Cardinals O-line has ups and downs in preseason opener

Things didn’t start so well for the offensive line.

Kevin Kolb was forced to scramble a couple times and there wasn’t much room for Beanie Wells to run.

“We had too many mental mistakes with our starting offensive line,” Cardinals Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “But as far as protection went I thought they did a pretty good job.”

Whisenhunt mentioned a couple of plays where, if the guard had done his job correctly, the quarterback would not have had to rush a throw or scramble away from pressure, missing out on a big play downfield.

Fortunately the line settled down and started opening holes for the running backs as well as giving Kolb time to find targets downfield.

“I thought they did a nice job as far as holding up,” Whisenhunt said. “Is there room for improvement? Yeah, but that goes back to thinking, these five guys that played in the line for us offensively last night have practiced five times, and there’s a lot of things that go together as far as communication, working together on zone schemes.”

Hopefully the line, with more practice, develops the necessary chemistry with which to succeed. If not the offense will struggle, as Kolb will be running for his life and the running backs into defenders far too often.

ArizonaSports.com’s Craig Grialou contributed to this report

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