Cardinals at Seahawks

Campbell stood up his guy and made a nice tackle

How did Clark get unaccounted for, he was 3pt

Huge play for Lynch…3 missed tackles

Jennifer just noticed how few players on SEA's O or AZ's D is wearing the pink…figures she sees it

Nice 1st down run by Lynch off tackle

FS at the one

WOW! Darnell Dockett knew what time the game was. Even Eric Byrnes got a hit every now and then

Branch came off the end to stop the play. AB blew by Locklear

DRC didn't even need to be off sides…he blocked that with his armpit

FG good…3-0 SEA

Just announced Okung is out for the game

Time for MAX Hallll!

Hightower is running well this year…good speed to the outside

Where in the world was Max throwing that? That was worse than a rookie pass

When I told you in the pre-season that Alan Branch was really playing well, I never thought he'd have a season like this. Great pressure.

Fumble!

Max? he was wide open.

I'm running on 3rd & 9. I don't trust Max right now.

Ohh…Max…relax…way too quick with that throw

To show how great Graham is, when have you ever seen him shank it like that?

A third play by Dockett!!...maybe the defense has come to play today

Who was that that came in unblocked…I think it was Clark…O'line play isn't communicating for SEA

C'mon Calais, pay attention to the little things

D-Wash! Great timing on the delayed blitz

Roberts what are you doing? Why did you fair catch that?

Really need the O-line to step up

No one stepped up but punts aren't bad

Great punt…that's what Ben Graham is supposed to be

Branch again! He's all over the place

Really getting pressure up the middle

Williams almost broke a 3 man tackle

End of 1 3-0 SEA

Good PR from Roberts…shocked he didn't drop it

Too much pressure getting to a rookie QB

I actually think Fitz should have caught that…should Hall throw his hands up in frustration?

Punt in the end zone…not good

SEA ball

Tackle Lynch! Calais you have to keep contain!

Billick has no idea what he's doing

Hagans has had a great year…that's how you string out a play

Calais was relentless…he was held on this sack and dbl-teamed

I got nervous on the Forsett draw

Roberts what are you doing? Either let that go in the end zone or go straight up the field and at least get to the 25 with no jukes…this guy isn't even good enough to be labeled a bust

I like how Hightower is carrying the football with two hands

Max's accuracy is erratic…you have to complete that pass to Doucet

Beautiful play design on the quick screen to hyphen

Hightower again…he looks great

Can I actually jinx a running back?

What a terrible fumble

SEA 3-0 7:30 2nd Q

I don't believe it. Alan Branch has played his best game as a pro and it's only been 24 minutes of the game .

Roberts?? Why is this guy on the team? I said from the first practice I saw at training camp he's not an NFL player. I think the Cards are going to lose and there's still 35 minutes left. AZ isn't good enough to overcome Andre Roberts

How did Porter miss that INT?

Great catch by Williams. It's amazing he's been brought back from the dead. Give a ton of credit to Carroll for having faith in him.

10-0 SEA 5:46 2nd Q

Hall to Fitz, finally

Brandon Keith did nothing. Why is he chipping when someone's blowing by him?

Nice catch by Roberts…I'd still cut him

Defense really looks good

TO AZ

Why not call your 2nd TO? I know it's 3rd& short but aren't you telling your defense you don't believe in them?

SEE…AZ lost 40 seconds and now your using your TO

Actually a decent return by Roberts…I'd still cut him

AZ ball 1 TO 10-0 SEA :42 sec

Hall's accuracy is just not there…poor pass to Hightower

I don't like to pass it on the first play. SEA has all three TO's. Run it first and see how far you get to determine whether you have a realistic chance for a FG. If you get stuffed, it makes them use TO's

Great catch by Roberts…I'd still cut him…wait, they ruled it incomplete

AZ punt…with holding call that will end the half

Hasselbeck took a knee

End of half

10-0 SEA

2nd H

Sack—please don't tell me that play was really designed for Spach to be set-up 1-on-1 with a LB in pass protect

Max grabbed his facemask but still looked for the ball

SEA ball 10-0 14:06

Big time sack…that might force them to kick a FG

It did

13-0 SEA 12:11

Kicked kick-off!

I don't believe it. I love Jason Wright but this can't happen.

These teams are so bad compared to the rest of football.

SEA ball

Another incredible stick by the defense

FG good…never mind…hold

FG good…never mind…hold on the same guy

Now it's good 16-0

WOW! Fitz is alive

Wells running hard

More Wells

More Wells

I think Beanie's the new game plan…3 straight runs for TD

They should have gone for 2. It's not like they can score points at will. Not going for two is saying you can drive twice on SEA. It's already been proven they can't so why not go for two?

Big play to Forsett…hit someone DRC

Nice play by RJ…I really like Johnson…it's good to see him play well

FG good…unreal DRC is off-side again

1st down SEA

It's time to announce there are 3 wild card teams in the NFC. No division winner from the West gets to go.

Why is Strahan on? Is there any bigger sign FOX knows how back Billick and Myers are so they have to bring in an interview?

Branch just got a QB hit…he's been unbelievable Hey DRC just did something right.

Defense has been amazing

19-7 SEA

Great return by hyphen…boy AZ needed that

DA with touch to Roberts…what was more unbelievable, a good pass from DA or Roberts actually catching the ball

Huge 3rd & goal play

Doucet dropped it but I don't think he was going to get in

FG is good 19-10 SEA 14:48 4th Q

Not the time for a good KOR

Good Lynch run…defense needs a turnover…it's unfair to ask because they've played great but it's the only way AZ wins

Calais was perfect…he didn't have contain there so he attacked down the line and made the play

Someone text me the first time DRC makes a big hit tackle

2nd play in a row they're going right at DRC

Calais missed another tackle…should have been a PF on Dockett—he dropped his head into Lynch's helmet as the whistles were blowing

Don't know why that line is there…the computer keeps putting it there and I can't get rid of it

Just missed that Williams catch trying to screw with Microsoft word

Great move by Lynch to stay in bounds…I never would have thought Lynch could do something intelligent but he did

Delay of game

A-DUB…you can't drop that pick

Another red zone stuff by the defense

I'd go for this. A TD ends the game…a FG doesn't do much

Never mind…not doing it after the delay of game

FG SEA…22-10 7:28 4th Q

Was hoping for a big return and didn't get it

I love the Burger King guy

Wasn't Keith supposed to at least bump Babineaux?

I know it was a screen but you have to at least pretend to stop the rush.

DA is not a running QB and Levi makes him one

Great call on the PF…I'm tired of the soccer flop coming to other sports

Hey camera man…move the camera as the pass is thrown

Right through Doucet's hands…I know it wasn't well thrown but you have to catch that pass

Amazing Hightower got any yards on that screen…terribly blocked

I agree with going for it on the 4th down

DA threw it scared…he had all three receivers open but threw it early and the O-Line was terrible as it has been all game

SEA ball 22-10 5:43 in 4th

Toler fell on his back…I'm shocked they threw it there…why not eat clock?

That line is back…it shows up at the end of every page

Nice PF Dockett…since you haven't done anything in 2 hrs you had to show us you're still playing

Good containment Porter…he's been so over-rated…great playcall on the Hassellbeck boot

Holding penalty was a good call

D-Wash was very aggressive on that stuff

Another play by D-Wash

They said Hall was replaced due to a blow to the head but he was on the sideline listening to the play calls in his helmet

Any chance to win they must hold on 3rd & 12

They didn't. Branch wasn't in. Toler missed a tackle…that was ball game

Good decision to go for it. I would have thrown it there. You don't want a FG block ret for TD so you go. Once you're going for it, why not score?

Komar got nailed

Lennon just looked pissed

Komar got nailed again

Ball game

22-10 loss

The Week 1 standings are out for the BCS.

In case you don't know from the things I've said on air. I want a playoff in college football but I don't have a problem with the BCS formula. I just don't want it used to narrow the field from 120 to two.

I have yet to hear any "pro current system" argument that I can't destroy on logical grounds. Of course there's one argument I can't beat and that is anyone saying they like the current system and they don't want it changed. Other than that, I'm still waiting for someone to convince me to give up my dream for a college football playoff.

I put before you the Doug Franz College Football Playoff. Every week the BCS rankings will change, therefore changing the teams making the playoff. Check in each week and see how things have changed. At the end of the season, it's up to you to pick the winners of each game and set in motion the championship challenge.

If you want an explanation for the way my formula works, check the bottom of the blog.

Here's the playoff pairings if the regular season ended today.

16) West Virginia @ 1) Oklahoma

15) Florida St @ 2) Oregon

14) Oklahoma St @ 3) Boise St

13) Wisconsin @ 4) Auburn

12) Stanford @ 5) TCU

11) Mizzou @ 6) LSU

10) Ohio St @ 7) Michigan St

9) Utah @ 8) Alabama

OBSERVATIONS:

I'm sure someone will react to conference teams meeting in the 7/10 game but guess what? They won't meet during the regular season so why not in the post-season?

All those years Wisconsin and Auburn are fighting the bigger teams in their conference and now they meet to see who advances to the second round.

Do you have any idea how often we'd here Wolf tell his story of WVU winning in Norman while he played during the 1950's?

Tell me this playoff game wouldn't be huge: Alabama @ Oklahoma. That's a second round game.

Yes, that's right Utah fans. Your fun acting like the Sugar Bowl win was something to brag about would come to an abrupt end in the first round of the DFCFP.

I can't believe how far some heavyweights have fallen. UGa=71; Tenn=77; Penn St.=63.

I never thought I'd put together a 16-team playoff with Florida, Texas, and USC all uninvited.

CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN:

By ranking every team, you get a true representation of the best conference by simply taking the average BCS rank of every team in the conference. This playoff system makes every college football game in the country vital because it rewards teams and conferences alike.

Here's the ranking of the conferences after Week 6 of the BCS and the average BCS rank of the teams in the conference.

1) Big 12: 33.25
2) Pac-10: 36.3
3) SEC: 39.5
4) Big 10: 41.09
5) MWC: 57.78
6) ACC: 58.67
7) WAC: 64.67
8) Big East: 67
9) C-USA: 77.75
10) MAC: 91.69
11) Sun Belt: 104.22

CONFERENCE OBSERVATIONS:

I never imagined the SEC wouldn't be number one. The fact that it's number three is shocking.

Adding Colorado only causes a small drop for the Pac-10 but Utah is 9th in the BCS and that might vault the Pac-10 to the top conference in the country.

Really hurt my MAC almost made the playoff last year and now they're fighting the Sun Belt to avoid the cellar.

The Big East is so bad it barely makes the playoff. This also shows you how screwed up the BCS is. Why does the Big East get an automatic bid into the BCS just to get a payout other conferences don't get? Look how close the WAC is to catching the ACC yet both the ACC and Big East will pocket $14 million a piece in the BCS.

The SEC West alone would come in at a 22.33 rank. It's amazing that the average team in any one division is a top 25 team in BCS rank.

PLAYOFF EXPLANATION:

The magic of the DFCFP is how it highlights the regular season more than any other system. Here's the process for coming up with the teams for the playoff.

1) Rank all D-1 (FBS) teams 1-120 (from Oklahoma to Akron)
2) Rank all the conferences 1-11 based on the average BCS rank of the teams in the conference.
3) Reward the first place team in the top eight conferences with an automatic bid.
4) Independents — this means you Notre Dame — get no special treatment. If you're not in a conference, earn a wild card bid or join a conference.
5) Select eight wild-card teams based on BCS rank excluding those already selected with an automatic bid.
6) Rank the 16 teams based on BCS rank with no regard to status as an automatic qualifier or wild-card entry.
7) First two rounds are at the home of the better seed.
8) Final Four and Championship game are played at a rotation among Fiesta, Cotton, Sugar, Rose.

I'm aware that after the first two rounds there are three games left at neutral sites with four bowl game hosts. This is leverage in case the Rose wants to stick to tradition. If they duck out I've got three games and three bowls. If the Rose does want to stay involved, there would be a new bowl game created for the two teams that just missed out on the playoff. This week would be Iowa v Nebraska.

I give you the extra bowl game just to prove that the bowls don't have to die. Iowa v Nebraska is still a great college football game with great fans. We wouldn't have 35 bowl games anymore — sorry Pinstripe Bowl — but some of the big ones with tradition don't have to go anywhere. If you're an ASU fan are you saying you wouldn't go watch the Sun Devils against the Longhorns in a Holiday Bowl just because it wasn't in the playoff?

