you know, this looks like
it's it's still the Rams, the Rams division to lose,
(41:05):
especially with how well their defense is. Playing the Seahawks.
You know, the Seahawks forty nine Ers game is a
tough one, don't you kind of think because neither team
really looked impressive.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Oh yeah, it's interesting because, yeah, you looked at the
Seahawks picked off Party twice, but they gave up almost
four hundred yards, so that defense was supposed to be good.
Darnold kind of looks like a step down at Gino Smith,
which we figured was the case. We thought, at least,
(41:40):
at worst or at best, that he was not an
upgrade over Smith. He was just a younger quarterback to
do the same type of things that Gino Smith did. Yeah,
the defense wasn't as good as as what you would
(42:01):
have imagined, or San Francisco's offense was simply better. But
and then they lost. They ended up losing Kittle, and
that's huge. They already are down I Yuk Jennings got hurt.
Ricky Pearson had a good game. He had four catches
for one hundred and eight yards, and McCaffrey basically was
he was McCaffrey and pearsall. And is that sustainable for
(42:23):
what they've got going forward, especially if if brock Purty
has to miss any time beyond this week. If that
because the way the Shanahan talked, Kyle Shanahan talked that,
you know that party might not be able to practice.
That was almost conceding the fact that Max Jones is
going to start in New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Right, And that's you know, people are already joking about
the worst quarterback matchup of the season in Week two.
One of the best games of the season in Week
one between the Bills and the Ravens.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Right, Oh my gosh, what a game, What a game.
So they think in terms of the NFC, we eat
West three and one. The Seahawks are the only ones
with the loss. Coming up. In Week two, the Cardinals
play at home against the Panthers. We'll talk more about
that game later this week. I will also have Jared Finberg,
who came onto the podcast during the summer for the
(43:15):
opponent preview. He will join me again this week. The
forty nine Ers play the Saints on the road, then
the what is it? The Rams and the Seahawks are
also on the road against the Titans. And I can't
remember who else that was. I wrote that down somewhere Steelers. Oh,
(43:35):
here's the thing. The Seahawks. The Seahawks could be zero
to two and then they play to Seattle. Play they
play the Saints in Seattle, so they'll win that game.
They might be one and two coming into that game
on Thursday night in Week four and having lost their
(43:57):
first two games. In fact, I'm going to predict. I'm
going to predict the if I think I think the
forty nine Ers lose this week, I think they're going
to get upset, and I think that the Seahawks will
lose and the Rams play the Titans. So I don't
think there's going to be any problem with that one. Nope?
Oh wait nope. Then week two the Rams where the
(44:22):
Rams they play the Titans on the road, so yeah,
they'll handle cam Ward. Good luck with that. Oh, good
luck with that. Cam Ard getting to play the Broncos
in week one and the Rams in week two defensively, ye,
good luck for that kid. Yeah, and with that anything
else that that worth bringing up.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
No, I mean, this is just one of those games
where you go, Okay, good job, that was enough to
get a win. Let's let's see an improvement moving forward.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Right, sounds good? And with that we will wrap up
this edition of the Rise of Severit podcast mist Avercado's
talk on the way this episode six ninety five. We've
got two show's coming on next week. I'll have Jared
f Weinbergan, like I said, for opponent preview and Seth
and I'll be back later this week too for our picks,
predictions and preview. That's Seth Cox. I'm just Ruthe. Thanks
for listening. As always, we'll be back again soon.
Speaker 5 (45:11):
Thanks for listening to the latest edition of the Rise
Up Sea Red podcast. Listen to previous episodes and subscribe
to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Audio Boom
or many other podcast platforms so shows are delivered directly
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Speaker 1 (45:27):
Please give the show a five star ready and always.
Speaker 5 (45:29):
Support the sponsors who support the show.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
We'll be back soon for the best hour of Cardinals.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Talk on the web.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
Rise Up Red CEA b Red Sea Red, and of
course Rise Up Sea Red. There's out.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
There's out.
Speaker 4 (46:04):
There is out.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
There?
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Is it
Z Z.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is the Rise Up Sea Red podcast, all about
the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL, featuring insider and outsider perspectives.
Enjoy the best hour of Cardinals Talk on the web.
Now Here are your hosts, Jess Root and Seth Cox.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hello's and a Cardinals fans, and welcome to the latest
edition of the Rise Up sire At podcast sevest of
Cardinals Talk on the Web. I'm your host, Jessroot fromcardswire
dot com. You would say today's NFL wireside that covers
the Arizona Cardinals with me is my co host Seth
Cox from Revenge of the Birds dot com. Asp Nations
Arizona Cardinal's site. And we are in episode through six
hundred ninety five and guess what we get to talk about?
