Running 'Larry Fitzgerald Running Wide Open' thread

You know, without Boldin you'd think they might cover the future HOF receiver. It's not like ARI rushed the ball a ton in the first half.



Not that it would have mattered with DelHomme playing one of the all-time worst playoff games. But it would have been a start.

 

Defense was given no favors by:

1. Delhomme's performance
2. Davidson's playcalling

Not to say that the defense was lights out. But they only allowed 6 points in the last 30 minutes, with absolutely no help from the offense.

 

The defense didn't play bad, I'm just thinking we might want to guard Fitzgerald. I mean, I'm not a professional at this stuff but how many HUGE catches did he have in the first half? Game was over after halftime, and a lot of that had to do with Fitzgerald.

In the stadium I had no idea how incredible the catch he had in double coverage on that 3rd and 8 early. Every bit as impressive as his TD against ATL, just went up and got it. Bobbled it and secured it as he fell, there's not a lot you can do with that even with good coverage (which we had on that play.)

There were 3-4 other plays where he just ran wide open though, including that TD. He's a great player, I'm not trying to take anything away from him. I'm just thinking with Boldin out that might let you give Fitz a little more attention.

Seemed like our d played straight up when we should have been cheating.

 

They played zone the 1st half, and Fitz/Warner ate it up. 2nd half, after it was way too late, they played man. Fitz caught one more short pass, I think. Of course, the Cards had no reason to be taking chances then, but still . . .

Looks like a horrible D plan to me.

 

.

 

Whisenhunt called off the dogs. Might have had something to do with it.

 

The defense had a couple of real screw-ups, but as I explained in the gameday thread, most of Fitzgerald's long passes were just great Arizona route design exploiting our zone assignments. Just like with Antonio Bryant, Fox & Trgo don't seem to be that concerned about stopping one player, they'd rather just stick to their overall defensive philosophy and worry about the team yards rather than individual stats. Obviously you can't say that the defense was adequate when the Cardinals only punted once in the first half, but I didn't think they were terrible. Marshall hurt us, and having no safeties who can cover worth a shit did too, but their O vs. our D was mostly just a matter of being out-coached.

 

I thought the same thing,,, that game was decided in the 1st half, and for the most part Fitzgerald was running free. How in the hell do we not double him???