You'd still get the benefit of extra practices to prepare for your bowl game. Players would still get to enjoy the goodies they receive for participating. As for the fans, we get a real champion.

Feel free to ask me any questions or give me your opinions and I'll put it in the mailbag: doug@ktar.com

This poll seems to get tougher every week. I call it "The Triangle."

BAL wins @NYJ and the Jets beat NE and the Pats beat BAL.

SD embarrasses AZ but the Cards win in STL where the Chargers can't win.

What do I do with any NFC North team?

Are the Titans good?

Should I buy what the Giants are selling?

I usually use last week's poll as a guide but that's getting harder and harder when teams like NO lose to undrafted free agent QBs then crush their next opponent.

Here's week 7:

AZ gets ball 1st here comes the Max Hall era

Great start for LSH…I'm already 0-for-1 in decision making because I thought he should have taken a knee

There were 10 guys in the box for the first run and it went no where

He was keyed on Fitz through the whole route…1st pick was easy

0-0 12:56 Saints ball

I was hoping we solved the whole TE problem

WOW…haven't seen D-Wash since the pre-season

Great play by Rhodes to stop Shockey on the slant…that's a Brees bread/butter play

3-0 NO…9:49

I don't think AZ will be able to run until Max proves he can't beat them…but I'd keep running it anyway

What was that running play? Levi went inside and it was Komar v the DE who then left him

ROBERTS JUST CAUGHT THE FOOTBALL

Dropped passes will kill Hall

What was that Max? when you can run…run!

Bad punt

3-0 NO…7:02

Branch is in very early…he just ran over the LT and hit Brees

False start or off-sides…it was off-sides and the refs got it right…1st down

Johnson with some early PT as well…good hit on Colston

Great penetration from Branch…he's playing out of his mind this quarter

DRC had no idea what he was doing on the sideline pass to Colston

There's no LB's closing the gap on the defense's right side

I don't think I've ever said this but Michael Adams just stopped a TD

Do you think the defense knows where the TE lines up?

10-0 1:30

They have to take advantage of another great LSH run back

Nice 8 yard gain

End of 1st 10-0 NO

Wells has to make that first man miss

Wells should have taken the 4th down play to the house…good call to go for it with the defense playing so poorly

OUCH…Hall missed a wide open Fitz as the CB handed him off to the FS and the FS wasn't there

Great decision by Whiz…he saw the same thing and went back to Fitz…25 yd gain

Wells in the "I" and gets 5

I don't know if Max has the authority to check out of a play but he just handed off into a run blitz when Williams had single coverage

Sack's not on Max…how do you design an offensive play where you don't block the DE? That wasn't a blitz. Either that was horrific play design or Levi Brown needs to be benched. Good decision for Max to eat it.

37 yd FG 10-3 NO 11:15 2nd Q

Why does Rhodes clap after a missed tackle…should be 2nd and 15 instead of 2nd and 12

Next play was an 11 yrd gain to Colston…instead of 3rd & 4 it's 3rd & 1

Run up the middle for a first down…I guess Rhodes isn't clapping

How did the umpire stare down that hold and not call it?...the referee threw it from the other side of the field

Risky challenge when NO was punting anyway…he must be absolutely sure or worried about a fake

Good challenge…got 12 yards back

Good call on the hold…anyone notice Roberts with no drops

10-3 7:16 1st H

Nice swing pass to Komar to pick up 5…Fitz is just a great football player and not just receiver as he's blocking on the play

More Wells…less Hightower not an opinion, that's what's happening

Here comes Hightower…he saves Max on the blitz and Hall throws a perfect back-shoulder to Fitz for 26 yds

Saints are giving no safety to help to anyone except Fitz when Wells is in the game

PATRICK! Oh Max, don't force to Larry…he didn't recognize the safety on the bunch set to the left. Patrick had single coverage v a LB with the LB on the line-of-scrimmage…that could have been 6

Max is staring down Fitz but Fitz is making the catches anyway

NO is reading play-action vs run very well…Wells only got 1

Max got crunched…he's not recognizing the coverage rolling to Fitz…the other side of the field is wide open

3rd & 20 play really hurt Hightower…he chipped instead of seeing blitz in the face of Hall…he's in because he's great in blitz pick up…if he misses, why play him?

Downed at the 1 by Adams

10-3 NO 3:26

PICK…tipped by B-rob and the receiver…good catch by Lenon

Wells stuffed

MAX! NO! run the ball…there's nothing there

Max just got a rude welcoming to the NFL…he's not big enough to go head first

Levi's TD stands because anyone can advance a fumble (http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/fumble) before the 2-minute warning as long as it isn't 4th down…so it was 3rd and goal with 2:19 left in first half…it barely counts

10-10 2:19 left

Let's see if defense gives up a FG…I say yes

Nice gain

How do Toler and Rhodes get beat deep middle?

That route to Colston opened up, not often Brees is off…good recognition by Johnson to leave his man and get to Colston

Great defense on the screen

32 yd FG 13-10 NO 1:10 left

Good short KO…Saints showing LSH respect

DA for Max

Quick decision to Williams

What kind of a throw is that? That's high school. You'll get your receivers killed with high throws like that

Now a delay of game?

Good decision to go with the draw…you can't trust DA right now

13-10 H

Hagans looked really fast on the sack

Great play call and even better play by Dockett…an underneath WR screen when the defense is back-pedaling on 3rd and 16 but Dockett read it and didn't keep going upfield

3 & out

13-10 NO 13:21 3rd Q

I love it when they go to Ben…he's so tough to cover

Same fumble rule…Max has to keep that close to his body…good hustle by Fanaca

Great screen to Ben…Max saw the blitz coming and sucked it in and then threw it over the top

I love Tim but that was a poor choice

44 yd FG 13-13 9:04 3rd Q

Nice gain on 1st down…NO has gone back to running the ball

Terrible play by Haggans, he really got sucked in and lost the corner

Great play by DRC but the off-sides was unacceptable…wait they called FS? Then how did the play happen if there was a FS?

Bad defensive design…they had Lenon fake a blitz and then come back and find the receiver…there's no way he can find the ball on that with Brees @ QB

D-Line getting pushed around on this drive

Branch should have been under more control and missed a 3 yd loss that turned into an 8 yd gain…but I'm not going to go nuts if AB plays out-of-control, that's a good thing

Important to hold them to three since you let them march down the field

Great coverage on 1st & G…no pressure on Brees but no one was open

T.O. NO…still 13-13 3:00 in 3rd Q

NOW I'M TAKING MORE HEAT FOR GETTING KNOCKED OUT OF THE KNOCK-OUT POOL…GUTLESS PERFORMANCE FROM CINCINNATI…YOU JUST LOST TO CLE AND YOU CAN'T BRING IT AGAINST TB @HOME?

Betts v Branch and AB wins…he's playing out of his mind

ANOTHER TO! GREAT CROWD, GREAT COACHING, POOR NO EXECUTION

Amazing job picking up the draw by Porter…too bad it doesn't matter because of the FS

Great tackle by Michael Adams…anyone pick Adams and Branch as the best defensive players of the game?

MISSED FG 13-13 1:27 3rd Q

Who took over Roberts' body?

End of 3rd

Nice play Max…stared down Fitz but then threw in the cleared out area to Wells

The throw of his life…Max had such a tight window for that throw to Fitz…that's exactly what it's meant when you hear analysts say throw it to where you want your receiver to get open and not when he's open

Another great throw because he threw it out-of-bounds, he's learning while we watch…very intelligent crowd as they cheered the throw away

29 yd FG 16-13 AZ 11:39 4th Q

Very loud for just 1st down…great crowd today

Good speed from D-Wash in coverage -1 on the play

IMPOSSIBLE! FUMBLE REC FOR TD RHODES FOR 6

The Spanish radio guys are going nuts

23-13 AZ

3rd & 6 go draw and go for it on fourth down

Nope, over the middle 1st down

TOLER INT!

Scary decision to go underneath the route to pick that off, if Toler knew he could do that since AZ had a 10 point lead, that was brilliant but if it was a one-possession lead

3 & out

Not a good decision on 3rd down. Wells got 9 yds on 2 carries. Give it to him again. Let your O-line win the game for you or at least show confidence in them. The whole possession only took 1 min off the clock

23-13 AZ 5:17

Saints get nothing

Peyton took a long time on fourth down to decide what he wanted to do

Wells nothing on 1st down

Don't like the incomplete passes. Keep running the ball. In to offensive possessions NO has never had to use their T.O.

Another great punt

23-13 AZ 3:25

Good route running by Moore and found the sideline

Johnson got juked by a heavy TE

Great recovery by DRC on the near miss pick

Branch got mugged. I don't care that it's 4th Q, that has to be called

2nd down…Adams hand fighting with Colston…lucky no flag

3rd down…Meachum tackled by DRC, best tackle I've ever seen from him

Got to get that play off before 2 min warning. Bad communication between Brees and Goodwin

Didn't see the PF on NO but the holding on Adams was a good call

Great twist on the inside and A-Dub was coming but a great pass from Brees…terrible play from Adams, sad because he's played great all day until the last two plays

TD to Meachum, just a beautiful football play

23-20 AZ 1:49 4th Q

On-side kick and NO was off-side…Fitz recovers

OK…you'll need to decide what to do on 4th down….if you don't get a first down there will be around 13 seconds left on 4th down

1 yard on 1st down

0 on 2nd down

NO! NO! NO!...you can't stop the clock there…you must run the football…this isn't the time to be cute

Terrible clock management…you snapped it to the punter with 5 seconds on the clock, then downed the ball with 25 seconds left and you could have let the ball bounce around for another 9 seconds

DRC with the pick

Cards win!

30-20

Sometimes it's easy to forget how much fun people are.

Other than Washington State last year, I've never experienced a Sun Devil victory on the road. Since that was such an easily expected win, Saturday was so much more exciting.

The coaches are nicer. The players are more fun. The people on the plane clap at anything.

You've always heard the phrase "it's tough to win on the road." After traveling with ASU for two years, I understand that phrase a little more. Everything's different and you're completely out of your element.

It was 85 degrees when we left Phoenix. I saw 2 clouds. It was 64 when we landed in Seattle. I saw no blue.

After lunch on Saturday I went back to my room and my key didn't work. I went to the lobby and there were some players there. They were locked out of their rooms. The hotel had put the wrong check-out times on our room keys.

We leave the hotel for the game and it's a downpour. The equipment guys spend every moment trying to keep things dry. Nothing seems normal. There's a list of distractions.

Despite the distractions, ASU won on the road. Sure, they own UW at Husky Stadium but I think historical stats in college football can be over-rated unless it pertains directly to a certain head coach.

Since players and coaches change so much in college football, I don't care how many times ASU has won in Seattle in a row. It's a series of "one-game winning streaks" strung together and not consecutive wins because each one is different. Every two years the leadership is completely different as well as the young players who need to make the difference.

Give a lot of credit for ASU's 24-14 win to Steven Threet. He dramatically lowered his interceptions (he threw one but it was tipped). He went through his progressions much faster against UW.

Jeff Van Raaphorst said in the pre-game show that Threet stopped moving his head quickly through his progressions and started locking on to receivers in the past few games. I didn't see any of that in this game. His decision-making went much faster.

When you see UW offensive totals it will be hard for you to believe this but ASU's defense had a great game. The penalties were considerably less. The pressure on Locker was intense but not reckless. There were a lot of missed tackles by individuals but the entire defense kept coming in waves to gang tackle so missed tackles at least slowed down the ball carrier for someone else to come in and clean it up.

There were two things that really jumped out at me in ASU's win and they both point right at Dennis Erickson.

Trick plays are run for two reasons: a coach believes he lacks the talent to win straight-up or film study has revealed a flaw in your opponent. Erickson ran zero trick plays. Sarkisian ran two. The RB option pass was almost intercepted. UW's fake field goal was stuffed nine yards shy of a first down.

Dennis Erickson believed his guys could get it done. The UW coaching staff felt like they had to do something special to win. If UW ran those trick plays because they believed they had found a flaw, the coaches for ASU cleared up those opportunities. That's great coaching and great anticipation by the players.

The obvious take away from this game is Burfict. Benched for the whole first quarter and for a small time in the third, Vontaze didn't sulk. From my sideline vantage point, it appeared he got the message.

He was always as close as he could get to the field while his defensive teammates were on the field. When LB's came off the field, he stopped them and they talked about what each one saw. He applied that knowledge and had a solid game.