(00:55):
An Arizona Cardinals win. They defeated the New Orleans Saints
twenty to the team Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, opening
the season one and oh their first season opening wins
since twenty twenty one. And you know it's all good,
didn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah? It was nice. I mean, you have an interesting
game where they clearly were not trying to do too
much and then show too much and kind of kept
things fairly basic, and then they somehow almost let them
(01:33):
back in the game, but then pulled out a win.
So I mean, at the end of the day, that's
kind of all you can ask for in games of this,
you know, Pollober And that's really you know, that's the
difficult part of all of this, right, how how much
effort and time and things of that nature. You're looking
(01:55):
to see them, you know, put in it and see
them really get out of it. So it was almost
like they were playing like, hey, let's not shrow anything
too much, let's be really vanilla, and let's get on
to Carolina.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, and that's what we're going to talk about. We
want to talk about in this game, was it a
good win, was it a bad win? And then other
takeaways and observation we'll talk about as well, the player standouts,
the player does and then kind of look at what
are any concerns that we had from the game combined
with what we saw around the NFC West. So let's
talk about first good win or bad win in the end,
(02:35):
twenty to thirteen road win. They covered the spread. You know,
good teams win, great teams cover, right, but fans didn't
come away from that feeling good. Would you say it's
a good win or a bad win.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I mean, there's no such thing, in my opinion as
a bad win. Right, So you just sip back and
look at it, and you go, well, they need to
improve this, and if they're gonna be good teams, they
got to do this. But then you kind of take
it as a whole and you go again, you look
at it, and you go, okay, well, they really like
they weren't showing anything. Everything was very vanilla and base.
(03:15):
I mean, this was almost like a preseason game script
and so and so you look at it from that
point of view and you you go, Okay, you know,
it was good enough to get a win on that day,
and that's all that matters. I think. I think there
was a couple concerning things that we'll talk about, but
one of them being that you know, are not even concerning.
(03:38):
But you know, we talked about this in our group chat.
Like the reality of it was that they also were
wildly out of shape, especially along the defensive line. I mean,
h Josh Sweat, Kalais Campbell, you know, uh, Dalvin Tomlins,
like these guys looked gassed and it shouldn't be overly shocking.
(04:01):
They played I think as much as us in the preseason.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So you know it is true. So Tom Winson played
a handful of snaps, he plays zero.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
And so and even Darius right like, Darius didn't look fresh.
So you know, it's it is what it is. You
look at it and and all of that. It just
comes down to how they how they you know, move forward,
(04:34):
And that's how I kind of look at it, because
again I just thought it was an incredibly vanilla game,
and and I.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Would describe it. I mean, you're correct. I can't say.
I don't think you can really say that any win
is a bad win, but maybe maybe you can. You
can probably find one there where you you think that
it's going to be and it should be and you win.
But it's lucky. All wins are at some level good.
(05:02):
But it also wasn't. It wasn't on what you call
a good win because you didn't come away feeling good
from it. But it was at its core was an
ugly win. It was one hundred percent just an ugly win.
And and I was thinking about this after the game
and talking to my son about it. It was like, you know,
Orleans forced an ugly game because it's the only that's
(05:24):
they knew that was the only way they could win, right.
They had to they had to be they had to
get the ball out quickly. So it means it reminded me,
honestly of the way remember back when Cole McCoy played
and he was against the Rams, and the Rams it
(05:45):
was to get the ball out, get the ball out
others in twenty twenty two, and they couldn't do anything.
They couldn't move the ball at all because it was
just get the ball out. And all they did was
sit back and there. And the goal wasn't don't let
them do anything over the top, and we'll just tackle.
