Cardinals get the win but have much to work on
Nov 7, 2011, 7:24 PM | Updated: 10:21 pm
After six long weeks — seven if you include the bye week
— the Cardinals finally picked up their second win Sunday
against the Rams.
The team did it in dramatic fashion no less, thanks to a
Patrick Peterson 99-yard punt return for a touchdown in
overtime to seal the 19-13 victory.
Head coach Ken Whisenhunt believes the win will go a long
way for his team.
“It was much needed by our football team I think you could
see that in the emotion of our guys in the locker room
after,” Whisenhunt said. “When you come in here every day
and you work and you want to do well and things don’t go
your way it’s tough. To have something go your way and to
win a game it does a lot to lift the spirits and get the
guys to believe in what we’re doing.”
Even if the team’s confidence is improved, the win on
Sunday was anything but solid.
The Cardinals only managed to put up 70 yards rushing
against the league’s worst run defense. Whisenhunt blamed
this on a combination of Cardinals struggles and the Rams
defense.
“I think there were some plays to made in the running game
early that we didn’t make,” Whisenhunt said. “But St.
Louis came in with eight and nine in the box to try and
stop the run and make you beat them with the pass.”
Quarterback John Skelton was the Cards leading rusher with
38 yards. The team’s starting running back, Beanie Wells,
has been battling a knee injury since Week 7. The battered
tailback struggled Sunday only gaining 20 yards on ten
attempts.
Even the hero of Sunday’s game had his struggles. Peterson
was flagged twice for defensive penalties, something the
rookie DB has struggled with this season. In response,
Whisenhunt says penalties are something you should expect
from a rookie.
“It’s really about technique and understanding how you
play that position, when we have issues we have a tendency
to get out of our technique,” Whisenhunt said. “That’s the
focus with Patrick not the way he plays but making sure he
does it the right way because when he does it the right
way he’s good, but he’s a rookie.”
There was also the minor detail of Skelton basically
giving St. Louis four points with back-to-back safeties.
The Cardinals will need to do their best to fix some of
the issues before traveling to Philadelphia Sunday to take
on the Eagles.
Arizona Sports’ Kyndra de St. Aubin contributed to this
report