Burfict was targeted many times by UW on third downs. It was clearly in the Husky game plan to earn some first downs through penalty. Whenever a lineman or TE came near Burfict, they would go at his knees and then trash talk about it. Each time Burfict ran back to the huddle or came to the bench without engaging the instigator. Only a player who cares about his teammates and respects his coaches would get it that fast.

Dennis Erickson sent a clear message to Burfict. The message was received for this week.

There's a lot of hard-working kids on this team. It was cool to walk under the stadium through the tunnel that connects the field to the basketball arena with the ASU players. It's been awhile since I got to see them smile, dance, and simply enjoy the moment.

Cal represents a much different set of problems, but let's worry about that next week. Enjoy the win over the bye weekend and get ready for the Bears later.

GO DEVILS!

Doug's NFL Power Poll for Week 5 sees four teams at the top that have played each other and played each other tough. The top NFC West team is at 24.

First quarter

Can't believe Bengals lost…that's atrocious

Clearly trying to establish Fitz early

Don't underestimate the power of Hightower…he's running so hard the defense will be softened up for Wells

I know why the ref threw the flag on the hold but I think you have to let that go. It was a hold though I just thought it was irrelevant to the play

What happened on the INT? Terrible pass but what was Fitz doing?

SD ball 9:30 in the 1st

Why does Sam Rosen have a job? He's always either wrong or boring.

Here's the problem with the previous hold call. There's a hold on a SD WR on the screen pass that wasn't called. I don't think it should have drawn a flag but if you're establishing the hold early, how does that get let go?

If you're putting 8 in the box, can someone follow Gates across the formation?

Horrible start for the defense. D-line being completely controlled by SD O-line.

TD SD RIVERS TO GATES 7-0

It's so easy to defend SD. Find Gates and cover him wherever he goes. AZ trying a different philosophy.

A-Dub got burnt bad. He can't handle Gates in single coverage

Huge 3rd down conversion to Fitz…could go a long way for this game

How do you miss Williams? Terrible pass. Will was running a slant so why did DA throw it to the post?

Oooh…Hightower missed a block in pass protect leading to a sack…I can't remember seeing him do that before

SD ball 1:09 in 1st

Look at that, Kevin Spenser getting some TV love

I thought Joey Porter was an aggressive attacking player yet he hangs back and gets eaten alive for a first down to a FB

Second quarter

Great kick out on Porter, he's very easy to move today

Hey…off-sides on Porter…so he can't tackle, he can't stand up his blocker, and now he draws a penalty

FUMBLE!...great hit by Toler…nervous anticipation while we wait for the refs

Boy did AZ need this

7-7 abt 13min to go

Let me say this again in case I'm not good at these notes…A-dub can not cover Gates in single coverage

Didn't this drive just start?

How are they at the 5 already?

SD TD

SD is putting on a clinic. Every defender gets blocked or over-pursues. The defense is atrocious

14-7 SD

Wells running over people

Great play by Cooper…ran through two blocks to make the tackle on Wells…why can't someone on our defense do that

Terrible drop by my boy Williams

Yes Keith got blown by but that's on DA…he's telegraphing the snap count

Bad punt

7:44 in 1st half 14-7 TD

Let's see if the defense can figure out who Gates is

Right now Bill Davis can't match up with Norv Turner

How come all these RB's we've never heard of become famous against AZ?

Good holding call…you have to call a double arm bar

You won't believe this but Gates got open to set-up 3rd and 1

SD TD…I'm obviously asking too much for someone to cover Gates…when during the week did someone for AZ think, "let's have Paris cover Gates"

21-7 SD 3:30 1stH

Pick 6

Are you not going to look to find the MLB before you make that throw?

28-7 SD 2:30 1st H

I guess it's time for the future

I was actually impressed Max knew the 2 minute warning was approaching. That shows great awareness for any QB coming off the bench, let alone a rookie who's experiencing the first regular season 2 minute warning.

Max looks completely in charge.

Sendlein has had a great season so I'll give him a break on that sack but it was a bad sack to give up Max must throw the ball there. He can't take the second sack. You've got to stop the clock with an incomplete pass.

Great throw from Max great catch from Williams.

4th & 2

Check out the QB meeting. It was CKW Hall and Skelton. Where was DA?

SD TO

I wouldn't have went for that. Rookie QB and 2 rookie WR's. You're giving too much field position up to an offense that can easily score.

The only reason you go for that is to see how Hall can handle it.

Terrible decision by SD. How does Turner not take advantage of a chance to get 3 pts. You have one TO and the AZ defense has done nothing against you all game. Missed opportunity

28-7

Third quarter

Another big play given up by the defense on FB screen

Early TO from Rivers

Really DRC? You can't cover Malcolm Floyd? 30 yard gain

Great tackle from Toler. He's missed some assignments but he hasn't missed any tackles

Need to hold SD to a FG if you're going to win

Never mind…no pressure on the QB and another catch by Floyd

No gain but another off-sides on AZ

There's still 25 minutes left in the game and SD is at 325y of O

Lenon didn't make the tackle but pushed the blocks into Sproles

Watson in the game…Lenon saved a TD with the knockdown

Middle is wide open on 3rd & 3…rarely does Rivers not check into a better play but he really failed on that check

WOW. Missed FG, went right over the top of the upright…gotta give the D credit

6 sacks for SD defense…no pressure on Rivers for AZ defense

3 and out

28-7 SD 7:30 in 3rd

Amazing…Rosen just said "wide-open Gates"

Another off-sides

Toler left his area and came on the delay…that had to be his own decision…great play by a young player

FG is good 31-7 SD

Thought LSH was going to break that one

I expected more on special teams

O-line is getting embarrassed

Don't believe JAX is winning

Wells and Fanaca combine for Max's fumble. That's not on Max at all

1st play TD

A-dub's worst game

38-7 SD 1:31

It's amazing how bad this division is

Great straight arm from Will

Levi Brown is a complete waste of time

What's Rosen talking about? Going back to DA? The guy is clueless. The only reason you put DA back in is to get Fitz out. If you want to protect Fitz, put DA back in so he gets the crap beat out of him. The best decision is to allow Fitz and Hall to work together.

Fourth quarter

I can't believe how wrong I was about this defense.

Great tackle by DRC even though Rosen gave the credit to Toler

7 catches for Gates for 144 yards…guess AZ didn't know much about him since he's only been in the league for 8 years

Terrible over-pursuit by Calais, big gain by another get to know you RB

Branch stood up two guys

Great hit by Johnson

Wish I was watching that JAX/IND game

FG good 41-7 SD

Another average kick return

I know it's risky but you've got to go deep or run the football. SD is jumping every route

Why even have a RT if he's not going to do anything?

So AZ forced SD to make a change @ QB too

Why can't Branch keep his hat on?

Hey…SD made a mistake…and so did Rosen…that's the LT since he's to the left of the QB, not the RT

CHARGERS PUNT! CHARGERS PUNT! WITH 7:33 TO GO

Good pass up the seam…Max even looked off the safety

Better flow in this possession…even though this game was a joke, these reps are important

Great block by Patrick to create space for Hightower and the 1st down

Lutui got blown up

Did AZ scout Phillips this week?

Got a throw that away Max…this isn't BYU…you're not out running Phillips

GOAL! GOAL! GOAL!

FG—Rosen said it was a big kick…it's 41-10 but that was a big kick

Victory formation

Going to be a tough week

The mistakes in the Oregon State game were over-whelming. You can go down the list and name almost every member of the ASU program and find a game-costing decision that was inexcusable.

The problem is so basic. CATCH THE FOOTBALL! Two touchdowns were dropped against Oregon State. Two third down conversions were dropped. One third down conversion won't go down as a drop but Kerry Taylor didn't look for the ball along the sideline and was very lazy with his feet and caught the ball with his toes on the chalk.

It's hard for me to judge the other major errors I saw in Corvallis when so many of them are fixed just by catching the ball. Take everything I say through rest of the blog with a grain of salt because it ranks so far below receivers simply catching the football.

Someone please donate the money to buy the team a jugs machine so the receivers can just stand there and catch.

Other mistakes that cost the game:

D-LINE: How does an offense that comes in 113th in the nation in total offense rack up over 400 yards? I must recant on how bullish I was at the beginning of the season. ASU's defense is one of the most over-rated elements of the game in all of college football.

From the sideline it looked like there should have been quite a few more holding flags thrown on the Oregon State O-Line. However, the refs were very consistent and called very few holding penalties throughout the game.

The D-Line did nothing in this game. RB Rodgers had some big holes in the middle. QB Katz had all day to throw. Sure there were open receivers but you can't leave your DB's hanging out to dry that long.

COACHING: How about a blitz? Yes, your D-Line should have done more. Yes, you don't have a secondary good enough to blitz like Rex Ryan. Yet, at some point, you have to accept the fact that their O-Line came to play and your front wall didn't. There was not enough done schematically to make a sophomore QB feel uncomfortable.

At the end of the first half, why are you punting the ball to one of the best punt return teams in the nation? That punt has to go to the sideline. Sure, Mike Riley pulled a brilliant punt return reverse. I understand sometimes you have to nod your head to great coaching but this isn't one of those times. ASU should never have given OSU the chance to return the kick. At the end of the game OSU punted it to the sideline and forced ASU to go 85 yards. Their coaching staff got it right, ASU's did not.

The 4th quarter time out with the clock stopped before Oregon State punted was horrible. It cost ASU 40 seconds of possession time when they could have stopped the clock on OSU's last possession.

How do you not on-side kick after the last ASU TD? Do not take this as a decision that cost ASU the game. The chances of recovering an on-side kick are much smaller than fans realize.

I have no idea if ASU would have got the ball back. I do know one thing, though. Kicking it deep ends the game. Your defense has been horrible. You're kicking to one of the best return teams in the country. They have one of the best RB's in the country to run out the clock and you have only one TO left. You have no chance to win the game once you kick it deep.

QB: This was Stephen's worst game as a Devil. I understand what happened against Oregon. He was pressing and running for his life. He tried to make miracle plays against a top 5 team and it just didn't work.

There was no excuse in this game. I counted 5 of the 11 defenders on the field around one ASU receiver on the red zone INT. He has to throw the ball to Dennis Erickson before taking a sack in the two minute drill.

He has to learn that dropped passes and poor protection are not his fault. He can not change his game and try to be a hero just because others aren't doing their job.

This offense is predicated on taking what the defense gives you. Then you take advantage of mental mistakes caused by the quick pace of the offense. There is no pace when you're constantly turning the ball over or dropping passes.

O-Line: There is not Pac-10 quality talent on this O-line. Mazzone's offense is being completely wasted.

LB's: Burfict really is as good as advertised. The problem is he's always running off the field with small injuries or getting into someone's face on the other team. At some point someone on this coaching staff has to have the onions to stand up to him and lay down the law. Let him know the next PF he receives will put him on the bench the rest of the quarter.

There's a lot more I could go into but let's face it, if the receivers start catching the football, a lot of these points are moot. There's also the fact the bus just pulled up to the plane and I'm getting ready to come home.

Why did the game seem like Groundhog Day to me? The defense makes a huge stop. Threet leads the team downfield in dominating fashion to the red zone. Turnover! I felt like the Devils could have put up 28 points in the 4th last night, not zero. So frustrating...

Jarrod

Usually when someone says "choke," it's an attack on their mental strength. I hope I can say that word without someone thinking I'm blaming Threet. Most of the INT's were his fault but I think it was a young kid pressing.

There's good desperation and bad. He was too desperate to make a play. ASU needed to score but they didn't need to take the unnecessary risks he was taking. He'll learn because he has the talent.

Was it me or was that second half the longest most excruciating half of football in a long long time. I will probably have nightmares about that half for the next year or two. And I am an Oregon fan...

Scott

I thought the first quarter was longer than the whole 2nd half.

Give the Raiders some respect now.

Gabe (Mesa)

Why? Because they lost to an average football team? Because AZ dropped 5 potential INT's? Because they were handed a gift twice on punt coverage and still couldn't win?

This just in: a fish rots from the head.

The Cardinals may want to consider picking up the tab for Sabastian Janikowski's retirement party, which I'm sure will be scheduled for next weekend.

A win is a win, but this was ugly.

Joe

This division is so bad that every win is gold in your hand. Don't apologize for how you win. Don't worry about where this puts you in the BCS polls. Just win and prepare for next week.

Hey guys,

I am officially hitting the "worried" button. Not panic, but worried. The Cards should be 0-3, yet they are somehow 2-1. On one hand I am thankful they play in the NFC Worst, but on the other hand, I am worried about simply being satisfied with a division championship. Anderson is horrible. And NO, I do not think Leinart is/was the answer, so to all my fellow Cards fans, please stop saying he is. The offense looks slow, uninterested, unmotivated, and uncoordinated. But, I will take 2-1 and hope they start gelling.