And that's kind of the way would happen. I think purposely,
the Saints tried to play not a dirty but an
(06:08):
ugly game because it was the only way that would
possibly deraar the Cardinals. And by look at by the
look of the final score, they accomplished what they wanted,
even if they couldn't quite execute down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, And and they got out of it, and it
was overall just one of those games where you're like,
just get get to the next game. At this point,
like they seemed over not overly enthused, and you look
(06:44):
at how the game was played, and there were some
there were some things that you can tell that they had,
you know, kinda kind of highlighted as like this is
what we want to see because we know in this
game it's probably not going to hurt us. And that
(07:06):
was that was interesting to me because again it was
almost like they had this as like their real preseason
warm up. Uh.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, I'd like to credit Brandon Staley. Now we did
have the stat going in that Kyler Murray was zero
and three against Brandon Staley. He finally got that monkey
office back. But I think I wasn't impressed by the
Saints offensively. I wasn't super impressed by Spencer Rattler. They
had a game plan that was to protect him, to
(07:39):
get the ball out quickly no matter what. And aside
from a couple of plays on the run against Alvin Kamara,
they did pretty well of slowing the run game. But
I think what people underestimated would be the impact of
Brandon Staley on that defense. And I will say that
(08:00):
you know, they might be in more games than most
would expect them, Like they could be like the Cardinals
were two years ago, that good bad team.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, definitely. That's what I was thinking too, that this
is a team that just doesn't really look like they're
they're that talented, but they play really hard and the
reality is they just have no depth. I mean, more
than anything else. It's something that we talked about with
the Cardinals in that first and in season, right Like,
(08:33):
obviously when you don't have a quarterback for most of
the season, that makes it tough. But to have no depth,
oh man, that's so bad.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, it's And credit to Statey because they did play
physically against the run, they did pressure Kyler Murray, they
did get they did get they get got to them
a lot. I think I.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Saw the the stat that came from PFF or Pro
Football Network or one of those sites are and and
Kyle Rudegard noted that the the time to pressure was
one point sixty three seconds.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, it was. And that's what I was you know,
And and that's the hard part, right. So I was
actually talking with somebody about this. There's there's a stat
I call it a fetish for anybody, right, like anybody
can find, you know, find what they're looking for to
make their their arguments, right, And so you go to
(09:31):
PFF right, and and the time to throw stat for
the game makes it not look great for Kyler, Right,
So his time to throw was like three points some seconds,
and so if you use that, yeah, three point one
to nine seconds. If you use that, that's like, huh,
(09:53):
you know, why was his why was his a dot solo? Right?
But if you use the actual NFL sight, he was
fourth fast. He had the fourth least amount of time
to throw at four or two point four to eight seconds. Yeah,
his average completed air yards was in line with the
(10:14):
other ones kind of right above him. So that's the
hard part, right, Like you can you can create whatever
narrative from this game that you want to create, and
and that's what makes things difficult. Uh he I mean,
unquestionably had the longest completed air distance throw of the
(10:38):
of the week, fifty one point four yards. That that
beautiful throw to Marvin Harrison. But you know, he was
one of the lowest in yards to the sticks throws.
But the guys above him are all guys that you know,
other fan or the Cardinals fan base you know, are
(11:01):
sometimes like clamoring over right, Like like Joe Flacco Jalen Hurt, C. J. Stroud,
Aaron Rodgers. Those guys were all like dinking and dunking
less than him. So that's the thing is, there's, like
I said, there's just kind of you can find a
stat for everybody that makes you makes you happy or
mad or whatever you want to be in that instance, right,
(11:24):
And and but the reality became that the pass protection
was not what the Cardinals want it or need it
to be. And and that was one of the biggest concerns.
And I'd say on the flip side, the the or
you know, but I thought the biggest like concern coming
out of this game is you kind of intimated at
(11:47):
was the fact that you have you weren't able to
run the ball. And so again was that was that
because the designs were so vanilla, you know, their rushing
yardage looked a lot better than it was if you know,
you and I talk about that all time, one big run,
(12:08):
all all of the Trey Benson fifty yard rush changes
everything because or fifty two yards excuse me, you know,
because they go for one hundred and forty six yards
as a team in that game, and everybody's like, hey,
they had another you almost said, one hundred and fifty yards.
You know, had had over a five yard per carry average.
(12:30):
But it's like that there's basically one run like you
know that that got them over the hundred yards. That
all of that is just like what you look at
and you go, okay, there's there was some there were
some good and there were some bad. Oh.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
And if you take the way I looked at it
was that, well, the average five point four yards per carry,
but they here's yeah, the fifty two yards accounted for
a third of the team's rushing attempts. So he ended
(13:10):
up having eight seven carries for seventeen yards. That's a
little that's about two and a half. Connor had twelve
for thirty nine, just a little over three. So it
was it was tough sledding. It was tough sledding.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But I also thought, you know, you mentioned Staley, he
he didn't even hide it. They were going to sell
out to stop the run like that was yes, they
were going to you know, force Kyler Murray to the
air and to beat them, and it seemed like they
were up to the task so.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Well. In the passing game is to take away from it,
we talked about in the in the in training camp,
the usage of Harrison and McBride, and it was very
much the case. Eleven of the twenty one catches. Now granted,
Tyler completed passes to nine different receivers, so he spread
(14:08):
it out, but eleven of the twenty one receptions were
to McBride Harrison. Fifteen of the twenty nine targets and
one hundred and thirty two of one hundred and sixty
three yards came from McBride and.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Harrison, and I talked about that before the season. I mean,
that was the reality. It was going to run through
McBride and Marvin Harrison this season.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And you know, a couple of
takeaways the Cardinals didn't tak the ball over. That was
that was critical. Tyler was you know, you could say
that Kyler played unevenly, but and the sack numbers look
worse because they got sacked five times. Two of them
were stupid. Two of them. They drove me mad because
there were the two Kyler plays where he ran out
(14:53):
of bounds behind the line of scrimmage rather than throwing
the ball away. In another one, he slid before getting
hit and it was before the line of scrimmage, and
so basically he sacked himself twice when he could have
thrown the ball away, but the three other sacks looked bad.
