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Re: Arizona at Seattle
I was pretty surprised by Arizona's effort on D against SF. While they weren't overpowering last year, they were pretty opportunistic and playing relatively shorthanded. I assumed with the return of their starters this year the defense would look better than last year. It didn't.
I guess you have to consider the fact that Rolle is essentially still a rookie at CB since he missed most of last year with injury. It takes time at that position to become efficient. Karlos Dansby was also out against SF which couldn't have helped the run D.
This week, the Cardinals face one of the top rushing teams in the NFC on the road so even with Dansby returning, I don't see them slowing down Alexander if Gore was running wild.
On offense, the Cardinals should benefit from their newly acquired guard(came from Minnesota on the Wednesday before the game and wound up starting!) getting in a full week of practice with his new teammates. He wasn't a liability but I'm sure the offense had to be scaled back in certain areas to try and protect him.
Their starting RT, Oliver Ross will be returning this week as well which should help the o-line situation. They will definitely have to muster some kind of a running game(why does that sound so familiar?) if they are to keep Seattle honest.
I didn't get to watch much of the Seattle game last week but I was surprised that they seemed to struggle against Detroit. I think it's hard to determine much from that game since Detroit clearly doesn't have the personnel that Martz wants to run his offense. Jones looks good at tailback but Kitna, although a solid qb, doesn't have what it takes to run the Martz system in my opinion. The WR's are also not equipped for what Martz likes to do. They went out and signed Az Hakim this week just to try and help out. Bradford came over from Houston in the offseason but he's inconsistent and none of the WR's seem to have any rapport with Kitna, who in turn doesn't seem to trust any of them to catch the ball.
All that being said, Seattle still squeaked out the win so I'm not sure where their defense really is. If Hanson doesn't miss a long field goal attempt, that game would have been tied and possibly gone to overtime. Seattle will also apparently be without Branch in the lineup this week which should benefit Arizona.
On the road and still finding their way, I think Arizona will ultimately lose this game even with Seattle being undermanned and not hitting on all cylinders yet. It will be close though.
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