Arizona Cardinals Week 15
The Arizona Cardinals are not a very good team. Neither are the Browns in all honesty, but if you want to talk mediocre football teams then the Cardinals are firmly our
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brothers in arms. A few parallels heading into week 15: their quarterback situation is murkier and more frustrating than the year began. The perception of their defense is eschewed by a few bad outings (ahem Ray Rice). Said defenses are punctuated with fierce inside linebackers and crushing defensive ends (D'QwellSheard meet the Daryl WashingtonCalais Campbell tandem).15 is the last winnable game on either of these teams' schedule so will be pretty integral in splitting that 891011 draft slot. And isn't that what we're interested in?! Lose2See3! (As in RG3 Robert Griffin III). Okay so all the SuckforLuck, FallFlatforMatt jokes have pretty much been made. Before I indulge my desire for puns, let week 15 begin!Remember the start of the year when there was talk of the Browns chasing down Kevin Kolb? We all dismissed it because well because we all still had faith in Colt, but the basic premise of notwanting Kolb seems justified to date. Kolb has not looked like the horse Arizona expected to saddle its franchise on. Neither has Colt McCoy. If you remove the effect of yardsafterthecatch from each players YPA (equalising some of the effect a topquality supporting cast can have), you see Kolb come out on top. To give those numbers context, Aaron Rodgers (a very good QB) averages 5.24 YACless yardsperattempt for the season, Matt Hasselbeck (a distinctly middling QB) averages 3.35, whilst Blaine Gabbert (a very bad QB) comes in at 2.39. Both QBs are there or thereabouts in terms of yardless YAC, but Kolb's advantage
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is hardly earth shattering. The Browns are often caricatured as overly conservative, whilst the Cardinals are defined as wideopen and vertically inclined. Again, misconceptions. You might want to point out that an absolute figure is a little misleading for Kevin Kolb given the games he has missed, but then you'll be surprised to know that Kolb has been the most conservative (in regards to deep attempts) of all the QBs that the Cardinals have trotted out in 2011. Colt McCoy has not looked like the QB we expected. With that said, Kolb's performance under pressure is more than admirable and is a skill you can't teach. Kolb has the 'feel' if not the 'guts' of Colt, but I'm hard pushed to believe surrendering a first rounder for the exEagles product would have been a price worth justifying. Kevin Kolb and Colt McCoy are at incredibly similar points of their career arcs. Providing their teams don't abandon them this offseason, this KolbMcCoy comparison will be well worth revisiting in years to come.I am not a Beanie Wells fan. He is bruising but brittle, quick but not fast, and all too Cedric Bensony for my liking. Even coming out of Ohio State I didn't quite get it. Tell me this Wells fans: how is he going to cripple the opposition defense? Run away from them? He's not that shifty. Bowl them over ala Rashard Mendenhall? He can't take the pounding. Is he a dynamic force in the passing game and the next MJD? 8 receptions in 2011 is a pretty definitive no. He is Cedric Benson: technically a starting running back in the NFL. Wells now has a season average of 4.4 YPC, but has 7 games where he posted figures under 4. I'll put my