Is play calling to blame after Arizona Cardinals fall to Jacksonville Jaguars?

Is play calling to blame after Arizona Cardinals fall to Jacksonville Jaguars?

We haven’t gotten into the end of regulation and the uh end of overtime with you yet, Zoe. And if we don’t do it here, I don’t know if we’re going to get a chance to. So, is there anything you want to get into there? Because for me, Yeah. I felt like they could have been more aggressive at the end of regulation and then in overtime, they were like, “Hey, let’s just heave it down the field and go for the win, right? Why not do that with few seconds left on the clock in regulation?” Yeah. And I think that’s an area that they could easily improve on. And um you know again AQ was talking about this this morning when he had the interview with the morning show was talking about like Saturday practices you typically go through you have your script where you do your general this is our you know first 15 and go through the different scenarios third down run plays. You’re talking the walk through, the walkth through period, right? Cuz it’s it’s every hay is in the barn. Now you it’s really more focused on the mentality and your mental and awareness, self-awareness around situations and what do coaches like and it’s pretty much going to tell you this is what we’re going to be doing in these different situations. And so when you see a guy like Michael Wilson, granted he is a Stanford guy, you know, I don’t know, maybe if he went to Cal, he doesn’t do it. I don’t know. But he’s a, you know, he’s pretty self he’s pretty aware, right? When you hear him talk, right? Great professional. I don’t know if the moment got too big, but that doesn’t feel like it. So, I that’s why I say again, are they working on that Saturday morning? That’s what typically most teams do, the situationals of it, or did they alerted before? Right? Communication. Hey guys, we get a big play in bounds right here. We’re out of timeouts. Hey, we got to get it back up on the ball, right? Was that communicated before? So, those are like the little things that you can work on to bring awareness and bring people back into the moment because tensions are high. It is chaotic. But what as a you know coach or quarterback or whatever us as a group reminding each other so that we’re accountable in the moment so we don’t have to have this discussion today. So but right obviously you should have got up just like old school fits catch it sprinting to the middle spotting the ball pretty much for the ref right cuz those dudes be out there waddling right they not don’t have the same intensity you know where the ball is going to be pretty much as an NFL player where they’re going to spot it. Boom. Offensive line up on the line of scrimmage. Clock the ball. Yeah. Right. And then you have I don’t know I don’t know maybe 15 or 18 seconds left. Two shots at the end zone then kicked the field goal. Right. So that’s the take I’m taking it too. I’m going to take it because the way it worked out I’m like I’m like why are they not clocking it and then that then you got uh it’s more of a panic for me because they’re moving slow and then you don’t really have a call that you love in that because you got to communicate to everybody as we’re kind of lining up and the clock is ticking. I just kind of got to throw something out there. So, I wish they would have handled that situation a lot better in terms of the last play of the game. Um, could they have checked it down to Michael Carter and he probably get a first down? Sure. I think just based on the coverage, the way it looked, he saw an opportunity to win the game and was taking it. Y and it was just a poor execution, a poor throw, right? And he even said that, right? Just too much air. Gave the safety that was over the top of uh Michael Wilson. I don’t know his route. I have they this morning I tried to watch it back and you can’t see it on the condensed version and they don’t have the all 22 up yet. Yeah. So I don’t know if he had a vertical route a stop route that freed up that backside safety to then take off and then go make a play. Yeah. Right. So it’s you know it’s all those little things within the game where you if you don’t rewatch it cuz they took McBride away immediately and which you should do. They have to. Right. And they were trying to also take his eyes off of Michael Wilson because they knew he was going to probably go to him and then Xavier was open. he had to step on the guy. But if it’s a better ball, it probably, you know, uh, accentuates the holding that the the DB was doing of that right arm a little bit more because he’s running cuz Xavier can run. He’s running away from, but because he had to kind of wait for it and go up, you don’t it’s you don’t see it as much. It wasn’t as a significant hold. Um, and then it allows the safety to get over the top and make a play as well. So, you know, it’s unfortunate, but I’m not mad at it. Just, you know, the execution wasn’t there. Yeah. You know, in regard to Michael Wilson, first of all, basians, this is just me, but that’s player responsibility. You have to know what the situation is. You have you can’t spin the ball. You You have to a coach can do there. Listen, I mean, pre- snap. I’m just talking about pre- snap. With other Yeah, but it’s something that you can go over. It’s something you can talk about with your players during the week, of course, and all that. I get that and coaches do that all the time. They do it all the time. When you go out in a game and you’re playing in a game, I’m sorry, man. Personal responsibility. And I know you feel the same way. Personal responsibility to go out and execute and do your job. Michael knew as soon as he did it. I do. He knew. Okay. But um it wasn’t top of mind for him. And having said that too, I have to go back to Jacobe Brassette and um going for the win and throwing the ball down the middle. I I I agree with the idea. You know what I do? I don’t think he made he made a bad decision. I think what he did he made a bad throw, right? Because he put way too much air underneath it. That’s it. And you know, critiquing a guy in that situation, I just it’s it’s tough for me because he’s out there. He’s competing. He’s doing everything he can. He played to win the game and throw the ball down the field. And I I think that