Now I would say, I will say that the one
on the the Alante Taylor won, where he was a
fifteen yard loss. I saw on X just the number
(15:17):
of people say, he's got to get rid of that ball,
But like, how is he going to get rid of
that ball when he's in the tackle box. He can't
just throw it away. He can't. He was in the
tackle box the entire time. Yeah, well, and it was.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
It was one of those situations where they thought they
were going to get away with it with a play
action right like they thought that running a hard play action.
But again Staley had that schemed up perfectly where well.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
They rushed seven right where seven, But.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
There was a there was a play earlier in it.
When you look at it, you see that they would
bring an extra guy and just have him Chase Murray
on the play action because their thought process was I
(16:06):
don't care, right like, I don't care what happens. We're
just not going to allow him to play action boot
and get out of the tackle box. So that's that
was excellent, excellent by by Staleya in the Saints defense,
(16:27):
and something that you wonder if more teams are going
to do now, like you know they're gonna say, okay,
hand the ball off, right, we'll have we'll have seven
in the box. Well, we'll leave six at the line
of scrimmage to play the run and bring a free
rusher to Kyler on the boot action and and you know,
hand it off against six in the box? What are
(16:49):
you going to do?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah? Offensively, there were a couple of different wrinkles, and
we saw that Trey Benson was gonna We were told
that Benson was going to have a greater role than
the offense this year. And you know how he did it.
He completely replaced a Mario Demarcado. Benson is the third
down back. Now he he spells Connor, but he completely
bumped the Mercado out of the rotation and it was
(17:14):
Benson in on those passing downs, which means he's progressed
as a pass blocker. But I think that's how that's
what they're that's how they're going to increase him without
decreasing Connor, right, and so he'll still get the spells
for Connor. But now he's also getting all the third
down like all of those passing down things, so that
(17:35):
he can it's a way for him to increase his
role without Connor decreasing.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
His Yeah, and you know that that was one of
the question marks we had coming into it, right, like
what was the snapcount going to look like for the
running backs? And when it was all said and done, Yeah,
James was out there for forty three thirteen runs. Trey
was out there for about out half twenty two eight runs,
(18:02):
So that I think, you know, I think that's how
it's going to be, that kind of sixty forty sixty
five thirty five split unless Tray is running real hot
in the game, right, But for the most part, I
think that's what it's going to be.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
It was It was also interesting to see that they
kept all four they dressed all four tight ends. They
even had they did a lot of three tight end
they had one four tight end set and.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Correctly, what's that vocalleg got three snaps like offense snaps.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, that was that was fun to see. And then
like they were planning on it. I think they were
planning on a ugly game. And then he looked defensively,
and they talked about how they wanted to get Rabbit
more playing time, and they did. They they like, they
played a lot of nickel, even when it looked base,
and it came at the co at the at the
expense of a King Davis Kather And so they did
(19:01):
a lot of three safeties, Like even in their base
set when they only had two cornerbacks, they went with
three safeties. And I guess when you have a Buddha
Baker who can do linebacker things and and in farness,
Rabbit is kind of the same thing. You can get
those guys too, to be physical and to be strong
(19:24):
in the tackle game. And and then we saw that
it was Max Melton and Garrett Williams getting all the
all the cornerback snaps, and will came in as the
number three, still got plenty of time, and that Baron
Browning got the start over Zavian and Browning played pretty well.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, And and I thought the rotation was interesting. I mean,
here's here's the first thing. It's always interesting to me
when a team has such a poor defense of game
but then holds them to minimal points, right, like they
(20:05):
were just not able to consistently get off the field
in situations. The other crazy thing was how did the
how did the Saints run? So I mean not so
many more, but nine more plays in seven and a
(20:26):
half least minutes of game time. Like all of those
little things you look at and you go, you go, Okay,
this was a Saints team that is not very good,
as you stated, and the Cardinals kind of got away
(20:48):
with a lot right like, and so that's what the
interesting thing was for all of this is that you
had this this defense that was on the field for
seventy five plays Browning forties. They haven't Collins thirty seven.
