SB Nation User Blog: CARD_G6

Best. Picture. Ever.

CARD_G6 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:48:20 -0000

Best. Picture. Ever.

Sources at UofL tell Michael Lombardi Gruden is #1 candidate

CARD_G6 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:59:55 -0000

Sources at UofL tell Michael Lombardi Gruden is #1 candidate

"The University of Louisville has pegged Jon Gruden as its No. 1 candidate should the school decide to fire coach Steve Kragthorpe, sources told NFL Network’s Michael Lombardi."

Apparently, this was mentioned on NFL network some time today and will be repeated at 11p.m.

A couple big plays away...

CARD_G6 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:28:47 -0000

New England was a “couple big plays” away from winning. Arizona was “a couple big plays” away from winning. Florida was “a couple big plays” away from beating Ole Miss last year.

Whatever that debacle was that took place at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium last night was not “a couple big plays” away from a victory, and the fact that Steve Kragthorpe has infected the players with that notion is perhaps even more disheartening than the on-field shellacking that they took.

Where to start with this game? The inspiring 10-7 first half followed by the befuddling 28-0 second half? The 10 penalties for 98 yards? How about 3-15 on third down? Or the fact that for two games straight, Victor Anderson, the team’s one clear playmaker, was completely underutilized mounting only 51 yards on 12 carries? Take your pick, because they all add up to the worst showing by the Cards so far this year (and that’s a big “so far”).

Here’s where I’m going to start: Football 101. Lesson 1: having a clear game plan. This now makes three games in a row where we have either scored on our opening drive or at least marched down the field to get within the 10 yard line, only to look completely lost on offense in every single ensuing drive. The problem is clear: Steve Kragthorpe may, in fact, be a solid x’s and o’s offensive coordinator, but he falls apart on the fly. The fact is that our first 10 plays of every game are scripted, and for three games in a row they have generally worked out. The problem is that after those ten plays, the offense settles into a completely generic and mind-numbingly predictable series of plays. While the presence of Froman brought the number of plays up from 8 to about 10 last night, both those extra plays are apparently variations on a QB draw. When I heard during the offseason that Kragthorpe was trying to minimize the number of formations we had, I had no idea that he would be whittling them down to just three: Ace, I, and 3WR shotgun. Seriously, there were more formations in my middle school football team’s playbook.

Lesson 2: making use of your key players. I am absolutely dumbfounded at how Victor Anderson has rushed for less than 100, nay, less than 80, yards in the last two games… combined. Steve’s reasoning? He says that we get behind and abandon the run game to try to catch up. Yeah, because that’s exactly what you want to do when you’re trying to recover from a deficit: give up on your most successful plays and playmakers, and instead put it in the hands of your two quarterbacks who have combined to play less than 5 games at the FBS level. This isn’t freaking rocket science.

Lesson 3: getting your guys ready to play. Penalties continue to haunt this team, and there’s no explanation for why other than bad coaching discipline. A little research on rivals.com shows that during Kraghtorpe’s farewell tour at Tulsa, he once coached a game with over 120 penalty yards. Tulsa went on to win that game 27-3 or something like that, but things that worked in Conference USA don’t work in the Big East. Not sure what else to say here.

Lesson 4: reading the opposing team. Plain freaking logic will tell you that if you’ve been consistently beaten down field on a hitch route on the outside (which even the clueless announcer managed to spot), that you should probably either man up on the outside receiver with your fastest DB or at least drop back in Cover 3 to help seal up the edges and keep everything in front of you. Watching Raglin run to the middle of the field in Cover 2 when the ball was thrown to the sideline over Johnny Patrick to a tight end pretty much sums up the level of football IQ on the sidelines these days. And “they were supposed to check into a different coverage, and one guy did while the other didn’t” is not a valid excuse. Maybe the first time, but certainly not the second, third, or fourth times. Your job is to make sure the players know what they’re doing on every play. Additionally, I said it after the Indiana State game, but I’ll repeat it here: we are not good in man coverage, and the zone is played too deep, leaving the middle wide open play after play after play, and good teams like Cincinnati will tear up the secondary.

