ARIZONA CARDINALS

SI’s Greg Bedard thinks Cardinals have ‘heads up their rear ends’

Sep 28, 2016, 2:45 PM | Updated: Sep 29, 2016, 6:12 pm

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer (3) is pressured by Buffalo Bills linebacker Lerentee M...

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer (3) is pressured by Buffalo Bills linebacker Lerentee McCray (56) during the first half of an NFL football game on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

(AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

LISTEN: Greg Bedard, Sports Illustrated NFL writer

For reasons that likely make their blood boil, Cardinals fans might remember Sports Illustrated’s Greg Bedard.

He was the one who picked Arizona to lose 10 regular season games in a row and 11 total last September before changing tune two months later and picking Bruce Arians’ team to make the Super Bowl.

Bedard was one game away from being correct last season, but three games into 2016, the Sports Illustrated NFL writer is once again not feeling confident about the Cardinals.

“If I had to generalize about the whole team, I’d say that everybody from the players to the coaches read too many of their own press clippings and were way too overconfident in their talent, their abilities, did not prepare hard enough for the season and did not prepare well enough for these games,” Bedard said Wednesday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM’s Bickley and Marotta.

“I mean, they’ve been abysmal to this point.”

Bedard first called Arizona’s gameplan against the Tom Brady-lacking Patriots “gutless,” though Arians took blame in getting too involved in the defensive gameplan during that Week 1, 23-21 loss.

As for Arizona’s 33-18 defeat in Buffalo during Week 3, well, Bedard said that gameplan was “stupid.”

“I don’t know what they’re thinking,” he said of the Cardinals’ defense of Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who Bedard says mostly throws deep balls or runs the read-option. “You don’t have anybody on their defense spying?”

For what it’s worth, the Cardinals planned for it and the players took heat from Arians after the game for failing to set the edge, especially on a 49-yard option by Taylor.

“Collectively, I think the Cardinals have their heads up their rear ends and need to get it out,” Bedard said.

But the Sports Illustrated writer believes the offense has the bigger issues. He criticized stubbornness by Arians and quarterback Carson Palmer, who failed to adjust to defenses focused on stopping Arizona’s deep passing game. A step back in terms of offensive line play hasn’t helped Palmer standing in the pocket long enough to get the ball off, he added.

“They just refused to find a way to dink-and-dunk, and they keep running these deep routes and it’s getting them nowhere,” Bedard said.

For what it’s worth, Bedard actually picked Arizona to win the 2017 Super Bowl before the season began.

His criticism that comes off bluntly, to say the least, shouldn’t yet be taken for a changing of his opinion.

“I’m not willing to come off my preseason prediction. These things happen. You know, I think that one of the toughest things for teams to deal with and young teams — and you could call the Cardinals young in terms of success — is dealing with success,” Bedard told Bickley and Marotta.

“I do think that it’s correctable,” he added. “It just takes one game for things to snap into place. For me, it’s a question of when that happens for the Cardinals. I think it will happen.”

 

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SI’s Greg Bedard thinks Cardinals have ‘heads up their rear ends’