So you know, it was interesting how I don't want
(21:11):
to say little, but how little Will Johnson was on
the field right only forty five snaps in the game.
I think people would be surprised to see that. Do
you think maybe they're not super I don't want to
say confidente because I think that's wrong, but like that
they don't want to put him in a position to
(21:32):
play the run quite yet because like it was so
heavily coverage snap based as opposed to his run defensive snaps.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, that makes sense. Well, and they use him I
think it's you know, I don't. I don't think it's
necessarily so much about him as that they they trust
that they like Garrett should be playing every down and
that Max should be playing every down. Maybe they're a
little more versatile. And then because and naturally because.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
He's yeah, he's a rookie as well, right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
So because he would come in in nickel package, just
not that he's going to play in the nickel because
that's what Garrett does. Williams slides into the slot. But
when by by nature, because you are playing nickel, you
are far more likely to be playing pass, if that
makes any sense. That it's just by nature of that.
And yeah, it was a case where the Saints they ran,
(22:33):
you know, more plays in less time, but they were
also cheating, cheating at it too, because they they ran
a lot of hurry up.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
They ran a lot of hurry up and they just
nickel and dying things. But yes, you know that was.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Partially because of the way the Cardinals played defense, because
they knew they were going to get the ball out
fast because you had to protect Spencer Rattler and so
you had to get the ball out quickly, and so
it was just you know, don't give it any like
Gannon said, don't give up anything over your head. And
they survived that. And you know, would we have liked
to see them blow them out. Yeah, And ultimately I
(23:10):
convinced myself it was going to be a blowout, but
it was a cover. They picked up a win. They
make the end was scary, but ultimately it wasn't. I mean,
the Cardins would have had a chance again, and so
it's not like they were in danger of losing, unless
(23:31):
they would have decided to go for two, then that
would have been something different. But they just basically just
they took care business. They they did what they needed
to do. They really they got to win. And that's
that's what I mean. When you're on the road, especially
in New Orleans, that's a team as bad as they are.
They they'd been winning, they'd won six straight season openers.
(23:54):
It's hard to play on the road in Week one.
The fan base is juiced because they haven't been beaten
down by disappointment yet and so honestly, even though this
wasn't aesthetically pleasing, it was it was acceptable. And do
you start with acceptable? And as the Cardinals go through
(24:17):
this quote unquote light part of their schedule. If this
is the only way they went, okay, then we're gonna
have to worry about later in the season. But worrying
about week one on the road when you are honestly
you know, in terms of game planning, there were a
lot there were many unscouted looks that they only had
to kind of prepare for from what they saw defensively
(24:40):
and offensively. So it's not a bad thing. So coming
up next on the Residceever podcasts are Cardinal's Talk on
the webit's move on to talk about the players. Who
are our standouts? Okay, who was our standouts and who
are our duds from that game? That's coming to next
in Recipsy Red, we're back of the resid Sered podcasts
our Cardinals Talk on the web. So yeah, what we
(25:01):
need to do is talk about who stood out? I
think number one. Do we need to simply say that
Will Johnson is probably our number one stand out of
the game just the three pass breakups. It would have
been a fourth pass breakup slash interception had they not
flagged Max Melton for illegal contact on the other side
of the field. He just and he had that truck
(25:23):
stick hole. My gosh, that hit on Chris o'lave in
the backfield. He looked every bit of a star in
the role that he had.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Yeah, and that's the thing is again, I thought was
excellent just put him in a position to be successful
early and kind of go from there, you know. The
secondary as a whole I thought looked really good. But
the other guy I would shout out was Rabbit. I
thought Rabbit had a great game. You know, he's a
(25:56):
guy that again there being careful with and that if
we needed to see more, they're not going to do
that yet, right, And again I think that's okay, Like
you've got Buddha, You've got you've got Jalen. Those are
(26:17):
your guys. They're still your guys. There's still you know,
elite level run defenders, tacklers. Let let will let Rabbit
kind of get into a role in a system and
and learn and then grow from there instead of being like, okay,
(26:40):
we just need to be the dudes right now. Right, Yeah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Thought it was. It was good to see Buddha had
a fantastic game. He ended up with ten tackles. He
had that well, he and he and the Jalen Thompson
combined for that pass breakup in the end zone, that
critical pass breakup, and you know Jawan Johnson, he's not
he's a good player for for him to use that
ball in the end zone, that was that was a
big play. But it was a big moment and one
(27:06):
of their big players made a big play. That's like,
if you're looking big picture, sure it was on almost play,
but you had it a critical part of the game.