The good: We can clearly move the ball, at least once per game, when we stick to a solid game plan. Maybe that should be the first clue to not abandon that game plan when you’re losing by less than one touchdown. Adam Froman clearly has legs and can move, and he’s certainly got a bigger arm than Burke. I’m not convinced he’s any more accurate in the short game, but he’s solid. The defense has drives where they look really inspired and are all over the field. Darius Ashley showed that he deserves far more touches.

The bad: Froman looks like he has a tendency to just freeze and collapse under pressure. For such a mobile QB, every time he got pressure (which was often), he had a hard time rolling out of the pocket, and instead just went down. He also has a case of happy feet on third down, which is not good when you’re at 3rd and long like we nearly always are. To be honest, I think despite his mobility, he’s not as good at making plays with his feet as Burke. I think the defense has the same problem as the offense: a terrible coordinator with a play pamphlet, not a playbook. They always manage to play well in the first few drives of the game, but then the opposing offense figures them out and just moves the ball at will. It looks like we have issues with the shotgun snap; we clearly miss Eric Wood. Cory Goettsche had a slightly disappointing game.

The Kragtastic: 35-10. At home. On blackout night. To the fighting Wannstaches. Fuck you.

More in-depth Kragtastic: Penalties, Victor Anderson’s 12 carries for 51 yards, the awkward hand-offs, the just general cluelessness of the players on the field and the coaches on the sideline. Take your pick.

I’m honestly not sure whether I would prefer to see 8 more UK-style games or 8 more Pitt-style games, but I’m leaning toward the latter to save myself the depression. To sum up the year so far: they are who we thought they were, and it will be a long time before Louisville football returns to any semblance of its former self.

My ridiculously wordy post-game thoughts.

CARD_G6 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:54:53 -0000

So I've got a lot to say, cause I've got a lot on my mind after that game. Whatever hopes or ambitions I had about this team a week ago are quickly fading, and it will take a mesmerizing performance at Commonwealth Stadium in 2 weeks to convince me we've got any shot at postseason play, and even then, if anybody says we've still got a chance, I'll look at them silly in public. Anyway, ridiculously, unnecessarily, over-the-top wordy analysis after the break.

Offense: Let’s face it; the offense looked horrible to start the game. Burke was throwing everything but a good pass, and the running game was decent, but couldn’t get a first down against a terrible team. But they settled down, and things finally started humming along. The running game was solid, and the receivers made some good plays, but they still had a problem with dropping passes on key possessions and downs (Beaumont in the end zone comes to mind).

But there were two major problems: penalties, and interceptions. While the first interception could be understood because this was still during Burke’s apparent “rust period,” the second was absolutely terrible, and for a guy as mobile as Burke to even be under the pressure that he was under by a team as bad as ISU is baffling. That whole play was a disaster from the moment Jurich said “Kragthorpe” three years ago, however, as I don’t understand why you don’t go for the field goal there. The way I see it, here are the possible outcomes in that situation: you get the touchdown (good), you throw the interception (bad), you get sacked and don’t have time to go for a field goal (bad), you throw short of the TD and don’t have time for a field goal (bad), or you get an incompletion but the clock runs out anyway (bad), or you get a quick incompletion and have a chance at a field goal (acceptable). Seems to me there’s more bad there than good, especially when you’re trying to get your kicker experience after last year’s field goal debacle.

The penalties were perhaps the worst part of this ridiculous game. 14-128? That’s absolutely atrocious, and only goes to provide further evidence of Kragthorpe’s apparent ineptitude at the game of football. This is the sloppiest game of football I can remember seeing the Cards play in a long time, and the fact that all the coordinators and trainers are now either Krag himself of “Krag’s guys” should tell you what the problem here is.

The only stat that I think is worse than 14-128, however, is 1-9. How can a team in the FBS possibly go 1-9 for third down against a team in the FCS? I have no idea, so I’m not even going to tackle that one.

Defense: I don’t know why everybody keeps saying “At least the defense was good.” Were we watching the same game? Sure, ISU only had 101 yards of offense. Only 19 of those came on the ground, and this is definitely where the Cards showed that they can be strong. They also managed to snag three interceptions and a fumble, which is great, but hardly unexpected against this team. But they also allowed 82 yards in the air, almost all on third down where ISU went 7-16. Man coverage is clearly not this team’s forte, but the linebackers also seem to be playing far too deep in zone coverage. I’m also not impressed at all with the new defensive coordinator’s play calling. Combining the talent that we have on the D-line and at linebacker with ISU’s middle-school offense of running between the tackles on first and second then throwing from the shotgun on third should have resulted in far more than one sack. There were very few blitzes, and there was much less pressure on the quarterback than there should have been with a team of this caliber. I can guarantee this: teams like UK, Cincinnati, and Rutgers will tear up this team through the air. Picture Rutgers last season, and expect to see that at least once this season.

