Week 3 of the preseason is in the books for the Cardinals and now we're only 14 days away from game 1 of the regular season against the Carolina Panthers. Kevin Kolb and a lot of the starters went into the third Quarter last night so we had plenty of chances to see what they're capable of.
Offense
The offense had a decent opening drive that ended up with a field goal. Beanie was consistently getting 3 or 4 yards a carry which is encouraging to see. He even had a run where he should have been tackled for a loss of 2 but was able to turn it into a gain of 3. Those types of runs sometimes go unnoticed when looking at how effective a running back is. While his pass protection is improving, I still don't think it's up to where the coaches need it to be. There were a couple of blocks where he didn't necessarily stop the blitzing attacker, he just kind of got in his way. I would either like to see Beanie cut block the blitzer, or lead him around on the outside of Kolb so he can maintain the pocket. All in all, Beanie had a good night and I am impressed with his improvement.
Kevin Kolb finished the night 11 for 20 with 205 yards and a touchdown which came via an 80 yard catch and run to Larry Fitzgerald. I will tell you one thing going into this year, Larry Fitzgerald is going to get himself some targets. With how this preseason has gone, and how much we have seen Kolb look to him, it wouldn't surprise me to see Larry lead the league in targets. While 11 for 20 is okay, I would like to see maybe one or two more passes completed to bring that average into the 60s but this is still preseason game 3 and he has time to improve. One concerning thing I have seen from Kolb in the preseason is that every once in awhile, he just has one of those throws that comes off his arm ugly. A pass so ugly, you know almost instantly that ball has no chance to make it where it's intended to go. What's interesting, is looking at the intended receivers on those throws, they are usually covered and it's a throw Kolb shouldn't be making. He also took some unnecessary sacks when it wasn't too difficult to get rid of the ball. I liked that he used Heap and Roberts more, I think he will continue to get into a rhythm with them. I was impressed with our offensive line on blocking plays, they got good push and it's evident by the night Beanie had. They still have a little work to do on pass blocking, which also needs to be helped by Beanie not allowing his guy to force Kolb to move horizontally in the pocket into other pass rushers. All in all, I think it was an effective night by our offense and I look forward to seeing what they can do in the regular season for four full quarters.
Defense
This was an up and down night for the defense. While we did get some pressure early, it was not to the level as last week and it quickly flamed out. For the first series or two, we were able to rattle Phillip Rivers a little and force him into some hurried throws. One of those throws turned up into a pick six from Patrick Peterson who looks dynamic when he has the ball. I don't know about anybody else, but when I saw number 21 running the opposite way with the ball, I was reminded of Antrel Rolle's game changing ability with the ball in his hands. While I hope he has Rolle's amazing ability with the ball, I hope he can surpass Rolle's weak coverage and tackling ability. After that play though, Rivers went back to his vintage self, completing impossible throw after impossible throw and moved the ball with ease resulting in a touchdown. I was really disappointed in O'Brien Schofield's night. He had a great play on special teams early on, but then was relatively quiet for the rest of the night. I thought he would have been used more than he was since Porter is a veteran and Schofield is essentially a rookie since in his two years he's had no OTAs. Our 7th round pick David Carter had a really night especially early on. Every time I looked up all I would see is number 79 make a tackle. I almost forgot Dan Williams was on our defensive line, which is not a good thing. Toler has what is suspected to be an ACL sprain. Hopefully it isn't too serious because as much as I'm unsure about Toler's coverage ability, I don't want to go in with our best CBs being Patrick Peterson, AJ Jefferson and Richard Marshall.
Well that's it for this weekend. Preseason game 4 is on Thursday and then ten short days later the regular season will start. I for one am really excited about this season and can't wait to see how we perform.
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