Way too early to speculate.

????????

That would be very tough to fix DH. I was gonna. But it looks like alot of work.

Even if they had won that game, it is still just four good games.

Hell, even The Raiders have played four good games. Just not at the right time.

We played four good games.

Maybe. It was only three games.

You, as well as anyone, know that that team is stacked with talent, and has still sucked until last seasons playoffs.

High powered passing attack. Non-existent running game, and lack-luster defense.

That’s essentially the same team that has sucked for the past five years or so.

There were two real differences. The rest of the division became even worse than them. And they played a few good games in the post-season.

Had it not been for the division being so bad, they probably never even play those post-season games.

I am hopeful. Extremely hopeful.

But I am finding it difficult to get really pumped up about emulating The Arizona Cardinals.

I think you could get some circus clown, or drunken hillbilly to improve on 2-14.

Here are their team stats over the past five seasons.

I want to look at specific trends and changes to each aspect.

2004, if you compare it to all of the other seasons since, is vastly different and really doesn’t have much bearing on the teams trends.

I included that season to show how similar the teams stats have been over the past four years, as compared to prior to ’05.

’05 is the year that The Cards became a passing offense only team.

The first thing that I will show to support that notion is the PYPG. (passing yards per game)

2008 PYPG – 292.1 (2nd)
2007 PYPG – 254.1 (5th)
2006 PYPG – 247.6 (4th)
2005 PYPG – 277.3 (1st)
2004 PYPG – 180.1 (24th)

Obviously, since 2004, The Cards have been a top passing team. Going from 1st, to 4th, to 5th, to 2nd.

Haley has only been there for, what, the last season, season and a half?

So, from that, one can credit Haley with taking a top-five passing attack and turning it into a top-five passing attack.

Ok. I’ll give him some credit for helping to maintain a top five passing attack. But not for creating one.

Here are the RYPG (Rushing yards per game) numbers…

2008 RYPG – 73.6 (32nd)
2007 RYPG – 90.0 (29th)
2006 RYPG – 83.6 (30th)
2005 RYPG – 71.1 (32nd)
2004 RYPG – 104.3 (22nd)

Again, the change form ’04 to ’05 is obvious. And they have been scraping the barrell ever since, including ’08.

So, from that, I see a horrible running game, that remained a horrible running game.

But, if you choose to give Haley credit for maintaing a top passing attack, then you have to give equal blame for maintaining a non-existent running game.

I choose to call that a “push”. He really doesn’t seem to have had any effect on those team stats.

2008 PPG – 26.7 (4th)
2007 PPG – 25.3 (7th)
2006 PPG – 19.6 (19th)
2005 PPG – 19.4 (18th)
2004 PPG – 17.8 (26th)

and YPG (Yards per game) stats…

2008 YPG – 365.8 (4th)
2007 YPG – 344.1 (12th)
2006 YPG – 312.5 (18th)
2005 YPG – 348.4 (8th)
2004 YPG – 284.4 (27th)

There is very clear increase to the ’08 numbers. That’s great. And that is what most people will look at, when looking for positives in Haley.

And I am more than happy to acknowledge that Haley deserves some credit for that. Specifically the PPG stat, as the YPG was really just an already powerful passing attack.

But, when giving that credit, I will keep in mind that the rest of that division was pretty well worthless in ’08. So The Niners, Rams and Seahawks should probably get some of that credit.

Let’s look at the PYPG (Passing yards per game) stats…

2008 PYPG – 221.3 (22nd)
2007 PYPG – 232.3 (28th)
2006 PYPG – 230.9 (30th)
2005 PYPG – 193.6 (12th)
2004 PYPG – 189.8 (10th)

Not much there. A slight improvement. But far from endearing to me.

How about RYPG (Rushing yards per game)?

2008 RYPG – 110.3 (16th)
2007 RYPG – 97.9 (9th)
2006 RYPG – 118.6 (16th)
2005 RYPG – 102 (10th)
2004 RYPG – 131.6 (27th)

Again, not much there. A slight regression, that pretty-much seems to counter the slight improvement to the passing defense.

Total YPG (Yards per game)…

2008 YPG – 331.5 (19th)
2007 YPG – 330.2 (17th)
2006 YPG – 349.4 (29th)
2005 YPG – 295.6 (8th)
2004 YPG – 321.3 (12th)

As I suspected from the two examples above… Nothing much to look at for change.

They had an upward spike in ’05 and a downward spike in ’06. And consistently below average ever since.

Well, PPG (Points per game) was the one stat that showed ’08 improvement on the offense. How about PPG on the defense?…

2008 PPG – 26.6 (28th)
2007 PPG – 24.9 (26th)
2006 PPG – 24.3 (29th)
2005 PPG – 24.2 (26th)
2004 PPG – 20.1 (12th)

Hmmm. Nope.

The numbers are pretty crappy for the past four seasons, and rather consistently.

