I listened yesterday to the Cardinals' radio broadcast of the game.
Dave Pasch and Ron Wolfley do a great job. They've been working together for a while, and are smooth. Of course it's a homer broadcast, but more than most I think they do a good job of crediting the other team when credit is due.
Wolfley is tuned in with the Cardinals and their coaching staff. He played for the Cardinals. When he says "the Cardinals want to do X" or "The Cardinals game plan is to do X", I don't think he's speculating. He's gotten it from the horse's mouth.
And at the beginning of that broadcast, they both described the Rams as a one-dimensional offense where the whole key is to stop Gurley.
They talked about how the Cardinals were disappointed in their run defense against Buffalo, and how that had been a focus all week in practice.
Although they weren't rude about it, it was very clear as the game began, that Gurley was the focus and that there was no fear or respect for Keenum. Then as the game went along, they began to acknowledge more and more that maybe Keenum was a little underestimated.
My point here is that other teams, at least until last Sunday, clearly still have the plan we've mentioned here multiple times. Stop Gurley. Maintain lane discipline. Make Keenum beat them. We've seen not just 8 but often 9 man boxes. At least once I saw Seattle with 10 men at the LOS and 1 safety deep.
This is to Gurley's detriment and Keenum's advantage. Not to take anything away from CK, but the defenses are handing it to him on a silver platter right now in an effort to deny Todd. That needs to be considered when evaluating their relative performances.
I think that if an opposing defense decided that the way to really stop the Rams was to stop Case Keenum, then things might be just a wee bit more difficult for him. Of course, that might open the running game in the way we'd like, which would help any QB on down and distance.
It's just interesting when listening to that game on Card's radio to hear the other guy's perspective on our team. They respect the H*** out of the defense, especially Donald and Quinn. And they were certainly impressed again, I think, with TruJo. They definitely know that the Rams come to play physical ball. That Card offense got beaten up and down and they knew it.
