Looking at the Numbers- Cardinals Week 8
Oct 25, 2011, 9:36 PM | Updated: Oct 26, 2011, 12:03 am
Six games and seven weeks into the season, the biggest
number surrounding the Arizona Cardinals is 1-5.
That’s the Cardinals record through 6 games, and they’ve
lost their last 5. That mark also puts them four full
games
behind the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West standings
with ten games left to play.
In other words, the outlook is beyond bleak at this
point.
But there are some other telling numbers with this team
that
may (or may not) shed some light on why they are where
they
are.
52 – The number of times Larry Fitzgerald has had
the ball thrown his way this season. That is tied for
15th-most in the league through six games. Since that
stat has been recorded (starting in 2006) Fitzgerald has
only ranked outside the top six in targets once, and that
was in ’06 when he missed three games with an injury and
finished in a tie for 33rd in the category.
78.8 – Kevin Kolb’s quarterback rating through six
games, a mark that is 25th in the league and behind the
likes of Alex Smith, Curtis Painter, Andy Dalton, Donovan
McNabb, Tarvaris Jackson and Chad Henne.
67.8 – Derek Anderson’s quarterback rating through
six games in 2010, just in case you were wondering–I’m
looking at you, Kolb bashers.
33-37 – Ken Whisenhunt’s record since taking the
head coaching job with the Cardinals prior to the 2007
season. Whisenhunt is one of 13 men who have been
employed as NFL head coaches continuously since ’07, and
his record is 10th best in that group. Only Marvin Lewis
(29-40), John Fox (31-39) and Jack Del Rio (33-38) have
worse marks than Whisenhunt in that span.
48 – The Cardinals have already targeted their
tight ends 48 times this season. Not in itself an
exciting number, but when you consider that Cardinal
quarterbacks threw to tight ends 44 times all of
last season, that’s pretty interesting. Of course, those
targets may have come at the expense of Fitzgerald’s
targets (see above). In 2009, tight ends were targeted
only 38 times.
29 – The Cardinals power ranking in ESPN’s latest poll, released on
Tuesday.