You had one of your best players make a play
in the biggest moments. That's a sign of a good team.
That's a sign of a good team. And so that
that you know, if we look at that, that is
(27:26):
a definite positive for that.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It is and that's what we're kind of waiting or
not waiting, but enjoying this portion of it, right, Like
the small growth that we're seeing from this this this
group right especially you know in year three, we've talked
ad nauseum about it, like just making that taking that
(27:52):
next step as a team. But we've also talked about
like it's weird, and you know, we don't need to
rehash the past too much, but like it's weird that
what happens when you invest early in premium positions like
corner right like that. And this isn't to take anything
(28:14):
away from Rabbit, because I think Rabbit's going to be
a very excellent player, but is there It's odd to
me that the past regime never realized that you can
get a player like Rabbit in round four or five whatever.
They got him, right, but you can't and you rarely
(28:37):
get a Will Johnson in round four or five. You
rarely get Wilson, I know, a Max Melton in round
like That's what was always weird to me is that
they just never understood that. And again, the only reason
this regime got Garrett Williams in around three is because
he had a torn acl.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
YEA. Honestly, dear Williams fell because of the torn a CEO.
Will Johnson, he fell because of supposed longevity concerns. Yeah,
that's that's pretty good another play. Honestly, I thought they
know the PFF grade, which I don't really like PFF
(29:20):
grades because it doesn't tell me much, especially when you
when you look at and say, someone who played this
small role, they have a really high PFF grade, but
they had like ten snaps. I'm like, really, yeah, there's context.
I thought Max Melton played really well. Did he did
he have the pat one and in one flag? Yes,
(29:41):
I thought I thought Melton played well. And that's that's
important to see. That's important to see from their second
round pick from a year ago, especially when Starr got
hurt and lost for season, Sean Murcray Bunting's out for
the season. But to see Williams play well, to see
Max play well, to see will Johnson play well, that's
just all of that are great positives. I also thought
(30:02):
that Trey Benson. I liked the increased role in how
he did and that that fifty two yard run that
isn't it Honestly, isn't that exactly the type of thing
that Benson offers. He's because he's got now he's nearly
as big as Connor now because he put on weight,
but he has that breakaway speed that and the footwork
(30:25):
to be able to bust those.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, and you know, he's got to be able to
run like he did if the if the run blocking
is going to be that bad, I mean, there's just
really no way around it. So to see him, you know,
get out of those arm tackles this year and be
able to turn the corner and utilize that speed, even
though I got hooked down by a defensive end. We
won't talk about that too much. You know, it was impressive.
(30:52):
I thought we need to shout out, you know, Para Johnson.
He's starting on that elite trajectory that we've discussed with
him right like this. This performance was again I don't
want to say like against too bad of an opponent,
(31:13):
but it was just such a strong performance.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
And Darren Browning showed some showed some juice. That was
good to see. Then the key with him he's got
to stay healthy. That that's what's kind of derailed his
last couple of seasons were his injuries. But other than that,
what was if any I think with our duds, who
who were the ones that we didn't that who kind
(31:40):
of stepped backs? And I think I think number one,
I mean if Evan brown right, who had two penalties
all last season and was really really consistent, and he
was bad. He was bad against the Saints.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
I think both of the both the guards were borderline terrible.
And that's that's unfortunate because Isaiah Adams had had such
a strong camp. We always joke around around about it,
right like, oh is it is it? The Cardinals defensive
line or the Cardinals offensive line. That's bad and and
(32:14):
you know right now it's it's neither. But this was
a This was a really really poor game for both guys.
Evan Brown and Isaiah Adams both had penalties. Both did
not move people in the run game, which is what
their job genuinely is like at the end of the day,
That's that's all that's really required of them. The last one,
(32:39):
you know, again, I'm gonna be brief with this because
I feel like he's not in shape at all. But
Darius Robinson was just kind of there right, like, didn't
have an impact, seem to get moved a little too easily.