Special teams: Trent Guy is back. That’s good. The rest: We were 3-4 on field goals, all within the 35, they were averaging as many yards per return as Trent Guy, and their punter had a higher average and long punt than ours. Superior talent what?

The Good: Victor Anderson not only doing the shuffle like always, but also showing his power by keeping his feet moving and getting extra yardage; Bilal Powell having a nice night and showing his obvious power; Burke making good plays outside the pocket (after the first quarter); getting some actual interceptions; we won by 20.

The Bad: Pretty much everything else besides the good, but in particular: penalties; third down conversions; penalties; QB pressure; penalties; Burke’s long ball; penalties; coaching and play calling; penalties; we won by 20. Did I mention penalties?

The Ugly: Besides the penalties and third down conversions? How about some of ISU’s throws? No wonder Wyoming dropped that guy like a hot potato.

Random thoughts: I still don’t understand this game. If you assume the first quarter was rust and that we didn’t really start playing well until the second quarter, then the stats look good: 419 offensive yards, 101 defensive yards, +2 turnovers. And yet you look at the score, and see just how many points we left on the field through bad decisions and penalties (like a pick-6 being called back and working your way out of FG position). These are simply the mistakes you can’t make if you want to pull some upsets. By the way, Burke: you need to cool it on the long ball. It’s not your thing. Stick to the short and intermediate passes for now, and we’ll come back to the airing-it-out when you get some more experience under your belt.

McDonald's All American Game Thread?

CARD_G6 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:04:07 -0000

I didn't see one posted, so I was just wondering if there was going to be one posted. If not, I guess anyone who's interested can discuss it here.

blah blah blah... 75 words... blah blah blah

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long. Right now it's only 31 words long. If you just have a quote, link, video or photo you'd like to share with the community, try creating a FanShot instead.

Cardinals Women's basketball going to Elite Eight as well

CARD_G6 — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:08:06 -0000

Cardinals Women's basketball going to Elite Eight as well

Title says it all. The Lady Cards knocked off 2 seed Baylor 56-39 for a trip to the Elite Eight.

Bracket is shaping up unexpectedly.

CARD_G6 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:34:57 -0000

So there were plenty of upsets today, especially in our bracket. Wake Forest, West Virginia, and Ohio State all went down.

Ohio State I expected. I had Siena victorious in my bracket, and to be honest, I really think this is a great thing for us. Not having to play Ohio State in Dayton is a plus in my mind, though I am a little worried about Siena's shooting and they don't seem to get worn down by pressure as much as Ohio State. But at least they won't have home court advantage.

West Virginia was surprising, and I had them in the Sweet Sixteen in my bracket. To be honest, though, I thought they would either go three rounds or go out the first round. They were probably the hardest team outside of Providence from the Big East to gauge. Either way, I think it's a definite plus to not have to face them for the third time this year. I think they matched up well with us, too.

Wake Forest was the biggest shocker to me. And to be honest, I don't know what to expect from Cleveland State. Did anybody watch this game? Any thoughts on what to expect from them? I can't say I'm upset about not having to face Wake Forest, as they were one team I was worried about. But considered the ass-beating Cleveland State gave them, I don't know which of the two would have been better. I hope we're not going up against a Cinderella in the third round. Of course, we took care of the Syracuse cinderella, so I still have faith in this team.

On paper, this is shaping up to be an easy road for us. The highest seed we'll see before the fourth round will be a 9 seed, and that's next. We'll be facing either a 12 or 13 in the Sweet Sixteen, where Pitino is undefeated. On the other hand, you have to be worried about an underrated cinderella. This is shaping up to be an exciting tournament run. What do you guys think?

Over/Under?

CARD_G6 — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:05:14 -0000

I give us a 70% chance of us still being ranked #6 next week.