probably is a good idea to do it in that situation based on the fact that you know what, we’re going to try to win the game. And he had single coverage. He just put too much error under the throw and that backside safety had the time to come over the top. You see my frustration though, right? If you’re playing to win it there, why not play to win at the end of regulation? Absolutely agree with that. Be consistent about it. Spike it. Yeah. I I told you earlier, I’d even maybe try it with six seconds. Like what’s the worst that happens? You don’t get the field goal off and you lose. I understand that would be bad, but you the previous play took four seconds to run. Like I mean, ideally, you just spike it and you don’t have to rush that the last two plays. I don’t know. I mean, you’re three and seven. You’re just you’re trying to find a way to win. So, they are what two and six now in one score games this year. And the two wins were New Orleans Carolina where it’s not like they necessarily closed those out. It’s just gonna happen. You know, you guys both know this. You both played in the league. I cannot tell you how many former or current players I’ve talked to that are like, “Well, the biggest difference between a mediocre NFL team and a playoff team is winning the one-sore games.” Yeah. So, who does this fall on to start winning these games now? Go like who who is who has the fastest path to fixing that? Well, it’s it’s every week that you’re playing in these games. That’s the nature of the NFL, right? And so, that’s why it’s so important that you win these. you’re rarely blowing teams out, right? What we saw with the Niners and Seattle is a rarity, especially divisional games. Um the the fix the the fastest fix is players, right? Because I’m the one that’s on the field. I’m the one that’s executing, but the easiest thing to do is change coaches. That’s and that’s what typically happens, right? It’s hard to move players because they under contract, right? What is the cap hit and all this other thing? Who else am I going to get? Who’s available? Right? There’s more coaches available than there is players and it’s less of them. So you can make that a little bit easier and that’s why that you typically see it from the coaching standpoint first versus the players. Um and and sometimes that’s all you need. You need to hear a little bit a different voice, a little bit different way of doing things. I’ve been on bad teams where we had the same players and got a new coach and we performed better. Um and it’s just the way about how things go, how people connect. And again, I’m not in that locker room, but that’s why it’s easier to do it there versus trying to change a whole bunch of players that are actually on the field and then hopefully get healthy because there’s a ton of guys that’s out. So, that’s not helping either. Just adding those guys back and then staying somewhat healthy because you’re going to always have injuries um is going to help this team significantly as well where you have guys that um are known been in those situations. maybe we don’t have some of the special teams things because now my backup linebacker is actually covering kicks and doing what he does well and you don’t put your team in some of these bad situations there either. So, uh, but it’s always easier to change coaches and then than than try to find new players. There it is right there. It’s not JG’s fault, right? But JG’s going to be blamed possibly. Yeah, possibly. Once again, it it really is. Yeah, you can’t fire all the players. As a good friend of mine once told me a long time ago, you can’t fire all the players, but you can fire the coach. And even though it’s not right, and I don’t agree with it, um, man, right now when you watch it and all these one score, one possession losses that are going on right now, the dust up, I I’m worried about my guy that I love and you know that JG I think is not it’s not his fault. I just think he could be blamed. Well, football’s not necessarily fair all the time. Anddeed, I mean, unless they start rattling off wins to close out this season, this is going to get worse, you know? I mean, the the feeling that you have right now just keeps getting worse if you keep losing. I I understand the playoffs are not even a conversation anymore, but like if you keep losing, this gets worse and worse. So, I I’m I’m with you. I told you this before the season. I never thought he’d be on the hot seat during the season, but come on. You got to start winning here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and but the one thing he has going for him, like guys are still engaged, right? Guys are going out there and competing. And that tells me more so that it’s not a a JG problem cuz you you can see guys quit. And I’ve been on teams like that, man. I ain’t listen to this dude. What is he talking about, man? We out here. So, that I think is one thing in his favor. Obviously, the injuries is another thing in his favor. Uh but they have to it’s the it’s the way it looks like in situational things that’s hurting him in terms of so I can then ask well are they working on this in practice if that’s coming up or they alert it in the games and then that does become a coaching issue if that’s not occurring even though yes players are responsible but as a coach now like I’m like oh man I didn’t go over oh man why did I not alert them man oh you know because I am responsible as a coach I’m trying to do the best my job as well and am I doing it at a high enough And so that’s where they got to see it, right? And sometimes it’s the position coach, sometimes coordinator, sometimes it’s, you know, all three levels where they’re going to have to sit down and kind of evaluate, were we doing our job the best? Is this the best person in these jobs in order to get our players to be in the in the best position so they can go out there and execute their job at the highest level. Thanks for watching Wolf and Luke. 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Wolf & Luke are joined by former NFL linebacker Lorenzo Alexander to break down the Arizona Cardinals’ overtime loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Alexander says the defeat came down to poor communication and questionable play calls in key moments.

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