[ad_1]
26-year-old Kansas City Chiefs Damien Williams midfielder clings to Arizona Cardinals catcher Christian Kirk (13) in the second half of an NFL Kansas City football game. Sunday, November 11, 2018. (AP Photo / Ed Zurga)
Woo-hoo. The Cardinals were not beaten Sunday. Their moral victory proves how much we have fallen.
This is considered progress when they cover the spread against the Chiefs.
It is a failure when a loss of 12 points is considered acceptable, whatever the circumstances.
It's a feat to pass Patrick Mahomes within 300 meters in one fight.
It's a condemnation of Steve Wilks when you have an extra week to prepare for an opponent and give up a touchdown in the first minute.
This is a progress when your defense forces the Chiefs to beat three times in a row.
It was a failure when our standards were so lowered that we resigned ourselves to adopting the principle of no baby and looking for good with telescopes and magnifiers.
Sorry, winning is for the winners. Progress is for the losers. And our NFL team is back on the wrong side of the track, looking for easy solutions.
This is a new confirmation that Arizona has become the nursery school of professional sport.
A 26-14 loss to Kansas City could be their best performance of the season, surpassing both wins against the 49ers. But all that was beneficial for Sunday's performance was wiped out in the fourth quarter, when the Chiefs wiped out the Cardinals' offensive line, putting pressure on Josh Rosen in almost all the important clichés.
The unbalanced ending was embarrassing, emasculating and evoked a recurring nightmare in Arizona.
During his tenure, General Manager Steve Keim has failed dramatically in building a competent offensive line.
It was written by Jonathan Cooper, DJ Humphries, Mason Cole, Korey Cunningham, Will Holden, Dorian Johnson, Evan Boehm, Cole Toner and Earl Watford.
He signed Jared Veldheer and Mike Iupati on big dollar contracts. He still can not find the right mix, even though the GM was an offensive lineman at North Carolina State.
Before Rosen's decisive interception on David Johnson, the Cardinals quarterback was dispatched 16 times with five sacks and 10 assists in 35 pass attempts.
How is a quarterback supposed to develop when he does not have time to learn on the job, surrounded by veteran linemen who behave like recruits?
Experience will teach him to identify the defensive linemen who attack him on the screen, as did Justin Houston before his interception that had spoiled the return of the Cardinals. But a good offensive lineman will also oppose a defensive player looking for cherries by giving him body shots, teaching him to think twice before leaving his feet on passing attempts.
It did not happen on Sunday.
Therefore, the dilemma surrounding Keim's GM status. He has done more good than bad since arriving in 2018.
He traded for Carson Palmer and wrote Rosen. He traded for Chandler Jones. His preliminary class of 2018 could be full of impact players, canceling the big boost of 2017. But do you trust him to repair the offensive line?
It was his first wish when he took the job and yet the problem persists. Andre Smith has just played his worst game in Arizona, leading a line that could ruin most rookie quarterbacks.
The latest example is staggering, especially when Wilks called the 2018 offensive line "team strength".
Nothing will change until the cardinals know how to properly build the nerve center of their football team. Bill Belichick looks easy. The Steelers too. Why are cardinals so easily deceived when it comes to their offensive linemen?
Maybe all this loss is for the better, giving rise to highly leveraged selections to complete the abundance of their salary cap space entering the next season.
They must learn if this head coach is worth another year. They need David Johnson to improve their performance on Sunday and stop running headlong, looking for a soft landing at first touch. They need their defense to develop a true identity by the end of the season.
But they can not let a matador offensive line ruin Rosen's verve and raw potential. It is essential to keep him standing and breathing, alongside men who understand the position, who know what it means to serve and protect.
Contact Bickley at [email protected]. Listen to Bickley & Marotta on weekdays from 10am to 2pm. on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
[ad_2]
Source link
