Sports360AZ
The Cardinals fell to 1-3 in the preseason, with their 32-27 loss to the Titans on Thursday night.
Here’s some things that I saw in this game:
1. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt has a tough decision to make as far as who the starting quarterback will be for his team.
John Skelton started the game, but it seemed like his offensive line didn’t. Skelton was sacked on the first play from scrimmage, and on the very next play, he threw an interception.
It’s hard to put the blame totally on Skelton for the night he had, with all the offensive line issues.
Kevin Kolb came in for Skelton, and had to deal with the same issues up front. He was sacked on the first play from scrimmage. Kolb did bounce back quite well on the next series right before halftime, going 5-5 for 80 yards and a TD pass to Andre Roberts.
Kolb did throw two interceptions, both to linebacker Colin McCarthy, one of which McCarthy returned for a touchdown.
The numbers for both men couldn’t have been any further apart.
Skelton was 4-10 for 41 yards and an interception, while Kolb was 17-22 for 156 yards, one touchdown and the two interceptions.
There have been reports that the Cardinals might pursue another quarterback, if this Kolb/Skelton battle gets worse. After tonight, it might come down to that.
2. The offensive line clearly missed Levi Brown, because they struggled mightily, which led to the team’s offensive problems early on.
The interior part of the line, in particular D.J. Young, was overwhelmed by the Titans defensive rush numerous times, which killed drives right where they stood.
Things did get better when D’Anthony Batiste came in at left tackle and Bobby Massie at right tackle.
Time to go back to the lab on the front line.
3. Beanie Wells got his first action of the preseason, and looked good. Wells showed some hop in his step, as did Ryan Williams and William Powell.
If Powell makes the 53-man roster, this running attack should be deadly.
4. The first team defense started the game off strong, but weakened as the game went on, and Jake Locker and Kendall Wright took advantage of them.
Locker threw for 134 yards and two touchdowns against the first team, one of them to Wright, as he easily beat Patrick Peterson to the pylon.
5. I liked how the Cardinals fought back to eventually take the lead in the game, before succumbing to Tennessee.
The offense and defense had all kinds of problems early on, but both seemed to settle in as the game went on, albeit with different personnel.
If you looked strictly at the overall game stats, you’d think the Cardinals won going away, but stats are very deceiving sometimes and were in this game.