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Arizona Cardinals quarterback John Skelton (19) is pressured by Seattle Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012, in Glendale, Ariz. Skelton left the game with an injured knee. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Arizona Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt has said good things about the way his offensive line protected the quarterback Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

"We protected very well; our guys did a great job," the coach told Arizona Sports 620's Doug and Wolf Monday. "Once again against a very good pass rushing team."

Whisenhunt pointed specifically to the play of left tackle D'Anthony Batiste, who was making his first career start at the position, and noted rookie Bobby Massie's performance at right tackle, too.

The line as a whole surrendered just one sack in the game.

"I thought that the line played well from protection," he said.

The fine folks at ProFootballFocus.com beg to differ.

In their analysis of how the line played, they note that the Cardinals have "an offense built on weak foundations."

In one-on-one situations, every single player, except perhaps for Daryn Colledge, appeared to be outmatched and they struggled even to make double team and combo blocks work correctly. On the edge, D'Anthony Batiste in particular was victimized by Chris Clemons.

The site's perspective paints an entirely different picture than the coach's, and it's worth wondering how that could be.

Whereas ProFootballFocus.com has little to gain from needlessly trashing the line's performance, the head coach would have reason to say good things about his group, whether they deserve it or not.

After all, as the site even notes, "it is difficult at this point to see how this offensive line can move forward without getting some unexpected performances from backups or some fortuitous pickups on the waiver wire."

Whether the Cardinals line was actually good like the coach said or terrible like the site thinks, the fact is the Cardinals are not likely to find any better options at this point.

So would there be anything to gain from saying they didn't (and maybe can't) get the job done? Probably not.

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    mesa mad man wrote...
    Coach
    Do you really expect the coach to say our line stinks and our players cant block? Of course not. In order to be successful, plays have to be designed to keep extra TE's on the field and have the RB play a substantial role in chipping the rushers after they blow past the lineman. Thats not saying its going to doom our franchise though. We have the weapons out there that they don't necessarily need an extra receiver down field.
  • Abuse
    AZSPORTFAN wrote...
    Offense
    The Cardinals offense far exceeded what most thought they wouild do. According to most experts the seahawks defense is dangerous and giving up just one sack against a so-called dangerous Seattle pass rush isn't to shabby in my book. Also the o-line was put together in the last week of the pre-season with a backup and a rookie which did pretty darn good. I seen other QB's get sacked more than that over the weekend. It's only the first game and they WILL get better.
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    AZSPORTFAN wrote...
    Cardinals @ Patriots
    The Cardinals need to establish the run so that Kolb can play out of the shotgun more often. I don't see this a problem as the Patriots defense isn't as good as the Seahawks. I'm sure Horton will be game planning against Brady's tightends which will make it more difficult for them to score. Put constant pressure on Brady which will get him out of his rhythm. The so-called experts has the Cardinals at no chance in hell to win ..... I see the Cardinals at 2-0 after this weekend.
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    FitzIsMyHero wrote...
    I dont think the line did horrible
    but they didnt do a good job running the ball. But we have to soon come to the conclusion that the O Line can only do so much and our QB's need to really step up and be men and so do our RB's. If the Cards can run the ball very well against NE, we have a very good chance.
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    hugUhbear wrote...
    ProFootball Focus obviously is wrong
    AZ has a good D-line and SEA ran on us. SEA's D-line killed our run game showing they are very talented. AZ started 2 ROOKIES and a new veteran(Snyder) out of 5 O-linemen last Sun. Batiste has never played a single game as an OT nor Massie. PLUS, Potter (another rookie) was the only OT back-up for the cards since Pat McQuistan was inactive for last Sun. With all of that we only gave up 1 single sack. Just another example of the huge bias in the media against the CArds.
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