But it's game one. We'll chalk it up to the
entire defensive line being out of shape and named Dante
(33:03):
Still's case, uh, you know, dealing with that that injury
that he had, you know, potentially would have missed the
game with and probably a lot of guys would have
missed the game. Right, So you know all of that,
I think you look at and you go, okay, uh,
not ideal, but we can we can improve from there.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Sounds good coming out next on the Rights of He
Read podcast Best Our Colonels talk on the web. Let's
move on to our final segment, and that's our concerns
and then just a little bit what we saw on
the NFC West that's coming to exit rhymes he read,
We're back on the rest of her podcast, miss to
our Cardinals talk on the web. We don't. We kind
of talked about the concerns, right, but the things that
(33:47):
we have to worry about, right is number one, the
guard play, right, we have to we have to now
wonder that the struggles in the run game will carry
over from week to week or if the pressure because
we know we felt that the offensive line has been
pretty good. Was that Brandon Staley's game plan or is
(34:10):
there a concern with the offensive line interior?
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Yeah, and that's the question mark, right, like, is that
going to be something that we're gonna have to watch
moving forward? I think you you chalk it up to
week one, a bad a bad performance. Week one. It
was just unfortunate. They attacked the guards, they went after them,
and they the guards weren't up to the task, and
you go, Okay, that was week one. Let's see what
(34:36):
happens moving forward. You know, in the end, I don't
think that you can ever be concerned, if that makes sense,
Like you never you never come out of out of
this week and go, oh, I'm really concerned about this, right, Like,
but you do have things that you're like, hey, these
are things we got to watch moving forward.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
And and.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
And seventy six yards of offense. You know, they're not
going to win a let many games if they can
if they only do that.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
No, but I also thought that there were some things
that they were overly conservative with. Yeah, in the game,
and you always, like I said, it was almost like
they were like, hey, let's just get out of this
healthy and with the win. And that's kind of what
they did. I mean, you look at that after the
first drive, right, which in and of itself was kind
(35:27):
of the thing right three yards past the Trey McBride
for eleven yards, and so you're like, okay, and then
the next play they run that boot action and Kyler
Murray gets sacked literally on that play, you know. And
so then it's second twenty one and they basically surrendered,
just pun and I get it, like you're looking.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
At it those second and super long third and super
long draw plays.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, And and so then they come out this or
they kick a phil goal, right, and then they got
to stop and then they or no, then they gave
up the touch on the tred. But then they come
out and they you know, they score, and then they
come out again, they score again, and you're like, okay, well,
you know, it is what it is. And then and
then they got to stop to start the third quarter
and they go down and kick another field goal and
(36:19):
you're like, okay, they're just you know, they're just moving
the ball at will. And so, you know, you look
at all of that and you go, they probably just
kind of been into cruise control. Probably shouldn't have, probably
was not the best idea, but they they didn't do
(36:40):
anything too aggressively, and that's what that's what comes of it,
you know. But again, I just I just look at
all of it as a whole, and you say, okay,
you know, like you said, running game, definitely something to
watch it. This is the first year without saying Adams, right,
(37:01):
so how is this going to look now?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
You know?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Was it was it more Adams or is it Drew Petsing?
And so that's you know, that's one thing to watch.
And then you know, so just little things like that
That's kind of how you look at it, and then
you go, okay, can they can their wide receivers get separation.
I mean Michael Wilson was one of the like worst
separators in the league this in this game, you know
(37:27):
in Week one.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, he did not. He did not look good in
that sense. Now around the NFL, I will say this,
forty nine ers play the Saints this next week. They
don't have George Kittle, they might not have Rock Purdy,
Juwan Jennings is banged up. The Saints might beat the
forty nine ers if they play the way they did
(37:49):
dance the Cardinals.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, and you know, you look at it the the Anthers.
The Panthers, you know, didn't look good in their game
and then like you said, you get a ah, you
(38:17):
get a hurting. I mean, Rock Parting may not play right.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
It might be Back Jones.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Right, and and so you look at it and and
those you know, it's just it makes it difficult, man, Like,
it just makes it really really difficult to even kind
of go okay, like how does this how does work out?
Like where are they fitting into all of this and
(38:51):
things of that nature, and the the forty nine ers
could be you know, a one win team coming into
their matchup with the with the Cardinals in Week four.
I still expect them to be fine, right like not yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
But it's funny to see. You know what, did the
forty nine ers have issues with last year's injuries? They
can't avoid it right now. They keep keep having the
injury bug. Brandon and I you still out grown Jennings
on herb drogers Kittle is going to be out. He
just was put on injured reserve. Brock Purty's hurt. They
cannot stay healthy. Brock Purty through two interceptions in that game,
(39:31):
yes he had through the touchdown pass that Jake Tungus
late in the game. Seattle's defense looked really good. And
then Sam donald Sam Donalds fumbled in the red zone
at the end of the game, and so you and
he wasn't spectacular. He only had one hundred and fifty
(39:53):
yards passing.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
The Seahawks only had two hundred and thirty total yards
of off so their offense sputtered forty nine ers. I
think what saved the Seattle's defense was the two interceptions.
