Well it's the start of another season and it looks as if like last year the Cardinals will be facing the overall #1 pick in the draft in week one. Cam Newton is getting the start and I think he'll be in for a rough first week.
I have never been shy about my dislike for Cam Newton, going as far as making a joke video about the possibility of the Cardinals drafting him. I have nothing against the guy personally, I just don't think his ability will translate into anything really productive on the NFL stage. It took Michael Vick 6 years in the NFL, a year in prison, then getting signed by a QB genius before he finally learned what it took to be a legitimate Quarter Back in the National Football League. Most of Newton's progression at Auburn involved looking at his first receiver and if that receiver was covered, Newton would take off running. That just won't cut it in the NFL and this is not even taking into account his accuracy problems which is something I think is difficult if not impossible to learn. I think the Panthers would have been better of letting Newton sit for awhile and then bring him in around game 9 or 10 of the season. Thankfully for us, they decided not to do that.
Offense
One of the key things I will be looking for in week 1 is balance in our play calling. I want us to feed Beanie the ball throughout the game, giving him somewhere around 18-24 carries. The last thing I want to do week 1 is put all of the weight on Kolb's shoulders and go Kurt Warner style slinging it. Last year, we abandoned the run way too early in games and I think it hurt both our offense and defense. I know Kolb and Fitzgerald have a connection and I don't blame the guy for wanting to get him the ball, but I would also like to see Kolb spread it around and get guys like Roberts and Heap involved as well. Those guys can be serious receiving threats and we know Fitz will be demanding a double team. I want to see long drawn out drives that span lots of yards and good chunks of time. We saw way too many 3 and outs last year and our 3rd down conversion rate was almost impossibly low. These things MUST improve for our offense to be effective.
Defense
This could be a rough game for the Panthers offense. Not necessarily because of our defense, just more so that a rookie QB like Newton will struggle a lot early on. Combine that with the fact that we have a new aggressive defensive coordinator and I believe guys like Dockett and Adrian Wilson are pissed off at what happened last year and are eager to get back out there. I expect Horton to disguise the blitz and try to confuse Cam Newton into turnovers and hopefully force the Panthers to beat us through the air and not via the run game. It will be interesting to see how the Cardinals plan to play against the pass. Except for Steve Smith, the Panthers don't have much of a threat at wide receiver, but they do have two effective tight ends that can catch the ball well. Shockey is very limited physically but can still be effective at the goal line and Olsen is a solid pass catcher. Hopefully we will not see a repeat of last year where we saw Adub continually dropping into coverage where he is at a disadvantage against tight ends. On obvious passing downs, I expect Horton to bring Adub in on a blitz and have an extra LB drop into coverage on a tight end. Maybe Daryl Washington would fill in there, though I dunno how he would match up against those tight ends size wise. It will definitely be interesting to see because we do have quite a few unknowns coming into play on defense and Carolina always seems to play us well in the regular season. We just have to make sure that Deangelo Williams and Johnathan Stewart don't run up and down the field on us as well as make sure that Cam Newton can't scramble for a ton of yards. If we can do that, I really like our chances.
I predict Cardinals win 27-13 with Newton throwing 3 picks.
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