Jarrod

Worried about what? Have AZ fans become so accustomed to winning that division championships are taken for granted?

If you win the division, you get a home playoff game. CKW is 3-0 in home playoff games. Who knows where the offense will be at that point.

I also don't think DA is horrible. Look around the league and remove the obvious QB studs. Every team is looking for a franchise QB. AZ is no different. The catch is AZ can win this division with Wolf at QB so let's give DA time because we can.

It's time to be worried in any other division. In the NFC West, everything will be fine.

You know what I enjoyed most about the Niners loss to KC? Not that we are another game ahead of them in the division, but that all the "experts" including Mike and Mike are looking dumber and dumber.

I know that with the poor quarterback play and poor defensive play we have no chance of making any noise in the playoffs, I get more excited this year with a 49ers loss than a Cardinals win.

By the way - Does Seattle have a real shot at winning the division? They haven't looked bad. Maybe "Tell the Truth Tuesdays" is really working for them!

Aaron

Don't say "no chance" because it's early. Obviously, if they play like this they're out in the first round to NO or ATL. Look at the regular season as a bunch of pre-season games to get ready for the post-season. Yes, I have that much confidence in AZ. Granted, my confidence doesn't really lie in the Cards as much as someone has to win the division and the other three teams are awful.

Everyone in the West has a shot because the division is awful but I don't see how they'll play consistent enough football to get to 10 wins.

Doug,

You said that with the 49ers going into Atlanta, they may be 0-4… They have the eagles the week after that. They may be looking at 0-5.

Chris in Phoenix

Your point is completely legit but SF has a chance in that game. Not because of anything they do but because of the emotional game the week before for PHI. The return of McNabb and a divisional game in Philly might take a lot out of the Eagles.

How many bad games does the defense have to play before we can say the defense is NOT that good!

Maurice

3 more. SD and NO could tear up good defenses so I'll give them a little bit of room but if they can't clean it up after the bye week, then I'm with you.

Is there still panic regarding the Cardinals? They played a poor game against a supposed ‘horrific organization' and narrowly escaped with a victory.

Christopher

Why was there panic to begin with? It's the NFC West. We should panic if the commissioner comes out and says, "The NFL has decided we'll take 3 Wild Card teams in the NFC and the West has lost their right to send a division champion." Someone has to win the division.

Have you really seen something from the other three division teams that make you fear them?

Doug,

To say the Cardinals were lucky to win the Raiders game would probably go down as the understatement of the year. San Diego and the Saints are not the Rams or the Raiders. They are more like the Falcons and we all saw what happened there.

The Cardinals can not stop the run. Where is this defense that was supposed to be the "strength" of the team?

Pass protection - we don't have any! But, that isn't why DA can't hit Fitz or just about any other receiver - he has no touch! Every announcer and commentator said the same thing - you throw the ball at Fitz because he's the best in the NFL at fighting for the ball and coming down with it. DA constantly over-throws him. And what the h__l were those two shuttle passes. It looked liked they were the first ones he has ever thrown.

Why aren't we running the ball? The play action worked and the Cards moved the ball. I don't understand.

Penalties and bone-head plays. Wolf can say what he will but those two punt muffs were player errors cause by players not focusing on what they were doing, same with the stupid penalties.

The Cards are in real trouble and its going to take a lot more than a little "clean up" to make it right. This isn't "rough edges" - it's broken glass and splinters!

Right now - the Cards will be doing great to win 5 or 6 games - and right now I only see one more win for sure. My monies on Seattle.

This is bad and Wolf should stop trying to sugar coat it!

Ray

What started out as a very intelligent e-mail really went up in flames quickly.

OAK was lucky AZ dropped 5 INT's. If Janikowski makes the kick, OAK would have been lucky to win that game too. Neither team deserved to win so let's not worry about that.

Everything else in the e-mail is solid except the end. 5 or 6 wins is just dumb. You really think there are only 3 games left on the schedule that CKW can out-coach someone? The offense can get it figured out in enough time to win 3 of the next 13.

To everyone not named Ray, if you have a problem with Wolf, e-mail him! Although he drives me crazy sometimes, I'm not going to be messenger every time someone disagrees with him. If Wolf says something that you want to respond to, e-mail him.

Did you pick up on Wiz saying that this week is like when they were starting a rookie quaterback Ben Rothensberg. Does this mean Max Hall could be starting this week? Makes you wonder.....

David

Normally, I wouldn't rip you for spelling because I'm the worst but after earning two rings can you get a little closer than Rothensberg? Rose Bowl winning QB Jeff Van Raaphorst wanted me to put in the correct spelling of Roethlisberger for you. I'm only doing it because he let me sit on the aisle and took my middle seat.

No, Max will not be starting this week. Max will not be starting next week. Max will not start until after AZ is eliminated from playoff contention and I don't think they will be.

9ers fire OC Raye…it has begun.

Sean

They'll also fire their HC at the end of the season.

Wolf - are you kidding me! DA didn't do anything - except over throw Fitz all day and throw 100 MPH ball to guys 10 yards way - it was Wells running that allowed the Cards to move the ball - DA is not an average QB is a below average QB - but you're right - we have no other choices.

The defense is the biggest disappointment of this team!

Ray

Twice in one mailbag Ray?

Why put "Doug" in the "To" line and then rip Wolf?

Boy was that a frustrating game! That being said, I think you can say that Erickson has elevated the talent to a level where they can compete. Now they need to learn how to win. A win in Corvallis would do wonders for this football team. The talent is there. The speed is there. The confidence to put the foot on the throat of the opponent and finish games is lacking, however. I believe in what Coach Erickson is building.

Brian

You're one of the few on the same island with me. I nominate you as President of the island council.

Doug I absolutely agree with you. As much as I would love to see DA go 25-35 for 320 yards 2 TD 0 INT, have the Cards run for 100 yards, and the defense come up with 3 or 4 turnovers in a win, at the end of the day the Cards aren't going to get an extra win for winning pretty. When the Cards host a home playoff game and raise that division banner, the scores and game recaps aren't going to be on there.

Side note: If Andre Roberts can't catch passes and can't catch punts, he needs to catch a ride out of town. He lets both of the punts go and on the replays he isn't doing ANYTHING to indicate that his teammates are in danger there and then he catches a punt on the 3 yd line I think. Just a disaster of a 3rd round pick so far, especially since returning was supposed to be one of his strengths.

Kevin

This organization has drafted so well you're going to bomb on some. Having said that, Roberts has been awful since day one. Good kid, not an NFL caliber player. They missed on this one.

Doug:

Long time listener and KTAR Rewards member. First time I have emailed the show. After hearing you guys talk about the VOTE of Confidence that Coach Singeltary gave to his OC saying he would be here the rest of the year, then promoting QB coach Mike Johnson to OC, shows what a mess this franchise is in, so if you play for a coach like this how much confidence can you have in him?

Brandon

With everyday that passes, Singletary continues to show that he's over-his-head.

Thanks for being a long time listener. Sorry I stopped returning e-mails personally and started putting them in the mailbag.

I may be one of those fans who know nothing about college football but I do know this from Koetter's last class at ASU 12 of those players played significant minutes during Erickson's tenure.

Among the players Koetter recruited that Erickson couldn't win with Gerald Munns, Mike Nixon, Travis Goethel, Ryan McFoy (moved out of position to linebacker for some stupid reason) Jon Hargis, Dimitri Nance, Danny Sullivan, Jamaar Robinson, and Kyle Williams.

You see these were players that came from Koetter's final recruiting class in 2006 that would be or were fifth year seniors from Koetter's final class.

During Erickson's tenure he also had the following offensive linemen that are now currently or have been on NFL rosters in the same capacity as Dimitri Nance; Shawn Lauvao, Paul Fanaika, and Brandon Rodd.

Players who were on Erickson's roster on the offensive line that Koetter recruited but didn't for whatever reason completely play out their four or five years at ASU Richard Tui'utu and J.D. Walton. Walton was drafted into the NFL.

But to wrongly affix blame on Koetter and pat Erickson on the back is foolish given Erickson held onto Rich Olsen one season too long and allowed his best recruiter to walk out on him to Duke University no less.

However the main point would be this, there were judgment calls that Erickson made that led to the failures of this football program over the last two seasons and not coincidentally they're calls that were made on the offensive side of the ball.

1) Starting Dimitri Nance one of the least productive running backs in the history of the program based on games played and number of carries over his career.

2) Starting Danny Sullivan at QB when it was clear far before the hind sight is 20/20 argument you would make had any relevance to Erickson's decision. Sullivan's career completion percentage prior to taking the reins as a senior was in the area of 47%.....you don't decide to take a chance on a guy simply because he's a senior.

Brett

Amazingly bad points for someone so confident in their sarcasm.

There's a natural transition every time a team changes coaches and when that happens some players leave on their own and others are cut because they don't fit. I can easily blame that on Koetter because if he worked harder on recruiting and won more games, he'd still be here.

Although I agree the offense was very unimaginative, don't rip the play calling. What plays could have been run by an offensive group that had a "game-manager" QB, a porous O-Line, and receivers that couldn't catch? I wish some of the plays were run out of different sets so it wasn't as telegraphed but I'm not going to ask Olson to recreate Picasso with finger paints.

As soon as you go to the Danny Sullivan card, it's proof that ASU needs your money and not your opinions. Anyone who booed Danny Sullivan or screamed for his benching should be forced to buy tickets for our veterans while they stay at home.

You were booing Rudy from Notre Dame. Here was a kid that would do anything to be successful for his school. Played behind an O-Line that either had players with little skill or was injured playing on heart and throwing to receivers that couldn't catch.

Maybe you're the type to constantly blame others for the problems around you but Danny did what he could with limited talent around him and limits on his own talent.

My problem with Sullivan insults is the people that make them. How many practices did you go to last year? Brock didn't know the plays. He struggled grasping the Olson offense. Samson had no arm strength for much of the year and ran with the ball way too early bailing on potential plays downfield.

It doesn't matter how good or bad Danny was, he was the best 2009 QB the Devils had.

Doug,

I read your blog about ASU Coach DE, I wish there were more "fans" in the valley with a little more patience. Look at the successful programs across professional and college sports, for the most part their coaches have a decent tenure and are given an opportunity to build their program their own way.

As much as I despise the UofA, ASU grad of course, I give them a ton of credit for sticking with Stoops over the past few years of struggles, now they are beginning to see the fruits of all that pain as he has rebuilt a program that was completely destroyed, much like we saw in Tempe with Koetter, which you pointed out in your blog. I say stick with DE, give him a chance to develop this young group of players HE recruited, let's see what happens. Thanks,

Josh

Due to your e-mail, I have to admit how wrong I was about Stoops. Although I could see some of the positives that were taking place in the program, I thought he was a constant volcano. His inability to control his emotions early on made me think this program was never going to get over the hump of being a consistent winner. He has a very solid two years and UofA fans who never called for his head should be proud and deserve their reward.

Good column on ASU. Hopefully the short-term woes will turn into better days down the road. How is the U of A football team this year? That's my current school (ASU being my former school… I guess since I root for both, I have multiple personality disorder!).

Thank you, and have a great day! Jennifer

I must tell you that it's not a real rivalry when someone roots for either side. UofA is a legit Holiday Bowl contender but the winner of the Stanford/Oregon game is going to the Rose Bowl.

I'm @BigNanano on twitter. I can't believe you mentioned my name on the air. Love the show.

Big Lare

Everyday is show prep. You e-mail me, it will probably be posted.

I agree with Kurt. The Cards should have picked up Mark Bulger. He's not Kurt Warner, but he's not Derek Anderson either. He actually reminds me of Warner when Warner left the Rams. Warner was a battered, turnover machine. This year on the Ravens sideline might do Bulger wonders. Kind of like Warner's Giants semi-sabbatical.

Matt

I want to rip the Cardinals for not going after Bulger but here's the problem. No one else went after him. I agree with Warner that Bulger would have been a great fit. The catch is, how can I rip AZ for not going after Bulger when so few other teams did?

Since no one else wanted Bulger, why should I question AZ for not making a stronger push?

It probably was Singletary's decision to fire his OC. His boss came down and said it was Jimmy or Him so he decided it was Jimmy.

Tom

First, I don't think "Him" should be capitalized but if you think Jimmy Raye and God are on an equal plane, I don't want to argue religion so I'll respect your opinion that Jimmy Raye created us and rested on the 7th day.

