Breaking down Arizona Cardinals’ Week 1 win over Saints with AQ Shipley

Breaking down Arizona Cardinals’ Week 1 win over Saints with AQ Shipley

Yep. Every Monday morning we will talk Cardinals football with the new color analyst on the Cardinals radio network and former Cardinal Center AQ Shipley and our maiden voyage of that new feature is today as AQ joins us via video. AQ one in the books. How’d it go for you man? Let’s go. Yeah, it was awesome. I had a great time. Felt smooth, felt comfortable, saw the game pretty clearly. Dave Pash is a true pro, absolute legend. And it was great to be in the booth finally since they stuck me with, you know, a couple other guys in the preseason. So, we got no camaraderie till the first week, but yesterday was good. Felt smooth. Felt like we’ve been doing it forever. A true pro. Uh, break down the performance. Uh, we’ve been talking about, look, Cardinal fans are greeted by news when they wake up if they woke up early. Kyler Murray’s under the weather. He’s on the injury report and everybody thinking, “Oh no, here we go.” Thought he played a decent game. Uh, I I I you know, I thought uh he was under control. I thought he made some plays with his legs. How would you assess Kyler Murray’s week one play AQ? Listen, no turnovers. That’s that’s half the battle. That’s going to be the biggest thing with him, right? Like if he can if he can take care of the football, this team’s got 11 or more wins written all over it, right? But I think the biggest thing over the years is, you know, you have a couple of those games where, you know, two turnovers get away from you and then it ends up um kind of derailing the season. But, you know, if he can take care of the football, he’s so talented and this team is very talented. I really like what they did on defense in the offseason. I really like the group that they have coming back on offense. One more year in the system for Marvin Harrison Jr. The backs are really good. So, the offensive line’s really good. If they can stay healthy and the camaraderie and, you know, the more they play together with the new guards, I mean, they’re just going to get better and better as the season goes along. So, for me, I thought I thought week one was pretty good. And normally week one’s pretty sloppy, especially, listen, like they had everything going against them, right? They go across two time zones. They play a noon kickoff in New Orleans, right? Their quarterback wakes up, he’s a little under the weather. There’s so much stuff going against them. And if you can just walk away 1 and0 after week one, that is huge. that people don’t realize the difference between walking in the building on Monday after week one 1 and0 versus 0 and1 because 0 and one the entire building is tight now the entire week right there’s so much pressure on you to not be 0 and2 because if you go 0 and2 all the odds are against you yes Cardinals defense AQ only they were able to get to Spencer Rattler only one time only one sack Kyler Murray was sacked five times it appears the optics were that the Saints won the battles of the lines of scrimmage on both sides of the football. Did you see it that way? And if you did, why was that? And how much of a concern is that? Yeah, the one concern I had there was there was there was not much pressure coming from the interior of the defensive line. I thought sweat got some pressure a couple times and if there was more press up the middle, I thought maybe something could have happened there. Um, the Cam Jordan sack early, I think that’s just that’s just a veteran defensive end. I played with Dwight Freeny for a bunch of years and Dwight used to say, “Listen, I never played the run when the when the play was away from me. I used to just go up field and hope that it was a play action boot and try and steal one sack a game. If I steal one sack a game, that’s 16 for the year. I go to the Pro Bowl every year, right?” So, that’s just that’s just a Cam Jordan, you know, veteran move, not playing the runaway on the play action, getting a sack. There was another one where I think both tackles let one in uh late, but I think that was a coverage sack. Um, there’s maybe another one that I thought was maybe off of pressure. Maybe somebody got edged inside. So, like I wouldn’t necessarily say that like they like their Dline was so much better than our Dline. I just think I think Kell Moore had a really good plan to be honest with you. I thought he did a really nice job with a young quarterback with Spencer Rattler going tempo early and tempo often. Seemed to be a little bit of confusion especially on the road, crowd noise, right? Like all kind of new environment and I thought that uh they had a pretty good plan for that. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was like a a lopsided victory for their for their lines versus ours. AQ Shipley, our guest. He’s going to be our guest every Monday morning here on Bickley and Marada Mornings breaking down Cardinals, win or lose the day before. In terms of individuals on the offensive line, um you know, four starters back, the the new starter there, Isaiah Adams at right guard. How do you think lay people we don’t watch the lines, linemen watch the lines? I’d love to hear your breakdown of him individually and his uh start in the season opener. Listen, I when I walked out yesterday, I still have to watch the film. I haven’t watched it yet. I’m going to dive into all these games today, but I think just from my perspective of the game, I think the one thing that I said to Dave Pash as we were walking to the buses after was I didn’t I didn’t notice him, right? And I think when you don’t notice alignment, I think they did a pretty good job, right? I think I don’t think he had any sacks. I don’t think he had any penalties, right? Like I think for the most part, I think he did a solid job. I’m going to have to go back and take a peek at it, but again, I think there’s more to be desired in the run game. Even the long run by Benson. Yes. As I’m watching that from up top, like that could have very easily been a fouryard loss. Absolutely. Right. Like there was pressure up on the on the whole right side of the line. He just did a nice job keeping that thing bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, and then ends up getting a getting a runway down the sideline. So, I that was a little little different than what I’ve been used to seeing of this Cardinals offensive line and Cardinals run game, especially over the last couple years, but I think they were doing some cool things on offense. They were doing some different things. I think that’s what you do in the first week. But for me, I thought I thought he did a pretty solid job. Again, I’m going to have to go back and watch the film. Uh, didn’t love the penalty by by Brown uh down in the uh end zone goal line area. You know, I I thought I thought he could have saw that a little quicker. I saw it coming from a mile away. You saw Deario Davis. They actually ran the same blitz the next time and James Connor picked it up pretty well. So, um, other than that, I thought the interior of the line, I mean, Fhold even had a had a penalty. So, I’d like to see more from that interior of the offensive line. I thought the tack was played pretty well, though. You know, AQ, I I think we can all agree the Cardinals left some plays and some points on the field and that prevented them from maybe stepping on the throat of the Saints and putting this game away a little bit earlier uh than they did. Jonathan Ganon now this week pulls his team in and he can kind of make these corrections but he does so under the umbrella of a win. Obviously that’s the most important thing. What would job in your eyes? What what’s job one for John and Jonathan Ganon and that coaching staff this week in terms of making improvements from week one to week two? The good thing about listen I think I think you know I played for Bruce Arenss a bunch of years and Bruce Arens used to always say the good teams make the biggest improvement all year between week one and week two. Oh, I I I thoroughly believe that’s true because especially even now more so than any other time because you don’t play as much in the preseason. So, your first action of getting your feet wet is really week one. Okay, cool. They played nine plays in week one. Like, that’s about it for the preseason, right? So, now it’s completely different practice versus game. It’s also completely different preseason versus game. It’s completely different game versus playoff. It’s completely different. Playoff versus Super Bowl, right? So, the the speed of the game, everything kind of picks up as we move along in this season. So, I think now that they got stuff on tape, now that they got a full game under their belt, they’ve they’ve, you know, really got their lungs working for 70s something plays and um you know, really went through a whole game against another team and game planned and, you know, had to play the chess match throughout the game and make corrections on the fly and adjustments and doing all these things. Now you can sit there and really make corrections. And now you put together your game plan. Now you start to see what you do well and what you don’t do well. Hey, was the gap scheme better? Was the zone scheme better? Whatever it may be, right? And so now you can make these real corrections and move forward. But I think the biggest thing now is 1 and0 gives you a ton of confidence versus 0 and one. Now you’re now you’re questioning everything. Yeah. AQ Shipley, our guest here on Bickley and Marada Mornings. in terms of what the Saints uh kind of put out there. Played with tempo, played with no huddle in week one. Uh and you just mentioned getting your win is so important uh for for a full game, but we also know New Orleans, the Superdome, regardless of the quality of the Saints team, can be a really really difficult environment. I know you played in the Cardinals last game in New Orleans back in 2019, which was Kyler’s rookie season. kind of stack that up against other places you’ve played AQ in terms of toughness of the crowd and just the environment. Very tough environment. I mean, it’s a very tough environment. I mean, I wouldn’t put it up there with Seattle, but it is it is up there. And I mean, when they are rolling, that place gets loud. That who that thing is super intimidating when it happens early, you know. And last night they were or yesterday afternoon they were recognizing Taran Armstead, one of their long staple tackles who’s a really good football player and he’s the one who got the crowd going early. It was still pretty loud. Now whenever they had breeze and they were rolling and you knew they were, you know, winning the NFC South and challenging for the NFC every year. That thing was really really rolling and it’s a really tough crowd. And you know, my last year playing and my LA and you know, my only year coaching, so I I went back to back 2021 being in Tampa. So, we played there every year. So, you know, I got to see that environment firsthand. And I mean, it can get it can get really tough. And I think I think the Cardinals did a good job. I mean, their first drive, you know, they start off, they get a they get a first down early, but then they stall out, but then I think they score on their next three or four possessions. So, you know, to get points on the road in in a hostile environment and and listen, I’ll be very clear about something. Everybody’s going to sit there and say the New Orleans Saints aren’t very good. I think if you talk to New Orleans and everybody in that building, they like 21 of their 22 starters up against anybody else in the National Football League. Whether or not the quarterback remains to be seen. We will find out. But 21 of the 22 they love. Yeah, I’ll tell you one thing. If Spencer Rattler plays like he did yesterday, he’s going to win some football games uh this season. AQ, real quick. Got about 30 seconds. having to get Michael Wilson and Z Jones and Greg Dorch more involved in the offense in terms of targets and receptions. How do the Cardinals do that? Because they need something out of that triumvirate. Yeah, there’s no question. I said the same thing. I looked down at one point and Z I don’t think Z Jones had a target at at one point in the game and you know Michael Michael Wilson might might have had one catch. I mean we were talking midway through the third quarter or something like that. And so I think the biggest thing is listen, you just got to make that part of your you know your first 15. like when you’re scripting plays, like get everybody involved early. And I think probably part of it was getting the camaraderie going between Kyler and Marvin, which they did. They did a great job with that. Get the run game going. Multiple formations, do some different things. But, you know, in that first 15, if we can get just a a touch for each one of those guys. Now, their confidence soarses, the coaching staff’s confidence, Kyler’s confidence, and that’s everything. AQ, glad you’re going to be with us every Monday this uh this year, man. We look forward to your next visit. Absolutely. Can’t wait, guys. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. Click to see the latest Bley Blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Cardinals radio color analyst AQ Shipley joins Vince Marotta and guest host Tim Ring to talk about what he saw from Arizona in their season-opening win vs. the New Orleans Saints.

Will Johnson drops the hammer in Cardinals’ season-opening win vs. Saints: https://arizonasports.com/nfl/arizona-cardinals/will-johnson-5/3595236/

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