Because San Francisco had nearly four hundred yards of offense
and I guess that's going to that. Now the Brock
Party's paid. Can he still be efficient? Can he avoid
(40:17):
the toner olers? Can they do the things that they
need to to Christian McCaffrey. Can he handle the the
load he had thirty one touches in week one? Can
he sustain that with his health? But here's the thing,
Los Angeles that is now five of their last six
(40:39):
regular season games they haven't allowed ten points.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Right and and there they look like the class of
the NFC West. Still this, you know, this looks like
it's it's still the Rams, the Rams division to lose,
(41:05):
especially with how well their defense is. Playing the Seahawks.
You know, the Seahawks forty nine Ers game is a
tough one, don't you kind of think because neither team
really looked impressive.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Oh yeah, it's interesting because, yeah, you looked at the
Seahawks picked off Party twice, but they gave up almost
four hundred yards, so that defense was supposed to be good.
Darnold kind of looks like a step down at Gino Smith,
which we figured was the case. We thought, at least,
(41:40):
at worst or at best, that he was not an
upgrade over Smith. He was just a younger quarterback to
do the same type of things that Gino Smith did. Yeah,
the defense wasn't as good as as what you would
(42:01):
have imagined, or San Francisco's offense was simply better. But
and then they lost. They ended up losing Kittle, and
that's huge. They already are down I Yuk Jennings got hurt.
Ricky Pearson had a good game. He had four catches
for one hundred and eight yards, and McCaffrey basically was
he was McCaffrey and pearsall. And is that sustainable for
(42:23):
what they've got going forward, especially if if brock Purty
has to miss any time beyond this week. If that
because the way the Shanahan talked, Kyle Shanahan talked that,
you know that party might not be able to practice.
That was almost conceding the fact that Max Jones is
going to start in New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Right, And that's you know, people are already joking about
the worst quarterback matchup of the season in Week two.
One of the best games of the season in Week
one between the Bills and the Ravens.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Right, Oh my gosh, what a game, What a game.
So they think in terms of the NFC, we eat
West three and one. The Seahawks are the only ones
with the loss. Coming up. In Week two, the Cardinals
play at home against the Panthers. We'll talk more about
that game later this week. I will also have Jared Finberg,
who came onto the podcast during the summer for the
(43:15):
opponent preview. He will join me again this week. The
forty nine Ers play the Saints on the road, then
the what is it? The Rams and the Seahawks are
also on the road against the Titans. And I can't
remember who else that was. I wrote that down somewhere Steelers. Oh,
(43:35):
here's the thing. The Seahawks. The Seahawks could be zero
to two and then they play to Seattle. Play they
play the Saints in Seattle, so they'll win that game.
They might be one and two coming into that game
on Thursday night in Week four and having lost their
(43:57):
first two games. In fact, I'm going to predict. I'm
going to predict the if I think I think the
forty nine Ers lose this week, I think they're going
to get upset, and I think that the Seahawks will
lose and the Rams play the Titans. So I don't
think there's going to be any problem with that one. Nope?
Oh wait nope. Then week two the Rams where the
(44:22):
Rams they play the Titans on the road, so yeah,
they'll handle cam Ward. Good luck with that. Oh, good
luck with that. Cam Ard getting to play the Broncos
in week one and the Rams in week two defensively, ye,
good luck for that kid. Yeah, and with that anything
else that that worth bringing up.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
No, I mean, this is just one of those games
where you go, Okay, good job, that was enough to
get a win. Let's let's see an improvement moving forward.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Right, sounds good? And with that we will wrap up
this edition of the Rise of Severit podcast mist Avercado's
talk on the way this episode six ninety five. We've
got two show's coming on next week. I'll have Jared
f Weinbergan, like I said, for opponent preview and Seth
and I'll be back later this week too for our picks,
predictions and preview. That's Seth Cox. I'm just Ruthe. Thanks
for listening. As always, we'll be back again soon.
Speaker 5 (45:11):
Thanks for listening to the latest edition of the Rise
Up Sea Red podcast. Listen to previous episodes and subscribe
to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Audio Boom
or many other podcast platforms so shows are delivered directly
to your mobile device.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Please give the show a five star ready and always.
Speaker 5 (45:29):
Support the sponsors who support the show.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
We'll be back soon for the best hour of Cardinals.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Talk on the web.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
Rise Up Red CEA b Red Sea Red, and of
course Rise Up Sea Red. There's out.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
There's out.
Speaker 4 (46:04):
There is out.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
There?
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Is it
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