I could not find an email address for Doug or Wolf on your website so I am sending it to you. Could you please forward this to them.

Last week I was in Seattle taking my daughter to Seattle Pacific to begin college. All the talk on the radio was about how bad the Seahawks were. Except for one sportscaster, everyone wanted to get rid of Matt Hasselbrook. They were discussing how bad their back-ups were, how bad the GM was in bringing in QB talent, where they should go to trade for a QB. Of course this was before the Chargers game so the QB's get a respite this week. The offensive line was put down. The defensive line was put down. The playcalling was put down. Maybe things are so bad with the Cardinals after all.

Paul

The e-mail address is Doug@ktar.com but I completely understand how easy that is to forget.

Hello,

I heard you guys talking about DA keeping his starting job because the team is winning, I would disagree and here is why…. This team could easily be 0 - 3 at this point and it has been the offense that has put them in situations to lose games by not sustaining drives, Oak game was a combo between special teams and offense. I know penalties play a factor but a team can still win games with penalties. GB had 18 penalties and almost won that game. We all heard the saying, "don't fix it, if it isn't broke". Winning games doesn't mean it's not broke. I have a little saying; it's called, "preventive maintenance". I think in this case you guys are blinded by the fact that we are 2 - 1 and tied for first in the division. I would rather address this issue now rather than later when we are 4 - 6 at week 10. The Cardinals could start Hall in the first half and put in DA for the second half. This would make it a little more difficult for teams to game plan against our qb, give Hall the experience and hopefully light a fire under DA's rear. This would not be a bad move since it is clear that DA will not be the future qb of AZ. One last thing, Hall can't be any worse than DA.

To the argument, "we could easily be 0-3," I have a counter: they're not.

How can I be blinded by being in first place in the division? Isn't being in first place the whole goal?

Your idea to start each QB for a half is one of the top 20 worst ideas in football history. If no coach has ever done it, isn't that a hint that it wouldn't work? I don't care about the future QB of AZ. I care about winning more games than anyone else in the NFC West. We don't even know if there will be football in 2011 so I'm not going to prepare a QB for 2011.

Wolfe,

You mentioned that DA has thrown the game winning touchdown in AZ two wins. They were only game winning touchdowns because our defense has made stops and if DA would sustain more drives that would result in touchdowns, then we should have blown these two teams away and be talking about how good DA is. We need balance on the offense but right now we don't have it. The running game is good but DA's 52% completion, 3 TD and 3 INT is not cutting it.

I would say make the change after the Chargers game, if it has not gotten a lot better.

Thanks,

Marcos

What part of my name, appearance or voice reminds you of Wolf that would lead you to e-mail me something you want to tell Wolf?

I got the perfect sound bite for your name drop. Beastie Boys has a song called the "new style". And they say mmmmm…Deeeroppp. It would be perfect. You can just pay me in reward points and take all the credit for it. Love the show. Mike. Queen creek

Thanks Mike…Lex gave me a "kerplunk" sound. I'll try to see what's better.

Doug, What time is Mr. Gentry coming on this morning? Please respond at your earliest availability. Thanks

Garrett

He was on at 8:50 on Friday. If you missed it, here you go.

Word of the Day = IGNORANUS: A person who's both stupid and a butthole

Topic Derek Anderson:

I find it so very hard to understand how Derek Anderson had such a great, Pro-Bowl year, and now can't lead his receivers after a month of practices and games.

I have wondered if Anderson has a physical vision issue where your eyeballs actually change shape while trying to focus on moving objects and your timing and focus is always a little behind.

Ben in Sun city [where old people go to die]

Players are given an extensive physical at the beginning of the season. I'm pretty confident if Derek was having vision problems the doctors would have discovered the issue.

Sorry I'm not on the same page with your sense of humor. I assume you thought your WOTD and Sun City blast were funny.

If you are one of the 32 best ANYTHINGs (in this case, QBs) in a WORLD of nearly 7 Billion people, it's not asking too much to consistently complete a pass to arguably the best wide receiver out of 7 Billion people.

DA & 31 others. Are supposed to be the best of the best. How can there be such a chasm between #s 5 & 32?

Mike

Because there's a defensive coordinator who's one of the 32 best in the world working all week to stop him; two safties who are two of 64 of the best in the world paid millions to stop him; 1 CB who is one of the 64 best in the world paid millions to stop him.

I don't think it's that hard to figure out if you've never thrown a pass to someone until your first regular season game it will take some time to develop some timing. When the receiver is injured, his speed varies greatly and it makes it a little harder.

DA is probably around the 25th best QB in football. It probably takes DA longer than it should to develop timing.

do u have ur gymbag?

Jennifer

No sweetheart. I'm not going to be working out in Oregon. I'll be eating dinner, going to the bar on Friday and working on the pre-game all Saturday morning.

Marcus Campisi - Bowling Green vs Buffalo

No Marcus, that is not a 5-star game.

Charger fans don't even care anyway

Big Lare

It's amazing to me how good the Padres and Chargers are and how poorly supported they are.

Doug,

All of the Trivia questions does not have any right answers to the questions? I think some thing is not right.

Thanks

Leyder

I'll forward your e-mail to the people that run the trivia on our site. As you can guess, I can't win anything so I don't play.

The paper in SD is the San Diego Union and Evening Tribune

Phillip

Thanks. I said it was the Union Tribune. Had no idea it was two different papers.

the San Francisco flop!

Hey Greenberg, how does that taste?!

Xavier

I'm amazed at how bad that pick is Hi Doug, I was outside when you said your WOTD this morning, but you haven't posted it on your tweeter page yet. Are you going to put it up soon?

Becky

I put it up as soon as I can but sometimes I get a little sidetracked while focusing on the show. The WOTD works all day so if I get it up a few minutes late it won't affect your points.

McNeil can't play because of the preseason list he was placed on. I don't think he can play til week six...similar to PUP

Jim

He is out for 3 weeks. The catch is it's 3 weeks from when he signed his contract.

Fun Katy is a Cowboys fan and UofA?

What is she a Yankee, too??

Poor Fun Katy needs an intervention. We don't have any time to lose!

Brian

She's from Dallas after she moved from Scotland. I'm embarrassed for her on the Dallas thing.

I'm Michael M, but am I THE Michael M that won the fooshaw t-shirt? Please say yes!!!!  Whenever you follow Wolf on his twitter account you have a chance to win. If you do win, someone in our promotions department will tweet you.

Hardest Power Poll ever. What to do with the NFC West? If PIT is 1, doesn't that make ATL really good? Should GB really go from 2 to 6 because of FG? Who should get knocked out of the top 5 if you're leaving GB out? You buying CHI/KC?

GAME NOTES V OAK

Before KO, all I care about is if Dockett shows up…have to wait till I find out since Cards get ball first

Couldn't have predicted that start…I guess I do get to see Dockett

Easy call on the PI if it was on the illegal pick…couldn't hear ref's mic to know who they called it on though

Nice hole for Hightower

Why no PI on the 3rd down attempt?

11:46 left in first…Wolf's on big screen

Crowd hated PF call on Wilson but it was the right call…I do think the ref should have blown the whistle

That TD was so easy to see coming as soon as Miller went into motion showing he had man coverage on Wilson…I love Bill Davis but I pray he didn't really think A-Dub could cover a TE in single coverage

Had single coverage on Fitz on screen pass…would have liked to see DA take a shot on that one

Anyone remember the last 3rd down conversion for Cards?

Great stand by defense…shld b good field position

Never mind…special teams giveth and taketh away today

3rd & goal…all eyes on docket…OAK TO

Another good defensive stand…10-7 OAK

BEANIE!

Thought the PI on the Williams route was uncatchable…if they called D-holding or illegal contact, sorry…can't hear ref's mic

Cards streak of no 3rd down conversions goes to 87:39

10-10 after FG

Dockett not in…guess he's tired from not doing anything

Great play from DRC to stop TD

You have to block a kick that was that low…no interior push on the Janikowski…13-10 OAK

What a terrible call on the PI with 1:35 left. Clearly that was PI on Williams and not the Raiders…Fitz looked open on the play

Great block by Duece picking up the twist

Steven Williams ends the streak without a 3rd down conversion @ 91:16

End of 1st ……13-10 OAK

New streak on dropped pass…couldn't tell if it was a busted play

4th down was converted but there should have been a PF on Lutui for picking someone off the pile

Great run by Wells. Got to the outside despite run blitz. LB's caught in trash.

Wanted play-action on 2&G got Wells stuffed

Outstanding play design on TD. Play looked like it would be spread ‘em out and hand it off but DA rolled out after play-fake and hit Breaston. 17-13 AZ

So far

It's unbelievable that wasn't a PF on Calais. The way they protect QB's, I'm shocked.

Receivers are open all over the place against this defense today. So much for a team meeting.

Not the time to go deep on 2nd & 12…sideline phone must have rang and Al wanted to go long…now you're left with 3rd & 12

What is Roberts doing? What a waste of a 3rd round pick.

5:52 left 1st H

Wright just dropped potential 3rd down conversion…As the ASU sideline reporter, I see more dropped passes than anyone

Great hustle by Lennon to be back in position to make the pick.

What was that from DA? He has to learn he's not good enough to make Favre-type special plays. Just take what the defense gives you and if it's not there, take the sack.

Looks like the defense thought halftime was coming sooner than the clock said.

Terrible decision to go for QB sneak with no TO's left

This defense has been a waste of time for 6 quarters.

Halftime 20-17 OAK

2nd & 18 draw…the only reason you call that is because you don't believe in the O-Line and you need to make the D-Line think of something else

This game is boring.

DA threw the shovel pass again? Did he not learn?

Impressive D-stand…of course there's no docket

Missed FG could hurt. This game's too close to leave points on board

WOW. DA looks good on this drive. Going through progressions much better

Good balance on this drive.

Brandon Keith made a great tackle on Hightower. Brandon: Block the white team or get out of the way.

Very accurate pass to Fitz on the TD. Leave that high and Fitz gets rocked and might lose the ball.

1:01 left in 3rd 24-20 AZ

Everyone will yell at DRC on the punt but that's on Roberts. He did nothing to tell his teammates the ball was close

Dockett's play was incredible

Bad PI…Toler completely blew that play

Why are the refs talking, that was clearly a false start…never mind…delay of game

Congrats to Toler. It's rare you'll see a team make it so obvious what they think of another team's player. He was picked on the whole drive and made the last two plays.

24-23 AZ 7:51 left

Terrible KO protect…no room to run

2&21 after FS and Facemask

Check that 3&21

Really don't like the decision to challenge the catch on the defensive penalty…it's a first down either way and now you've lost a TO that you'll probably need in a close game

Huge 3rd & 1 penalty

Ohh…Rashad…you've got to catch that INT to keep Janikowski off the field

Thought he made it when it left his foot

Interesting OAK is in no hurry…they're milking clock thinking they don't want to leave time after a Janikowski kick…I hate that strategy

Absolutely the right call on the PI on DRC. No one likes it but he did have a hand in there and the refs have been calling PI all game.

So they started this morning but it wasn't as bad as I expected. I got 7 fire Dennis Erickson e-mails over night last night.

I was actually happy that it was only 7. I refuse to believe the majority of ASU fans want Dennis Erickson fired. In order to want Dennis Erickson fired, you have to put on a T-shirt that reads, "I don't know a $%#* thing about college football and ASU but I want that guy fired."

I'm sure if I cross-referenced the "Fire Dennis Erickson" e-mails, it would be from the same senders as the "Fire Steve Kerr" e-mails.

When the Suns started to put it together, suddenly people realized they were wrong because they had no facts or patience to back up their opinion. The ASU situation is the exact same.

Remember how many of you hated the Goran Dragic pick. Terry Porter almost destroyed the kid. Finally Alvin Gentry came in and said, go in there in screw up.

He told Dragic to quit looking to the sidelines when you mess up, just stop messing up.

Don't worry about coming out of the game. Worry about creating, scoring, and defense.

Dragic's failures mounted early and then he exploded into the best back-up point guard in the NBA.

ASU starts one senior. Dirk Koetter left the program with nothing for young recruits. He did have good players who were coming into their senior year that Erickson was able to take advantage of. After that there was nothing. All of the 5th year seniors and non-redshirt seniors are from the Dirk Koetter era.

If you compare the talent of similar aged players throughout the Pac-10, ASU is way behind. Do you blame Erickson for not recruiting better talent while Koetter was head coach?