That's assuming UConn, UNC, and OK do their deeds this week (as well as us). I think if everybody in their spot right now wins their games the rest of the week, we'll still be at #6 next week, despite the losses above us. I see it as:

1. UConn

2. UNC

3. Memphis

4. Pitt

5. Oklahoma

6. Louisville

January was good...

CARD_G6 — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:57:28 -0000

I think it speaks a lot considering how terribly we played (minus T-Will) and lost by 17. It could have been worse.

That said, I have a few comments. 1. I don't know what Pitino was thinking throughout this game. Playing 11 men deep was a good idea, but it became apparent early that UConn was not going to be worn down. They're too deep. On top of that, there were obvious deficiencies in both of our games that we either continued (ours) or did not exploit (theirs). Case in point: the press. It's obvious that UConn's three guard attack was not going to be slowed down, and they were, in fact, exploiting it to get points in transition. They weren't turning the ball over, either. I understand the press has worked well for us all season, but it was just painful to watch uncontested layups over and over and over again. Thabeet is another example. For all the difference he makes on defense, the man is slow and is late getting back in transition. It could have been exploited by attacking in transition more often, but we just didn't do it. We would always slow down and wait for him to catch up; he didn't even get tired playing 39 minutes. Attacking the rim and drawing more than 3 fouls would have been advisable as well. 2. I hate UConn. I don't remember the last time I remember losing to a team that I hate. First, Adrien was acting like a punk. Give it a rest, half the people in the student section would have punched you in the face if not for the cops, and you would have cried. Also, Thabeet pisses me off because he's really not that great. He just uses his size to enforce his will. He's slow in transition, he's slow on help defense, and he fouls a lot more than he gets called for. The only outstanding thing he has going for him is his freakish size, and it's frustrating that it's so effective. He's not terrible, it's just that his size hides his inadequacies and he knows it. Also, Calhoun's decision to leave all his starters in till the end, even when we had finally rotated four freshmen in was just not a classy move. It's such a shame too, because I don't remember him being like that before, so maybe I'm just seeing more than what was there. 3. The offense was not working. Ball rotation was much better than Saturday, but the lack of an inside game was painful. The guards didn't worry about collapsing the defense because they knew we wouldn't shoot from in there, and even if we did, it would get blocked. I really felt like if Samardo had been able to knock down a couple of his jump shots, it would've helped draw Thabeet out from under the basket more. 4. The defense was getting killed. How many offensive rebounds and put-backs can one man possibly have in one game? Because Thabeet had to have had at least a billion. The formation really wasn't bad, and the guards were putting on a lot of pressure, but we just couldn't beat them. Especially when we were getting fouls called every time they would drive the lane. Still, it could have been worse. They've only scored 68 points or less twice this year before this game. Given all the free layups they got in transition, I think that's not terrible, but I obviously wish it had been better.

5. The officiating was pretty bad. It felt a lot like the SuperBowl. There were a lot of missed calls and a lot of questionable calls, but I really can't complain too much because they pretty much evened out. It was just frustrating seeing so many fouls called against us and so little against them, but I really think we were fouling more.

6. I really think this might be the best team I've seen play all season. The game was a little reminiscent of Providence early. They let you on early, and I think they're just feeling you out. Once they find your weaknesses, they exploit them the entire game, and don't let up. It's really impressive. The only other team I can see matching up even a little is UNC, and that's only because Hansbrough is similar to Monroe in that he can actually draw Thabeet away from the low post. I don't think Griffin is enough of an outside threat, and I really don't think the rest of OK is good enough to match up on defense. 7. We will bounce back. The good news is that we don't play again until Sunday, and that's at St. John's. They're not to be overlooked, but I expect to come out with intensity after this game. One loss in the Big East is not a surprise, and it was coming sooner or later. This was probably the best way to lose. 8. I still believe in ADMM. Maybe sit him out a few rounds and let him catch his breath. But I still think he'll pull through in the big games.

Sosa told to leave, turns it around

CARD_G6 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:35:37 -0000

Sosa told to leave, turns it around

So apparently Pitino told Sosa that he might need to transfer. Sosa asked for one more chance, and boy did he make it count. I hope he's good on his word and can keep it up the rest of the season. We all know what he's capable of now, let's see it continue.