- Lang stepped up. For a guy who injured his back the previous day, he showed his dedication to coaches on Friday night's game by playing and playing well. That impressed me a lot. Now I believe coaches will be easy on him through the week, but I presume he will still play with the starters in week 2 barring any set back.

- Linebackers failed to impress. From the starters to the scrubs, no linebacker in particular stood out to me on his own on Friday. Mulumba made a nice play later in the game that caught my attention, but other than that and one sack by Francois, it was vanilla and void of any big plays even when a few were available.

- Special teams players look tentative. The coaches expect more fire from these young guys looking to make the team and it wasn't there from what I could see. The blocking and tackling was largely disappointing to say the least. Safety David Fulton missed what would have been a major straight line tackle on the Cardinals' big return in the 4th quarter. The play was right there for him and he whiffed.

- Is Newhouse seen as a liability by the coaching staff? My guess is yes. Help was slid his way on a play which resulted in a sack for a loss from a free corner blitz from the opposite side of the line. This was good play call by the Cardinals' defense. Smart teams know your liabilities and scheme accordingly. I am sure this factors into coaches feeling more and more comfortable putting Barclay out there in his place.

- WR Walker plays with focus and heart. Apart from his raw talent, those two traits are tremendously important for future greats in this league. On a play which resulted in an interception at the end of the first quarter, he is open near the sideline. Harrell instead throws to a covered Ross. On the return, Walker closes in on about a 5 yard gap to make the play and tackle Peterson. It was a great hustle play.

- Will Davon House prove he belongs? He played from behind on a big gain in the first quarter by allowing too much separation in coverage and he failed to make any kind of play on the ball carrier on a pass play later in the game. On that play, he allowed the receiver to knock him to the ground while he remained on his feet for extra yardage. I feel like this shows an unwillingness to be physical when the play is in front of him. Very disappointed all around with his performance.

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"MM: T.J. Lang's back has been bothering him. He was ready for practice. I held him out"
https://twitter.com/WesHod 

Glad to hear this! I alluded to this in the first point.

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bleh disc issues - hope he takes care of it

I know it's ONLY preseason....but the Packers looked 100% unprepared. The Cards beat them to a pulp on every fashion.
Yes, the games mean nothing. But you have to get your you know what together at some point before the REAL games begin, and they looked horrible on almost every area.

I can't wait to see the starters out there, and performing as the team they CAN be, not the amatuers they looked like the other night.
You could see MM was NOT happy with the way they played.

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House talked a big game in the off-season. That is why I am holding him to a higher standard. I know he is coming off of injury but you gotta back it up when you talk.

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How many series did the STARTERS actually play on Defense?

I don't think they gave up any points.

House was still in when he gave up the TD, but I don't think that many of the other starters were in.

I really don't know for sure, but if it was like the offense, the starters just weren't in there very long.

edit:

Seems to me every team has their own adgenda when it comes to preseason games.

The Cardinals have a new coach, a new QB, a new coaching staff, I agree that they outplayed The Packers, but I think Mike was all about getting film on a lot of new guys.
The cardinals came in wanting to build some momentum.

I know he wants to win every game, and he deserved to be pissed, but in the end i think The Packers staff aquired a lot of the info: they were lookin for.

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Tha's why in some way, i'm not as worried as i could be. The starters were not in there. No Cobb, Nelson or Lacy.
But the runners looked BAD that were in there. No one seemed to make anything after being hit, and with this O-line, you better be able to generate something on your own.
Again though, we haven't had a chance to see what Lacy can do. I'm hoping he is the answer in the run game.

And defense wasn't good at all. Not much pressure on ANY of the QB's. Yes, it may have not been all the starters, but they looked BAD. The Cards backup QB's all looked good against us. And our DB's were terrible. It seemed every play someone was wide open.
I'm HOPING that it was just because we didn't have our #1 guys in there, and NOT that we start the real games looking that bad.

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Defensive starters I believe played two series maybe three. I don't think that we got out of the base defense once. I saw the starters in the game on defense until the Cardinals scored that first TD.

Great point earlier about the coaching/team differences. Yes, our teams are in totally different states. That brings me back to what I was talking about in another thread about rebuilding and how every team does it every year to varying degrees.

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It mainly looked bad, because of the QB play. Or lack thereof.

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Oh and I forgot this in my blog post so I will just mention it now.

I wanted to give a quiet props over to Josh Boyd. He did a respectable job in his first game action and appeared to provide some good push in his time on the field.

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