Let's look at the juniors. Unless they are junior college players recruited recently as stop-gap players, the juniors are the result of 5 weeks of recruiting.

Dennis Erickson was hired around Christmas of '06. He had 5 weeks to convince talented players to break verbal commitments they had made months and sometimes years earlier to come to ASU.

Did you really expect Dennis Erickson to beat USC to players in the height of the Pete Carroll reign after recruiting for 5 weeks?

You are seeing Dennis Erickson compete with top ten teams on the field with only freshman and sophomores that are truly his players. Oregon was the number one defense in college football and ASU torched them for 600 yards. Cameron Marshall fumbled at the 2. Steven Threet tried to do way too much in the fourth quarter and it cost the team.

These aren't excuses for UO's win. They deserved to win the game. ASU deserved to lose the game.

If you're blaming the coach though, what was the decision that Dennis Erickson made that cost them the game? He coached a good game. His assistants coached a good game.

ASU lost because young players made dumb mistakes. Get upset as a fan. Get mad that this is happening. Get emotional but do it at the game and realize ASU is building something.

Trust what your eyes are telling you. You can see ASU is fast. You can see ASU is getting close. You can see they are a better team than they were two years ago.

Don't allow your frustrations with close losses drive you to bail on Dennis Erickson.

The last thing ASU needs is to put in someone else while the team is getting closer.

I asked for your patience with Steve Kerr because he was making good long-term decisions that wouldn't work in the short-term. I hope I earned your respect enough that I can ask for it again.

The reason why I said ASU would go 6-6 and not go to a bowl game is because I thought they'd lose a lot of close games due to young players doing dumb things while they learn to do the right thing.

Don't you think Threet will be a better QB every day after that lesson from UO? I do.

Suddenly, when the players start making fewer mistakes, Erickson will look like a better coach.

No one at ASU has the guts to tell you this because it's terrible for marketing but get your 2011 season tickets now. All season it's going to be like this. Those who stay firm and resolute will reap the rewards next year.

Doug still has the defending Super Bowl champs atop his Power Poll after they went on the road and got a win on Monday Night Football. The NFC West is down the list with the Cardinals being the highest ranked.

1080p is good enough, I use DVD/VCR combo, no DVR yet, I'm happy

More with less, happy with less

ASU audio sucked buttermilk

Xavier

Everyone without a DVR is happy until they get one. Once you have one, you become retro-actively angry you didn't have one

Hey Doug,

That endzone rule needs to be changed. CJ had possession and both feet down. Touchdown! To prove my point, if he does the exact same thing at the 1 yard line and reaches out and breaks the plane, it's a touchdown. It's such a stupid rule.

Tim

It's a simple choice: do you like gray? With NFL refs being highly trained and well-paid, you could expect them to use common sense and say that's a catch. If that's how you feel, that's a catch and a stupid rule.

The NFL doesn't want gray area. They want the refs to judge every play with a hard and fast rule. The rule is in place and Johnson did not follow the rule. We can attack the league all we want but it's not like this is a new rule. Johnson gets paid a lot of money to be prepared to play. When players don't learn the rules, they put their team at a disadvantage.

Look, a win is a win.

Anderson threw for almost 300 yards. The defense stepped up all game.

As we progress the offense will become more in sync. The Cards have a 1 game lead in the NFC West over the Niners!

Jarrod

I agree but let's not use the Rams win to judge the team with. The Cards are an average team in a bad division which should translate to 9 wins and a division championship.

Not gonna win the NFC West by losing 31-6 to Seattle, are you, S.F.? But, then again, barely squeaking by the Rams isn't too promising, either. I really hope D.A. and Fitz can get on the same page quickly. Stevens-Howling looked pretty good.

Hope ya had a good weekend, Doug. Can't wait for the show tomorrow morning.

Brother Murph

p:s: it's good to have your power poll back.

Every week is a new week though. Let's judge SF by the game Monday night.

Mr. Franz,

I was curious and I hope you'd ask this of John Clayton and the smarty-pants ESPN guys: "What is the 49ers' magic number today?"

John

At least Clayton thought SF would win the division with 9 wins. It's the Greenberg's of the world who picked SF to go 12-4.

Doug. I think when you are evaluating derek anderson you have to remember that 12 incompletions that he had last week were to fitz and they clearly just weren't in sync. DA's gonna be ok. Is he listed as injured from last night? He took a lot of hits! -Keith in Glendale.

DA is an average QB that ignorant fans think should be perfect on every play. The Cards will be 9-7. They will win the division. If you went in to the Rams game thinking they would lose, you're not knowledgeable about football. If you went in to the ATL game and thought they would win, then you're not knowledgeable about football.

Doug, Wonder how Greenie is feeling about his NFC West, 49r love now?

Paul

picking SF to be 12-4 is worst prediction I've ever heard.

Doug,

Don't know if you remember the debacle last year with Larry's Brother Marcus making some pretty asinine comments regarding Kurt not getting Larry the ball. Marcus was SORT OF at it again making some references last week but this time biting his tongue a bit better some comments he made "no comment RT@mollyMcManimie I'd be so frustrated if I was your bro. im dying for him" "feeling like a caged animal right now"

Thought u mind find that interesting.

Adam

Just by the nature of retweeting he's trying to make his point. He has no idea what he's doing because he's either adding pressure to Larry or speaking for him.

Are you guys kidding me? Quit making it sound like Anderson was good. AWFUL! He is horrible. Hello 7-9 this year.

Greg

I never said he was good. I said the division is so bad the Cards will go 9-7. I also said I'm not going to judge DA by playing with the Browns because that's not NFL

Virtually no reps with Fitz, Fitz is at about 75%, DA threw a number of times with multiple Rams defenders plowing into his chest, Steven Williams running the wrong routes, and Komar and Hightower both fumble the ball on drives that looked like were going to turn into points. And despite the struggles, on the TD drive that decided the game he went something like 10/14 for 101 and the TD. All things considered, I didn't think he played all that bad last week.

Kevin

No one can judge DA this week. Only HOF QB's could succeed with this line.

He's terrible. Sure he could throw a couple lasers down the field, but the guy couldn't throw simple dump passes. He skipped at least 5 balls.

Ryan

Let me try to educate you since this was the first football game you've ever seen. There's a huge gap between terrible and average. DA is not good enough to overcome a bad O-Line, multiple penalties, a slow Fitz, bad tackling, and players not ready to play. DA is average, he is not terrible. There were quite a few mistakes he made and bad throws. If you're going after DA for the loss with all the hits he was taking, please don't vote in our national elections.

I know it's a week old now but can you please explain the rule on the Calvin Johnson catch me, I am really confused now?

Danneal

When you go to the ground while in the process of making a catch, you must control the ball throughout the play. This includes getting up from the ground. Here's the official rule: A player who goes to the ground in the process of attempting to secure possession of a loose ball (with or without contact by a defender) must maintain control of the ball after he touches the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, there is no possession.

I think someone needs to look at the fbook comments, and not funKaty. She keeps reading really poor comments on there and some people have some really good points. Most were saying relax w Anderson and give it time. Charles

I don't think she should choose the majority to read. She should read the dumb ones. If everyone was smart, I wouldn't have a job.

Wolfley's has a nice atmosphere lots of big TV's, not too outrageously priced and for smokers, not Mrs or me, the best outdoor smoking patio I've seen expected from Wolf Macrae

Embarassed to say but I haven't been there yet. Hoping to go for lunch this week.

Did my eyes deceive me or was that Sam Bradford that made the tackle on Kerry Rhodes last week after the interception? William

I think it was.

Fun Katy read my post last week about Max Hall starting. I said we'd have to deal with DA's inconsistency until NEXT YEAR when Max Hall starts. I obviously don't know if he'll start or not next year, but I wanted to let you know I have a little more sense than to start calling for the rookie already. DA threw for almost 300 yards and we won last week, so it clearly wasn't that bad. I just randomly have a lot of Browns fans I talk to on twitter, and they've been laughing at me since we announced DA as the starter. I don't think he's terrible, but I do think he's inconsistent. I think we should still win the division with him though. Anyway, just wanted to clarify and mabye give you back a little faith in your listeners understanding of the game. Thanks for reading. I know you said you respond to all your emails, but I won't be offended if you don't. I know you're busy. Have a great day.

mcw

You and I feel the same way about DA. For some reason I've lost a lot of people who want to say I'm a homer because I picked the Cards to go 9-7 and said DA's an average QB. I don't think I have a mindless audience. I used to return every e-mail but now I return them through the mailbag. If you didn't hear the story click the link at the top of the page.

Doug and Wolf:

I love your show and listen every morning but I for one can not revel in the exploits of one Ray Lewis. I have no choice but to accept the fact that he is in the league but I find it problematic that he ever is the face of his team, commerical endeavors or the NFL. This is still a man who was not forthcoming with the police in the wake of a MURDER investigation in which two people were killed and pled guilty to "obstruction of justice" in a murder investigation.

I still find it hard to believe that he received no suspension for pleading guilty to something that egregious while Ben Rothlisberger, who was not even charged, was suspended for six games and will serve a four game suspension. While his own career has prospered I can not help but think about the lives of the two men who went unfulfilled, and to whom, much to the efforts of Mr. Lewis, justice was denied.

Steven

First, we strongly disagree but thank you for listening. Our disagreement is completely wrapped in respect for your opinion because of the class you showed in the way you explained it. Let me see if I can walk you through to the other side.

1) I'm not reveling in the man but I'm amazed at Ray Lewis' ability to play football.

2) Every man has a right to work in any industry after they've paid their debt to society. If you have a problem with him in the NFL, you should have a problem with the laws and sentencing of our country. Once you're out of prison, we should want all ex-cons to make a living.

3) I agree with you that what he did was terrible and I thought he should have received a stronger sentence from the judge. However, to this day there's been no one convicted of murder in the case so it's clear to me the investigators didn't do a great job anyway. They did get Lewis to testify. The DA only charged Lewis with a misdemeanor.

4) The Lewis situation was only a misdemeanor so no matter how upset you are at him, how much can you expect from the NFL to punish someone on a misdemeanor? Remember, Goodell was not the Commissioner at the time. Lewis received the highest fine of any NFL player. Under Tagliabue, that was a significant penalty.

5) You should look at Roethlisberger differently because it happened after Lewis. Goodell came in and started dropping the hammer because of his belief that Lewis and Leonard Little got off too easy.

The crap that people are talking about DA is so annoying! Every QB is going to throw incompletions! Seriously. I think they should play fitz but just as a presence so that breaston isn't double teamed. Just keep fitz's plays short routes. He's still a threat esp in the endzone.

Keith in Glendale

I wish I could convince people what AVERAGE means. He's not that good and you saw it @Atlanta. He's not that bad and you saw it @STL. If the Cards tackled well, didn't commit dumb penalties, and the O-Line knew what time the game was, it would have been a close game. I think there's a lot of people hating and a lot of people making excuses. I picked ATL to win the game for a reason. DA was only a small reason.

Last week you said there 4 teams out of 32 road teams that won but there could be only 16 road teams that could win not 32 doug

Brooklyn Joey

Actually, that's not what I said. I said, "There were only 4 teams out of the 32 that won on the road, granted 16 were at home." Since there are 32 teams in the league, I was right and I did throw out a bone in case I confused someone.

First off I would like to congratulate ASU on their win on Saturday. I know what the score was but if not for the horrible officiating, ASU by 14 should have been the score.

It was almost unbearable to watch, talk about getting homered. Look forward to you hammering the ref's on Monday morning.

Robert

I won't be hammering the refs. Anyone who hammers the refs knows nothing about football. ASU dropped a pass in the end zone, missed 4 points in the kicking game, had a chance to down 3 punts inside the 5 and tripped over the letter "W" on a breakaway run.

If people have such a hard time with the refs, blame the Pac-10. In non-conference games most teams bring their own refs. In the Pac-10, they don't allow other conferences to bring their own refs so when Pac-10 teams travel, they're forced to deal with hometown refs.

Hello, Last week, one morning there was a song playing during Doug & Wolf. It was a guitar playing and you stated it started a fire inside. Can you remember the artist and title? For the short period it played, it sounded awesome... Thanks Roy

Don't remember for sure but I think it was Nickleback. Keep listening and e-mail me the second you hear it.

Doug and Wolf -

First off love the show! A couple of weeks ago I heard you guys discussing when in the Bay area folks need to get to a particular restaurant. Was it Scomas? Need to try the seafood linguine? Going to be in San Francisco next weekend.