But, as everyone knows, the ’08 Cards went to The Super Bowl.

Most people are done discussing it right there. That’s all that matters.

But, after looking at the team, compared to the same team of the past few seasons, I have to wonder how. I just have to.

All of the stats look the same. How does a team that has been 18-30 for three prior season become a Super Bowl team, without getting any real improvement on offense, or defense?

I know they scored 1.5 PPG more. But shouldn’t that be nullified by the extra 1.5 PPG that they allowed?

From the stats, this is the same damn team! Pass well, run for squat, and play piss-poor defense. Same team.

There must be some significant differences somewhere. But where?

Their division.

For all of the other seasons in our sample, The Seattle Seahawks dominated the AFC West, having won the division for four straight seasons.

But they went 4-12 in ’08.

Well, looking at The Cards’ ’08 schedule, it becomes clear how they got to the playoffs.

They were 9-7 during the regular season. But they were 6-0 against a horrible NFC West.

That leaves them at 3-7 outside of The NFC West.

Now that sounds like The Arizona Cardinals that I know!

So, that explains how this perennial loser got into the playoffs.

Seems pretty clear-cut to me.

However, they went to The Super Bowl! Not just the playoffs.

And I watched those playoff games. I can’t deny that they played very well in the postseason.

There is no way for me to deny that they played well for those four games. (I say four games, because they obviously played well in the one that they lost too.)

Wait a minute.

I wasn’t trying to deny that, was I?

Nope. I’ve said over and over that they played well for those four games.

My point is that everyone seems to be looking at those four games, as if the previous games never even happened.

But this is a team that won the worst division in The NFL, by a single game.

The only thing that impresses me about The Arizona Cardinals is that played four very good playoff games.

Not a damn thing beyond that.

And four games just isn’t enough for me to be convinced of anything. Hell, The Chiefs played four good games in ’08 (kinda). But they still sucked.

But I am not sure how to even go about ignoring everything else.

Sucked may be a little extreme, but they kinda did. Please don’t say you didn’t hear the pre-playoffs stuff and think the same. “Cards don’t deserve it”, “If they weren’t in the NFC West”, “Worst team in the playoffs”, etc. The Superbowl may have given you temporary amnesia.
But back to the topic. Because of the AZ OC and DC at the helm should the Chiefs be successful? Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And for one very good reason. They know what its like to win, KC forgot how in the wake of being Herminated.
Go Chiefs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:smilies_musik45::punk::punk::129:

Come on , now. I said they “kinda did”. And if you’ll wade through the thread you’ll see I referenced the defense of the Cards as troublesome. As far as the Chiefs, a step up from the bottom is very attainable with these guys. Let me ask you. How many games did the Chiefs lose last year by 7 or less? I think under what I hope will be the system employed that Haley ‘n Galey will get that 7. So it’s off store for Pioli to get some more parts.

I am not arguing rather or not this new staff is better than zero. (Herm Edwards) That would be quite a long shot.

My point is that The Cardinals have sucked for a long time. Including last season.

But they were given an easy road to the playoffs. Then, for four games, they quit sucking.

And who is this aimed at?

Why do you do that? You constantly make things up. I have never said that.

Anything is possible. But that isn’t something that I have ever said.

Kind of like this…

The fact is that they were worse in Rushing Yards Per game. Yet you don’t care about reality. You just spout-off whatever you want to be true, and hope noone calls you out on it.

Then, when someone does, you ignore it and try some other approach.

And because you don’t bother to verify what you are saying, you have no credibility.

I used to enjoy pointing those faults out. But now I am just tired of it.

I know that anything you post needs to be checked, because I know that you haven’t done so.

Which would be fine, if you were expressing guesses or opinions. but you pass that trash off as fact, when it is anything but.

I’ve said it before. And I’ll say it again.

Aside from their last four games, The Arizona Cardinals have been extremely unimpressive. The ’08 Cards look just like the 18-30 Cards of the previous three seasons to me.

First. when I used the term “best in the AFC West” I was referring to you using it with the “NFC West”. Second who TF are you to continue to spout off when someone else gives their opinion. You are continuing to whine and complain when people don’t give stats to back up every single word they say. This is a “discussion Forum” not a “post your statistics or say nothing forum”!! The stats I provided were correct and directly from NFL.com. If you don’t believe them, take it up with them! The rest is simply my opinion! DEAL WITH IT!!!!! IMO again IMO your statement about the Cardinals sucking last season is, how do YOU say, LUDACRIS!!!! You used to fun to banter back and forth with but now your just an a******!!!! Now get your mod finger going and punish me the way you always do when someone cross’ you. Ive said it before and I’ll say it again and again and again, you are not the know it all that you think you are! Everyone else here has some knowledge of the game and is totally justified for saying there opinion! You need to get off your high horse and quit thinking and displaying that you are the only one that knows anything about anything around here!!!:iamwithstupid: