NOTHING IS FINE: Arizona Cardinals Owner Michael Bidwill Bungles Again Fining Jonathan Gannon

NOTHING IS FINE: Arizona Cardinals Owner Michael Bidwill Bungles Again Fining Jonathan Gannon

Michael Bidwell does it again. This time in wildly ridiculous fashion. Let’s discuss. [Music] You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily Arizona Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Don Cardinals, why do we have to keep doing this? Why do we have to keep doing this? Uh, thanks for hanging out. Thanks for being every day. This is your first listen to Lockdown Cardinals. Thank you. Uh, part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Another jam show day. Um, got crossover Thursday uh, with Lockdown Colts tomorrow and then a full breakdown of the game. The let’s see what happens this Sunday. that’s just going to be the theme moving forward. Um, the offensive play calling was glossed over again. Uh, when Drew Petting spoke to the media, um, I don’t know if they’re just trolling the media and everybody or if they’ve got clamps on from Michael Bidwell to say, “Yep, just don’t don’t say anything.” Or if they’re truly lost. And I don’t think that there’s like one definitive answer. Uh it’s just it’s expected and it’s still mind-blowing and I’ll go more in depth about it. Uh but Michael Bidwell does it again. Uh for those that missed it, Michael Bidwell finded Jonathan Ganon $100,000 for his interaction with Amari de Marcado after Marcato dropped the ball before crossing the goal line. So let’s take the human side first. First off, Amari D Marcado didn’t do something where he would like blatantly ran up to opposing quarterback and took his cleats and started hitting him with it. Like it wasn’t something so egregious that it’s never been seen before and it’s like offensive and you deserve to be suspended for it or something like that. I know that’s a ridiculous like example, but it wasn’t something like egregious to where, you know, oh, maybe you’re not a good person for doing that. Okay, that’s one. Two, it 100% didn’t cost the Cardinals the game. Like, it wasn’t the reason for it. They weren’t down two points with zero time remaining, and he ran it all the way to the to the end zone, then dropped before he walked across into pay dirt. Okay, the Cardinal should have 100% won that game regardless of if that was a touchdown or not. Okay, so those are just factual when it comes to the altercation. What I can’t This happens from middle school football. I remember my middle school uh flag football coach ripped me for I think it was I can’t remember what it was dropping an interception or or I can’t remember what it was but it was like it wasn’t you know it made me cry or anything but it was like this happens this is what football coaches do like what are we doing here? Okay well what about the the slap he hit him in the in the stomach where he’s padded. It’s like, dude, come on. Like, that’s what’s the difference between that and and hitting somebody on on the helmet? But that’s not even the biggest issue. And it’s not an issue. And I’m sure Jonathan Gon hugged the bleep out of him when he got into the locker room. Michael Bidwell had to make it about himself. So, let’s talk about the opposite of that. Could the NFL have f have finded Michael uh Jonathan Ganon? Yeah, but they wouldn’t have. This isn’t like, oh, Michael Bidwell saved it. He kept it in house. No, no, no. Michael Bidwell made this about himself. Michael Bidwell, like he always does, makes this about himself. So, he took what was a teaching moment, not only for Amari D. Marcato, but for Jonathan Ganon as a coach. See, he said he apologized to him after, which of course he’s going to. This isn’t a oh, so why do it in the first place? It’s because it had to happen. That’s what happens when you mess up on a football field. So now Michael B. He goes, “Don’t worry, guys. I got this. Don’t worry guys, I know what I’m doing. Six figures. That’s going to make things better. That’s not going to drive a wedge. That’s not going to have this become a national story when people would have forgot about it 10 minutes later because of the 247 news cycle. The world in which we live now. But no, no, no. I got it. I’m going to be the bigger man. I’m going to come down for my ivory post and I’m gonna slap a fine on a head coach that doesn’t deserve it. But because I’m a good owner, because I know what the hell I’m doing. Look at all the rings. Look at all the championships. I’m going to be the bigger man even though I can’t reach the top shelf. I’m going to be the bigger person even though I have ongoing litigation and allegations surrounding my workplace uh misconduct. I’ll be the bigger guy here. I’ll be the rational one. Fine. the ineptitude and out of this world of rational thought thinking that Michael Bidwell has in important situations is the reason why the Cardinals are most likely to never win anything. And I think that’s pretty obvious and I think that’s kind of the it’s what it’s been with the bidwell name. And just when you think that it’s gone away, it rears its ugly head again. Just when you think he’ll just stay up in his tower and leave everybody the hell alone, he has to make it about himself. This is an egoomaniadriven move by a guy who doesn’t know what to do when important things need to get done. And that’s all this is. This isn’t about doing the right thing. This isn’t about reprimanding a head coach who got heated on a sideline with a player who messed up royally. This isn’t about protecting a player. He doesn’t give a crap. This is about making him look good. This is about protecting his bottom line which is sinking because all these new cassitas ce’s the thing. Cardinals would have won at least one Super Bowl if he called him flipping cardas like he’s supposed to. The casola blahy blahy blah all this food. Nobody’s sitting in the damn seats. Mike never called him Mike before. Normally you use the the full name when you want to reprimand somebody, not the shortened version. Woo! Give me chills. This was a muchdo about nothing situation between a coach and a player. That is far from an original story. And Michael Bidwell had to make it about himself. He had to be magnanimous and throw his weight around. Look at all my rings, guys. Look at all my championships. Look at all the things that I’ve done well as an owner. Let’s just add this to the mantle piece. I did the right thing. I was the bigger person. What this could do is fracture a locker room. Not entirely. I’m not getting, you know, uh, you know, lay miser rob here. I’m not getting like, oh, wo is them. They went through something that a team has never gone through. No, but it’s not great. It’s not great. And while this will blow over because everything does in sports, I mean things like this because of the news cycle, it’s just another thing that will make the Cardinals a laughingtock. I tweeted this out. This is the homework rule version of a fine and Michael Bidwell’s name is all over it. Lockdown Cardinals, your team every day. The offensive play calling gets glossed over again in a presser. What a surprise. I’ll discuss it next. This episode of Locked on Cardinals is brought to you by FanDuel. Week six, man. Appreciate football. We’re almost a third of the way through. FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. So, appreciate this, too. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. You pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I’m seeing on Twitter, I just see like screenshots of like like it’s one of those it’s the millmaker. It’s like, “Oh, I’m not going to work tomorrow, honey. If I hit this, it’s like three first first touchdown scores parlayed and, you know, it’s tens of thousands of dollars, whatever. It’s insane.” So, like say you’re a new player and you sign up and you bet $5 and you win that bet. You get $300 in bonus bets to do whatever the hell you want with. It’s amazing. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. Go do it. Um, yeah. So, not great. Not great for Michael Bidwell. Jake Arthur locked on Colts tomorrow. Crossover. It’s going to be fun. Um, I’m terrified about that game. I don’t really want to discuss it yet. I don’t think I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s constructive to discuss that. Um, it’s still fixable. I’ll talk about in the next segment. I I alluded to it a little bit before. I know I said I was going to talk about the defense today, um, which I’ll do in the final segment. Uh, but the Michael Bidwell thing, sometimes you got to change things. Uh Drew Pettson and Jonathan Gon both said they didn’t like the play call on third and eight uh where they ran the ball at the gut surprise surprise with two minutes and 12 seconds. Um instead of putting the ball in Kyler Murray’s hand uh when asked did Kyler have a check where he could check out of that play they said no. Oh cool. So let’s just let’s just you know get around the campfire here hold hands and uh let let’s just ask the question. Um, so if Jonathan Gidding didn’t like the play call and uh Drew Ping didn’t like play call and just for people who don’t remember, Drew Psoning calls the plays. So for if Drew Petting didn’t like the play call and Kyler Murray was unable to do anything besides down said hike turn handoff. What are we doing here? What’s the play? I didn’t like the play call. I didn’t like the play call. Oh, I didn’t like the play call. Do you guys communicate? Well, it’s a timing thing. Do you guys practice two-minute drill? Do you guys have any wherewithal to maybe check out of a play if everybody and their mother and their cousins know you’re going to run the ball because your offense always does that? Maybe give the quarterback a checkout. Maybe have a contingency plan. Oh, hey, hey, maybe call a timeout instead of just hoping that the opposing team decides to just, you know, take an ambient and all take naps for the last two minutes of the game so the Cardinals can run the clock out. It’s becoming a thing where it was kind of like, well, at least they got the win in week one. Oh, well, at least they got the win in week two. Well, you know what? The defense played really well in week three. It was kind of stinky the way they lost. Oh, well, Seattle’s a good team and the Cardinals, they came back and Marv had the catch to Chernobyl. Like, I don’t know. I’ve been very calm with all of this stuff. And I think there’s a world where that this like there’s a rational world where that’s the way to, you know, discuss these things because you’re starting to see incremental growth. we saw this whole offseason even though the offense wasn’t touched and like you know we we’ve seen it we’ve seen a different brand an elevated brand of football defensively and then you see these flashes good team against good teams against bad teams where the offense just hums and then what we’re seeing significantly at this point more irrespective of opponent significantly more frequently than the competency is a grave incompetency of an offense. Like bottom two grave incompetency of an offense. And it’s something that it’s it’s something that is very very it’s not even off-putting. It’s like do you guys know how bad you look and you you don’t change anything? and then you say you didn’t like how things were run and then you don’t change anything and then you look worse and then you say you don’t like how things are run and then you don’t change anything. Do you see where I’m going with this? So, listen. I know that was a like a Broadway production there, but I mean that’s kind of where we’re at. Feel like I’m taking crazy pills. The extreme conservative nature when all you need is two first downs just blows my mind. Nobody like this is this is this is where we’re at. Nobody would get mad at them for throwing the ball on second and third down. It’s like, “Oh, why don’t you run the ball?” Nobody’s going to say that. That’s the point that we’re at now watching this team. That’s why I say if you make a mistake, make them big. not, you know, the Laurel and Hardy Three Stooges routine with uh not being able to pick the ball up after David Teller Dmer intercepted it, but like just throw on all three downs. I don’t care. It’s like, well, why are you why are you not running the ball? Nobody’s going to say that. What the offense should do is the exact opposite of what they’ve done up until this point. Let’s just do that as a rule. do the exact opposite. 10 plus targets for Trey. 10 Marv had four for 98. You’re looking at like So there was there was a u it wasn’t mine, so I can’t put it up, but there was a an image going around of the list of Ohio State wide receivers from this past weekend. Marv had by far the fewest amount of targets and catches. You know, Jackson Smith and Jigba and and Mecha Ibuka. Um, you know, even Chris Lava had more catches, less yards, but it’s like we used to we used to say this um when DeAndre Hopkins was here, why would you buy a Lamborghini and put it in first gear? Now, sure, I’m This is a Kyler problem, too. Okay, the clock is now ticking at triple speed. But the fact that every presser is like, “Oh, we got to be better. Oh, we got to be better. Oh, we got to improve. Oh, yeah, we got to be better. Oh, I got to be better. Oh, we got to be better.” Yeah, you do. A year ago. Oh, didn’t really like the play call. Oh, didn’t really like the play call. Did Kyler have a check? No. Is somebody holding a gun to your head proverbally and making you call these plays? Is there an alien overlord that has sucked the brains out of your ears? and forcing you to call an inside handoff on third and eight when you need a first down to win the game. No. No. What? I wish that that wasn’t insane to say. I mean, it is insane to say. Okay, there’s no aliens, but what are we doing here? Lockdown Cardinals, your team every day. It’s still fixable. Didn’t I bet you didn’t see that coming. I’ll talk about that next. We’re all on here. You know, I’m going to pop in my friend Cody Ror. I’m Cody Ror from Lockdown Broncos and this episode is brought to you by Pelaton. Pelaton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Pelaton crossraining tread plus powered by Pelaton IQ. This is Pelaton’s most advanced equipment yet, giving you real time guidance and endless ways to move. Whether you’re running, lifting, or you’re crossraining with your favorite instructors like Alex Tusant, it’s training reimagined to make your workout more personal. Pelaton is built for breakthroughs. With features that help you plan, stay motivated, and hit peak performance. You can let yourself run, lift, flex, and go while Pelaton handles all the rest. Plus, Pelaton IQ provides real time strength coaching, tracking your progress and suggesting weights that challenge you so you can get stronger. Plus, the new movement tracking camera. It counts your reps and corrects your form in real time, making sure every rep is safer and smarter. So, let yourself run, lift, flex, push, and go. Explore the new Pelaton crossraining tread plus at onepelon.com. Yeah, it’s all fixable still. Surprise. Um, really quick about the defense. Uh, they’re averaging 19 points given up a game and the Cardinals are two and three. The only kind of rational way to look at this is, oh, the defense will save us. Oh, the defense got it. Defense are made of human beings who uh get tired and uh they can’t always play at peak performance when they’re forced to save every single game. So, with all that said, it can be fixed. Okay. Um Michael Carter and Amari D Marcato Zonovan Zonamovan Knight isn’t ideal. Okay. But they were pretty efficient last week. You know, both of them well two or three of them got in the end zone. Um, and uh, would have been three. Kyler Murray got in the end zone on a bootlegged that looked kind of like a real option on that play, if not the main play call. I know players were running routes. So, uh, but you know, I know uh, Tennessee’s defense isn’t fantastic, but you know, they held Houston to six points the week before before the explosion. Um, so I just really think just do the opposite of what you’re doing now. Just throw the book at it. Like legitimately, and I said this last week, but this is a legitimate statement. What do you got to lose? What do you got to lose? What you’re doing now isn’t working. instead of saying, “Yeah, we’ve got to get Marv Moore looks.” Do it. Do it. I don’t care if he catches five wide receiver screens on Sunday as part of it. Get him the ball. Uh what? Two games ago, he caught the wide receiver screen, first play, first down. Interesting. They’ve got big receivers. They’ve got big tight ends who can block. Bunch it to the left. Get Marv behind the line. throw him the ball and then have these guys block for him. Like this isn’t I don’t know why we’re having this conversation still. Get Trey McBride the ball. Do the same thing for Trey McBride. That’s the only instance where I’m like, “Yeah, dude. Throw it around the line of scrimmage.” Other than that, throw it down the field, man. Like, throw it down the field. I’m not saying go routes only. Every other offensive, every other NFL offense does it. And the Cardinals are playing like they’re playing it looks like they’re playing with like 30% of the football field that everybody else is playing with. And we’ve had these same conversations. I know like I I do this every day. I go I know how much of a broken record I sound like right now. But this is where we’re at. The defense is giving up 19 points per game. They haven’t been healthy pretty much since what? Since week two when Garrett Williams went down. Max Melton got hurt. Max Melton didn’t play last week. Will Johnson’s back. Will Johnson didn’t play. Like Darius Robinson and Bjoar is not back. And you know the defense is giving up 19 points per game. That is masterclass stuff. And like 18 of them, 19 of them, like the fourth quarter scoring, if you take, if you cut the fourth quarter scoring in half, they’d be leading the league in points against. Points. Yeah. Yeah. Points against. So, this is another thing that I want to talk about. Well, I’m going to pivot. It’s so fixable. We talked about this yesterday. Throw the ball tomorrow. Throw the ball to strike more. Three times more. 10 targets each here on out. So, this is something that I I haven’t failed you um with, but it hasn’t been talked about enough. Um what about the defensive wos in the fourth quarter of games? Okay. And I think especially final drives of games. Um San Francisco, the Carolina circus that happened in the fourth quarter. Uh a lot of that was penalty induced. um a really bad rough in the pass recall on Josh Sweat, I think, with the the body weight leverage on the only quarterback that’s smaller than Kyler Murray in the NFL. Um and then Tennessee this past week with two just dimes, absolute dimes from Cam Ward with uh Larry Stricken down the field. I still think and with a lot of, you know, evidence to back it up that the pass rush is just gassed at that point. I think that’s where it all starts. And they are gassed at that point because they’re good for the first two and a half quarters and then the offense forgets how to play offense in the NFL and then they’re on the field a lot. So when you look at time of possession, it skyrockets for the defense during the last like 20 minutes of games. When the offense is efficient and the offense is, you know, yielding sustained drives that end in points, end in touchdowns, defense rests early on. Early on in games, defense is not as tired because the game hasn’t started yet. Like this is and that’s science. At the end of games, they’re on the field a lot. Okay. Pass rushers get gassed when you have to rush the passer. 30 40 times a game and the game scripts have been so wonky for the Cardinals that it’s something that you know it’s just that sounds like I’m blaming game script. I’m not. But like the Cardinals have been up at least a score in four or five games going into the fourth quarter. So the San Francisco game, you got I mean the defense did everything they could. They had a safety that put the Cardinals up but with with two minutes left and then the offense did nothing and the defense had to come on the field again and Max Jones led a great drive. I this isn’t like that was more of a prevent defense. The Carolina game was a prevent defense. They’re just waiting for the clock to run out which in a rational world that makes sense. You would expect the offense to do something to counteract that. to be able to get a couple first downs so the defense didn’t have to be on the field for the entirety of the fourth quarter it seemed. So while I understand the push back on the defense, especially in fourth quarters of games, that’s not looking at the entire picture of the game. You still got to put it on the offense for making the defense do what they have been tasked to do in the second half of games this year. Figure out the offense. This team’s a playoff team. This is crazy. Locked on Cardinals, your team every day. Crossover Thursday tomorrow with Jake Gar from Locked on Colts. Remember, without you, there is no me. Oh, squad show tonight six o’clock. Talk to you then.

In this explosive episode, we tackle the Arizona Cardinals’ latest controversy head-on. Owner Michael Bidwill’s shocking decision to fine head coach Jonathan Gannon $100,000 has sent ripples through the NFL community. We dissect this move, examining its potential consequences on team dynamics and questioning whether it’s another misstep in Bidwill’s leadership.

Our host doesn’t pull punches, offering a fiery critique of the Cardinals’ offensive struggles. We break down the conservative play-calling that’s holding the team back and highlight missed opportunities that could have changed their 2-3 record. But it’s not all doom and gloom – we shine a spotlight on the defense’s impressive performance, allowing a mere 19 points per game.

The burning question remains: Can Arizona’s offense rise to match their defensive prowess? We explore potential solutions and adjustments that could transform the Cardinals into genuine playoff contenders. Our host shares an optimistic outlook, explaining why he believes the team’s issues are fixable and outlining the specific changes needed to turn their season around.

This episode offers an unvarnished look at the Cardinals’ current state, from ownership decisions to on-field performance. We analyze their strengths, confront their weaknesses, and map out a potential path to success. Whether you’re a die-hard Cardinals fan or an NFL enthusiast, this in-depth discussion provides the insights and analysis you crave. Don’t miss this candid exploration of a team at a crossroads in a pivotal NFL season. Let’s discuss.

The Best Daily Arizona Cardinals Podcast. Host Alex Clancy (@ClancysCorner) take an unbiased approach covering the biggest Cards stories.

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