Thanks, Evan

That was it. I haven't been there before but everyone who talks about it just raves.

What do you win in your knock-out pool? Must be nice, cause you're not picking Saints, but 2nd pick would be GB.

Xavier

You win the pride of embarrassing your friends. I didn't really pick GB. I pick whoever is playing BUF, it just happened to be GB.

I thought Wolfley promised Jeff Munn he would be the callout for Friday.

Ryan

He did. He also promised he'd get a Mohawk.

Though I am sure you do not spend your free time reading the comments posted to sports articles but the comments from the 49er fans on some of the articles in the Chronicle this morning sure are fun to chuckle at. GO ASU.

Robert

I don't have any free time during football season. All I do is watch games and write in the mailbag.

1st quarter

Almost broke that return

Turner is back

Why did Dockett get all that money

D-line getting man-handled

More Turner

Rhodes already…I thought they've been working on penalties

Hey! An incompletion. 1st negative play

Defense is completely unready to play

TD ATL

Hey look, another penalty on the KO return

Illegal formation…all you have to do is look down the line and see if there's a TE there or a 300-lb man

Bilick is the worst analyst in FB…yes it was a hold on Breaston but what about calling out the acting job…then he called it an MME move…What's MME?...is that the circuit that goes at in the hexagon?

Good play by DA keeping things alive on the dump off to Patrick

More Turner

Forced punt by the defense!

Faneca's over-rated as a player. Supposedly his leadership is worth the fact he can't pass block anymore. If he does his job, Patrick gets 50 yards.

INT…looked like Breaston just got beat to the ball…need to see coach's film to know who's fault

2nd quarter

That wasn't a face mask and it wasn't on Porter…this is the ref from week 1 last year @ home last year that couldn't figure out his microphone…he's the worst in the league

Love Clark Haggans…if I'm evaluating talent I wouldn't be over-whelmed but as a fan, I love the "give everything" guys and he's one of them

Great blocks and Hightower showed break-away speed…Brandon Keith was great on the play

Pretty ticky-tack OPI called on White

Great play by Toler

Definite PI on DRC…should have been unsportsmanlike when he threw his mouth guard

What is Bilick talking about? He was looking for PI before the ball is thrown. Brian, you can't have pass interference until you have a pass.

D-Line is doing nothing

I agreed w/ the procedural penalty against Brown in the 1st Q but they aren't consistent in calling it. ATL's LT has been in the backfield on every pass play.

Great down-field blocking by the greatest TE in the history of the game on the TD…never mind, Rhodes was just covering TG and followed him to the sideline

Good catch and run by Steven Williams

Keith was destroyed by Weatherspoon, KNOW your assignment, why are you going inside

Keith didn't pick up the stunt and got DA crunched again

Good call on the Toler PF because it's a terrible rule. He didn't launch and the receiver wasn't defenseless but it was Head-2-head

I love Steven Williams but you can clearly tell there's a difference between pre-season and regular season DA's getting hit on almost every pass

3rd Quarter

Great blitz pick-up by Hightower on the INT…didn't want to miss the lone positive on the play

Great TD…executed so perfectly it was indefensible

I thought Dockett's play wasn't going to drop off with the money. What's he done this season? 4th down conversions and reverses in a blow-out?

Looks like Hightower and Lyle came to play…having a hard time complimenting anyone else

Never thought the day would come where we'd compare Ginobili to A-Dub.

Clark Haggans was right. You could hear him say, "I'm on the line of scrimmage," during the PF call on Finnerman.

4th Quarter

I'll give Thom a break but saying 4th inning is funny…Bilick can stuff it on his Ohio beatdowns.

Thom: I think it will be illegal procedure. Bilick: or it could be the defense lined up off-sides. No Bilick, it can't be the defense off-sides because the tackle was in the backfield. How about watching the game instead of guessing?

Why is DA still in there? This O-Line is awful.

I've always wondered how guys feel comfortable receiving their game checks after a performance like this.

Max is in…wait, defense is now in

Now what are the Max lovers going to say

I don't like typing that. I love Max but I can't stand the idiots that think he should start.

41-7

After the Indianapolis Colts went down to Houston and lost in Week 1 Doug had to re-arrange the top of his Power Poll after just one week. The Cardinals won and won ugly. Did that move them up from No. 16?

1st quarter

Brandon Keith can't possibly think he's supposed to block the outside rush and let someone come untouched from the 5-technique

DA looks really inaccurate to start but the key is no INT's and his receivers are bailing him out

Great move by Campbell…made the sack while being held

Can't possibly play a better first quarter to start the year than A-dub did

2nd Quarter

Steven Williams has to recognize he's hot and get his head around faster…should've been a TD

Washington reads the play like a veteran

So difficult to fully appreciate Jackson as a Ram…love to see him with a stable organization

Granted Bradford's a rookie but Bill Davis is really good at his job

Hightower carried an entire drive for the 1st TD

Great Rams play call to end the half, limit the rookie's reads with the roll out

3rd Quarter

This game is going exactly like I think the season will go

How did Michael Adams not get called for defensive holding in the end zone?

Breaston just saved Brandon Keith from giving up a TD

How many penalties can one team handle?

DA is playing poorly but I don't know how anyone could play well behind that O-Line

I hate wasted timeouts…did you not know the 3rd down play was going to take place 40 seconds after the 2nd down play?

There was no safety help over the top, Fitz made the right read and DA missed a TD

Very next play DA missed Fitz because of up the gut pressure

Dockett got tackled on the Jackson run and there's no flag

Next play Dockett got hit with an illegal chop block…am I the only one that can see the line play?

Brandon Keith is just not an NFL caliber player at this point

Does the O-line know the regular season started?

As close as this division will be, Komar's fumble could be an enormous play for the whole year (obviously that's depending on the games outcome)

Big league 3rd down conversion from your own end zone…Bradford has great poise

4th quarter

This game is coming down to which O-line wants to win

Another penalty

Another penalty

Another penalty

Big play from Paris Lennon…must feel good as a former Ram

I don't think Cards can win if they don't score on this drive

Another big play from Breaston

TD!...How did Fitz get that open? Doesn't any of the Rams DB have 2010 Madden?

There's no excuse if you lose a game to a rookie QB in his first start driving down the field for a winning TD

Seattle just beat SF. Even though I picked it, there comes a point where you're so right you're wrong. No way would I have picked a blow-out. That was such a beat down I don't think I get credit.

Bradford's moving the team.

Dumbest coaching move of the weekend…if you're going to go for it on 4th down then why did you throw it down the field on third down? If you knew you were going to go for it on 4th then use 3rd down to shave yards off the distance, like a Steven Jackson draw play. If you want to throw down the field on 3rd down, then kick the FG.

Ball game…but I'd like to see Rhodes get down…don't risk the fumble…give the ball to your offense to run out the clock

Holy ____! Hightower is clearly down but don't blame the refs. He can't even make it close in that situation. Between his fumbles and Wells' inability to pick up the blitz, there are real problems.

That fumble makes Rams' coaches look even dumber for not kicking the FG.

I'll say it again. There's no excuse for allowing a rookie QB in his first start to march down the field and win the game…but I'm nervous this time

A-DUB! An INT while cramping up. That's a gamer.

This game is exactly what I've been saying all off-season. This is not a good team but this division is so bad they'll win it anyway.

Doug is back with his weekly Power Poll. He starts the NFL season with last year's Super Bowl participants as the 1-2 and national favorites Ravens and Packers following.

Anderson sucks: Give Mattie a chance to run the team, if not go with Max.

Patrick

I don't think Anderson sucks and I don't think Leinart's great. I would have gone with Matt but clearly we're beyond that stage now.

Matt will be the starter but he won't last 2 games. That's my prediction...

DA will be patchwork QB, the focus will shift to Max and John

Will

I disagree. I think Matt's done after he spoke to the media.

Leinart has to be the guy that gets traded or cut. Even with the experience issue, at this point is it really that much of a step backwards going with Anderson and having Skelton/Hall behind him? Leinart is gone next year because of the money that will be due to him in 2011. DA is inaccurate but he can throw down field and make throws Leinart can't. I even say Max Hall before I trust Leinart to lead the Cards to a division title.

Kevin

I agree since you say "at this point." I think they should have gone with Leinart but once he spouted off he has to go.

When was the last regular season touchdown pass thrown by Matt?

Thanks,

Chris

Does it matter?

I am all for giving leinart a chance but if he isnt gonna be here next year which we all know he is not why waste a whole season with him.

Steve

To win?

Good show today.

The only this worse than having a QB controversy……… in this case is not having one. It's not a controversy, it's a "competition". It's a competition simply because it's not worthy of controversy status. A QB Controversy is when you have two QBs capable of being the guy. Controversy means both guys could start for any other team. Controversy means the future and the present meet to lock horns.

Rich

I think this is a great opinion. Even though I keep saying Leinart B. M. (before media), how can anyone really be right when we're comparing average versus mediocrity?

Doug Franz broadcaster extraordinaire… Do you recant? I told you Whiz didn't like Leinart. Come on Doug, recant! You owe me a recantation…ring the bell in the morning.

Matthew

No. You told me in a previous e-mail you thought Whiz wasn't giving Leinart a fair shot. Think about the ignorance of what you're referring. You're saying Whiz would rather lose then see Leinart succeed. I don't know how Whiz feels about Matt the person and I don't care. The question is can Matt Leinart win in the NFL. I think the answer is no but this division is so bad he'll win enough. CKW obviously stops at the word no and is ready to move on.

I think the Cardinals are going to have to choose between unpleasant alternatives. It appears they can muddle through with a pair of quarterbacks without long term value and give up a promising quarterback or they can take a step back this year and position themselves for better quarterbacking in the near future.

If they're not going to start Leinhart they should release or trade him. He's earned that kind of respectful treatment from the club.

Bob

"Muddle" can still mean winning this division. I realize if SF or SEA is better than I'm giving them credit I'll have a huge recantation in front of me but I think 9-7 is winning this division.

Let's win this year and let's use the off-season to develop one of the young QB's everyone's in love with. Never forget, Skelton and Hall look great against the UFL All-Stars.

I would say win win for both the Sox and the Dbacks

Edwin Jackson (26 yrs old)
4 starts
2-0
0.96 ERA
0.36 WHIP
28 IP
23 H
3 ER
7 BB
34 K

Daniel Hudson (23 yrs old)
5 starts
3-1
1.72 ERA
0.90 WHIP
36.2 IP

For a guy who took his wife to Cooperstown, it's nice to get a baseball question…sorry I disagree. First, EJ shouldn't be here because Max should be the closer. Secondly, EJ is already in his arbitration years. The D-Backs have Hudson for 6 years. There's no way he'll reach Super 2 status so the D-Backs avoid arbitration until after 2013 so even a tie goes to the D-Backs. Combine that with the simple fact that EJ wasn't pitching that great at the end, it's a no brainer. D-Backs win that trade.

Loverboy will be performing LIVE at Wild Horse Pass Hotel & Casino on Friday, September 10th.

At only 300 points per entry, I'm SURE to win...which one of you wants to go with me? WHICH ONE OF YOU 'KIDS...ARE HOT TONITE! WHOA!!! SO HOT TONIGHT...AND WHERE WILL YOU BE TOMORROW?'

Front row, guys...fists in the air, deep in the LOVERBOY MOSH PIT!

Brother Murph...!!

I don't think Loverboy truly understands what we do for them. Here's a good poll question, who's a bigger act, D&W or L'boy?

I'm taking L'boy, but I think we get 35% of the vote. I'm happy with that.

Doug,

Long time listener and we've exchanged a number of emails these past few years.

98 graduate of the University of Wisconsin. I have 20 tickets to the game and am obviously flying back to Madison to reunite with all my college friends and their wives.

Here are a couple of musts while you are in the homeland:

1. Mickey's Dairy Bar- near Camp Randall. BREAKFAST. Get "the Scrambler". You will not be disappointed.
2. The Great Dane Brew Pub- near the Capital. Great English Pub atmosphere. They have great beer, great food. I was the first bouncer they ever hired and I still get free meals and beer from their management when I go there, 12 years later!!!
3. The Union: Go to the student union and have a brat and beer on the Terrace. Its right on Lake Mendota and just an awesome time.

Hope you enjoy yourself there.

Joe

Sorry I don't return e-mails anymore. Maybe I will again but it was a terrible situation that occurred. Really excited for the trip. Although I think Wisconsin wins, it's crazy just how big a 3-0 start would be to ASU.

Go Devils.

