Third Quarter: Rams Cut Lead To 21-6.
The second half started with more frustration for the Rams. On his first third-down passing attempt, Bulger threw short to Donnie Avery — who dropped the pass.
Had he caught it, though, he would have been well short of the first down.
Interestingly, the Rams came out with Adam Goldberg playing left tackle and Mark Setterstrom taking his place at right guard. Not that it mattered much.
Arizona came out with Matt Leinart at quarterback. Will the Cardinals remain aggressive on offense? Or will they just try to run out the clock, realizing the Rams are unlikely to score?
Tim Hightower blew through the Rams front seven for an 18-yard gain on the first Gridbird play from scrimmage in the half. Then Beanie Wells gained 11 more to keep the chains moving.
Leinart rolled out and threw to Hightower for another first down as Arizona crept closer to scoring range. A swing wing to Wells moved the ball to the Rams 33.
Neil Rackers had a shot to kick a field goal from that range, but the Cardinals opted to punt instead and pin the hapless Rams offense back at the 2-yard line.
Marc Bulger moved the Rams out of the whole with a completion to Brandon Gibson. But the Cardinals pressured Bulger into an incomplete pass on second down and sacked him on third down.
So this nightmarish offensive performance continued.
The Cardinals didn’t go anywhere on their next possession, with Leinart demonstrating why he has been relegated to clipboard duty for most of his pro career.
Rams receiver Danny Amendola made tacklers miss with his 15-yard catch-and-run play to start his team’s next possession. Another Bulger-to-Amendola moved the chains again.
Then Steven Jackson finally go loose, bursting off tackle for 48 yards to advance the ball to the Cardinals 4.
Jackson tried to score on the ground. He got stuffed. A fade pass to Gibson went too far — although the fact it landed inbounds in the end zone suggests a better route was needed.
The quarterback is throwing to a spot and the receiver has to get there.
On the next play, Jackson seemed to have an chance to score on a swing pass . . . but the Cardinals closed and forced him out at the 2-yard line. Rather than risk it, Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo settled for the Josh Brown field goal that cut the Cards lead to 21-6.
OH THE HUMANITY!!!!
Time to bring in the Null set and see if he can do anything at qall!
Doesn’t matter that Cards have Leinart. Rams have Bulger. And the way he’s playing today, he’ll need 8 quarters to come up with 21 points. I used to think he was great. Then I thought he was O.K. Now I think he’s not worthy to start in the NFL. Not sure he could even play back up role. He’s finished.
Now there’s a guy we could probably get for a 5th round draft pick. Matt Leinart. He was aces with USC…
ok, i’ll give you the cards are a good team, if you give me that 128 yards of total offense against anyone in this pass-happy league is over-the-top pathetic. And when your left tackle gets replaced at halftime by your former right guard, while your # 1 left-tackle pick is still over on the right side, if playing at all, is cruelly pathetic all by itself.
There are flaws in this organization that will take years to fix.
Does not matter who the QB is of the Cards. Zippy the Chimp is better than Bulger! Rams are just a bad team-PERIOD!!! Be thankful for the 1 win.
SOSAR has returned with a vengence!!! I don’t think the team is fixable with the present coaching staff and GM. We need to clean house. Hire some folks that know what they are doing.
lawdog = total idiot
Get a clue getaclue! You can hide your head in the sand if you like but that won’t change reality! Sometimes the emporer really doesn’t have any clothes. We stink! And you’re the idiot for refusing to face reality!
God I wish aliens would kidnap Bulger for the remainder of this year and next year! We just need to put someone else in at QB when we get inside the redzone. Bulger is rated as 39th in the league in the redzone… that is proof he should not even be on the field inside the twenty. Gosh he is just horrendous. We need to let Null get some repetitions or at least a quarter every game for the remainder of the year and find out what his potential is, to see if we need to draft a QB in the first, second or later round… We get our first touch down because Bulger gets a completion to the one yard line BEFORE he gets inside the twenty…. Thank goodness Shurmur put the ball in Jackson’s hands with a run, rather than Bulger’s with another pass play…
We are only still in this game because Warner is out and Leinert is so lousy!