Want to contribute to the next mailbag? E-mail Doug here

In case you missed it, here's the link to a previous blog on why the mail bag is back. If you're wondering why I haven't returned your e-mail, it's saved for the mailbag.

If anyone can take the strong armed, but erratic Derek Anderson and change his mechanics and turn him into a solid Q.B., it is Ken Whisenhunt.

Have a good one!

Lloyd

Buckeye

Agreed. I still look at what he did with Roethlisberger. Won 15 games as a rookie.

I know it is football season, but... does Mark Reynolds still play professional baseball? Has anyone seen someone go form great to suck quicker than Reynolds? Other than Upton of course...

Jarrod

8/1 two hits. 8/30 3 hits. Between he had 13 and batted .165

Did you hear Colin yesterday saying that the cards are a 6 win team then a little later he said the seahawks could win the division! He's off his rocker! Keith in Glendale

I did. Again, if I thought the NFC West was good I'd be down on the Cardinals. Alex Smith does look better than I expected but I think this division is bad. I still think Cards win.

I think Matt is pressing because he feels he can't mess up. He is under such scrutiny he feels he can't. So, he plays it too safe and is thinking too much. In turn, he's looking hesitant and unsure of himself. He's obviously not a confident man right now.

Freddy

Remember, I think Matt should be the starter but if you're right, it proves I'm wrong. If Matt can't handle the pressure of competition in practice, he certainly can't handle the pressure in a game.

We exchanged emails about 3 years ago and agreed he will go down in history as a great college QB nothing else.

Joe

I think Matt's an average NFL QB and I think that's still good enough to win the division.

You can't lessen the peaks and valleys of DA (Disregarding Accuracy). I think we're living in a dream word if we think the Cards can. He has a 53% career accuracy rating and a 69.7 passer rating. Those are bad back up QB numbers…there's no way he can be the starter for this team. The Browns let him go and replaced him with Jake Delhome. Leinart needs to be the starter.

Matthew

I wouldn't go so far as dream world. I do believe in CKW more than I believe in Anderson. If he says Anderson's the guy I think it's the wrong move. The catch is CKW is 2-for-3 in division championships so I'll disagree with the move knowing he'll probably end up being right.

18 games? Wow, you only need 55 1/2 yards a game for 1000. Didn't Jim Taylor & Jim Brown do that in 12 & 14 game seasons? Records will be broken, not sure how I feel about that. Great show as always.

Thanks.............Larry

1K seasons are now expected and no longer an achievement. AVG YDS/G will be a more important stat than per season.

And we don't always have a great show. Did you hear how bad I was last Friday?

All this Leinart bashing made me do some research. Matt has started 19 games as a pro QB. If you compare those 19 starts with Peyton Mannings first 19 starts, Matt's actually look better.

Thanks but wouldn't you say you could see clear improvement from Peyton? Again, I think Matt should start because of my belief in the defense and special teams but I don't expect him to be anything but an average NFL QB.

Doug,

Love the show, listen every morning but I am calling you out for your HOMER remarks. Here you have an EXECUTIVE of over 20 years telling you Matt doesn't have it. YET you continue to say "the Cardinals are going to win this division." Even worse, you and Ron rant about all of the question marks the 49ers have. That's why it's obvious you two are just being homers, you don't even do your homework. Let's see, best rookie receiver last year, best tight end in the league who happened to tie a record for TDs in a season, top 5 running back in the NFL, Top 10 defense that could get better this year. I mean come on. Oh I forgot one guy, but all I have to do is say his name...Patrick Willis. Boom. You two could have 300 experts and execs call you up and you would still be the homers that you are. You two are usually very objective but I had to call you out on this.

Anonymous

There's a shock. Pick against someone's favorite team so I'm a homer. Let's get one thing straight on the mailbag. When you call me a homer you're announcing to the world that you are an ignorant fool. How am I being a homer by not believing in your home town team? I think the 49ers are not that good (around 7-9). I think the Cards are a little bit better. I think the Cards are going to go 9-7 and lose in the first round of the playoffs to Atlanta. Does that really sound like a homer?

I picked the D-Backs to finish 4th this year. I picked the Lakers over the Suns in 6. I even picked Georgetown over my beloved Ohio Bobcats (still upset about that one). I pick what I think will happen. Of course I'm going to be wrong sometimes but it's much more important to me to be right than to make a prediction just so someone will like me.

The national media is bagging on our home team here enough. It would be nice to see our local media stand up and rally behind them. After listening this morning, I was let down and disappointed with you. We tune in to hear news and interviews...not your assinine speculatory trade rumor...that you pretty much fabricated.

Doug sucks...Wolf is why people listen.

hector

One person says I'm a homer because I picked the Cardinals and another says I suck because I'm not being homer enough. Such is the job.

To those of you who are higher on the evolutionary plane than Hector and Anonymous, you have my word that I will always tell you what I think whether our home teams want to hear it or not.

Gentlemen,

I beleive the ultimate solution to the Cardinals QB saga is to trade Matt now while he still has some stock and value in the League. Since Whisenhunt likes the blue collar-QB, how plausible do trade scenarios sound?

Geechy Dan

I think a trade scenario is in the works right now. I don't know if it will happen. It just depends on the fall-out of Leinart's recent comments.

However, "Geech" I don't want to give you an asinine speculatory trade rumor…that I pretty much fabricated.

Want to contribute to the next mailbag? E-mail Doug here

I've been struggling all weekend if I should write this or not. I decided that giving you information for you to judge is better than hiding the info and having you wonder, "what happened?"

I ran into a situation last week and I've decided to make a dramatic change. I will no longer be as vigilant in returning e-mails. I've always considered it simple customer service to return your e-mails.

In case you didn't know, I have returned almost every e-mail I've ever received as a talk show host. The only reason I would ever not return an e-mail is if your e-mail went to my junk file (I don't know what causes that) or if you needed to cuss me out to make your point. If you treated me like a jerk but didn't cuss, I would return your e-mail but I'm not pulling punches. I'd rip you right back. I thought it was hypocritical to only return the "nice" e-mails so I returned all of them.

No matter how heated an e-mail argument became, I could always count on that listener keeping the disagreement between us. Unfortunately that confidence was broken last week. I realize up front I'm over-reacting because it was one person out of about 200K e-mails I've received in almost four years. I believe I have to, however, because of how damning this incident could have been.

I consider it so important to return your e-mails because without you I have no job. Whether you love or hate me, agree or disagree, the show doesn't exist without you and our advertisers. If you take the time to communicate, I should take the time to respond. I hate to go in this direction but the risk of a listener taking my e-mail and using it against me is now too real.

I don't want to give you specifics because that would be unfair to the e-mailer (irrelevant of the e-mailer's treatment of me). The listener wasn't happy with his perception of how we treated one of the teams he rooted for and called Wolf, Farmer Rod and me idiots. I defended why we do what we do and never got personal.

Now, I'm no saint. I was very terse and sarcastic in my comments but I responded with facts to back-up my points and never attacked him.

He forwarded my e-mail directly to the team.

Luckily I have a good standing at this station. Luckily I've had lots of conversations with this team in the past so they knew not to take my comments out-of-context for how they were attended. As you can imagine, though, not everyone listens to the show or knows anything about me. As the e-mail circulated, the confusion mounted until a consortium of people could put out the fire. I caused a lot of people drama last week of which I feel terrible. I can't help but think it started all because I trusted one person.

Don't get me wrong. I meant what I said. I'm not hiding from my comments. I would have told the team the same thing. The difference is I would have explained the situation in more detail than three sentences written while I'm already on the air. I would have taken the time to give the team the respect they deserve as opposed to the time I'll give someone calling me an idiot and questioning the work all of who work on the show. A quick three sentence e-mail can easily be misread and all it takes is one person to make a judgment and everything goes wrong.

There is one thing that comes out of this you might like. The return of the mailbag. I will now keep all your e-mails you send and answer some as soon as I can in the mail bag. With the mailbag you can find out what I think about your comments while alleviating my concern for what someone might do with my answer just because they wanted me to suck up to them.

Larry Fitzgerald was in the huddle for every play call despite no helmet or pads and a huge brace on his right leg. He broke the huddle like anyone else. Of course it seemed like Coach Ken Whisenhunt was genius. Why not run the first play in NFL history that went 5-wide with a running back? Who's going to cover a WR with a leg brace? Only this illegal formation included the worst route ever run by Larry Fitzgerald. He hobbled out from the huddle and lined up between a split wide Stephen Williams and Andre Roberts in the slot. He finally got there at the end of the snap count but never got set. The whole time he was in motion he shouted, "Sell it. They can't cover both of you. Make him (the safety) choose. Drive him back."

Leinart took the snap but his favorite receiver just stood there shouting down field. Roberts, confident since he knew this was his best practice and best day as a professional athlete, juked to the outside and then went up the seam on a Z route. Matt Ware cut him off ready to intercept a pass from the USC QB who never threw the deep ball. SOLD. Williams never broke stride while listening to the shouts of the best receiver in the NFL behind him. Leinart let fly a pass that was clearly overthrown to the uneducated from the second it left his hand. No way could a player that 32 NFL teams said, "No Thanks," to seven different times run under that pass in the back of the end zone.

TOUCHDOWN CARDINALS!

Do you mind if I do something really dumb? I did my first sports talk show in April of 1991 so I'm coming close to being a member of the media for 20 years. I'm about to do something that would get me fired from any college campus teaching job. I watched one practice Tuesday and made a decision.

The Arizona Cardinals will win the NFC West.

Yes, I just made that prediction after watching Tuesday's practice.

Ever notice that Ken Whisenhunt always does the opposite of what's expected? He doesn't do this to be unpredictable. He's just a graduate of Georgia Tech and he's smarter than the rest of us. Whenever the Cards play poorly during the regular season, it's CKW who always calms down media and fans. After what we thought was an average pre-season game, it's CKW who's dropping the hammer while the rest of us check the film wondering what upset him. CKW uses the pre-season to reach perfection while the regular season is just a mechanism to reach the playoffs.

There was no doubt that every player on the Arizona Cardinals got the message that CKW was disappointed in Saturday night's performance against the Houston Texans. If you would have watched Tuesday's practice you would agree with me. You won't hear this from very many sources because there were about 10 members of the media at practice and six of them were Sports 620 KTAR employees.

The Cardinals practiced their two-minute drill. At first it was tough. The four-wide wide receivers were Steve Breaston, Andre Roberts, Ed Gant, and Stephen Williams. Yes, Stephen Williams caught an incredible 45-yard bomb in the back of the end zone with the CB draped all over him on the best pass of Matt Leinart's professional career, but that's not why I picked the Cards. It was what I saw every play for five plays before that.

Larry Fitzgerald didn't sit on an exercise bike thinking "this is rehab." Do your rehab on your own time and be involved in practice now. Larry ran in his brace to tell the receivers what he would see if he were playing. That's a team leader who got the message from his coach.

Only seven players went into the locker room after practice. There were over 50 players who stayed on the field working on their skills when they had already allotted the full time mandated. Look to the far side of the field and there's Andre Roberts, Marshay Green, Jorrick Calvin and Justin Miller catching punts from the Jugs machine. In the foreground are six different WR's throwing passes to each other. To your left, just standing on the sideline, are three OL talking to Russ Grimm making swim move gesture's to each other. The QB's are talking to passing game coordinator Mike Miller at the 45.

Ken Whisenhunt is standing at the 50 and he is well pleased.

Dear National media:

Meet the 2010 NFC West Champions.

• DWash—Wow…can cover and blow up running backs

• DWill—three plays sequence: ended up pushed back 8 yards/stuffed a 3rd & 1/pushed back on QB sneak for 1st down…Washington looks like the 1st rounder and Williams the 2nd

• Toler—better than in any practice in Flag

• DA—pick was tipped but it was thrown in coverage

• Togafau—showed why he always bounces between practice squad and inactive list

• Branch—solid not flashy got held twice that wasn't called

• Iwebema—constant energy, great special teams block

• Roberts—if I'm trapped on the 2nd floor of a fiery building with a baby, I'm not tossing him the kid…wonderful block on the TD run

• Lutui—does he want a job?

• Green—hard to keep him off the field

• Jefferson—inconsistant…couple real nice plays and two completely blown angles

• Dray—never seen him in practice because he was always hurt but looked good blocking and receiving

• Wells—no holes but ran hard…read coverage well and sat down in zone for TD rec

• Williams—just keeps going…great catches including the PF he drew and hung on the ball…next play draws PI

• Skelton—didn't play this well in practice…maybe he's the QB that gets the gamer tag