The Raider Nation was the first step to world domination in Arizona’s Kolb era. With only five practice sessions under his belt (and a frankly astonishing contract) we got our first look at Kevin Kolb as a Cardinal and it was obviously something that was going to provide the main talking point when Oakland hosted Arizona.
Both teams kept their starters in for the first quarter, though the Raiders took some of their starters off the field after the first series. So the chance to learn a lot about either team wasn’t really there. But there was enough to scribble down some thoughts and send them over.
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Cardinals – Two Things of Note
● Let’s start with Kevin Kolb who seems to have identified his surroundings pretty quickly. He realizes his best bet in succeeding is to either chuck it towards Larry Fitzgerald, or run for the hills. He threw a nice ball on a hitch route, and connected on a deep pass that owed more to Fitzgerald than any particularly good throw. That he went for the same pass (a poorly thrown ball) on the next play shows how much of a safety blanket Fitzgerald will be for him. Teams will shade their safety over Kolb’s top target at this rate.
● Watching Levi Brown can’t help but leave you shaking your head. Watch the giant left tackle on the first two plays of the game. He completely misses a block on Matt Shaughnessy who can make a quick fire tackle, and then lets the same player breeze past him inside to get a pressure on the QB. The rest of the half is pretty poor stuff from Brown who struggled with Shaughnessy just putting a bit of effort in. At times Brown didn’t even seem like he was trying, hiding behind Todd Heap as he made a block with 6:56 left in the first quarter.
Raiders – Two Things of Note
● There’s something about the deep balls of Jason Campbell that are just inaccurate, and have so much air under them they just invite defensive backs to make plays on the ball. On one play Darius Heyward-Bey got in behind a cornerback but Campbell struggled to take advantage of this.
● I was paying particular attention to the battle of Jared Veldheer and Joey Porter. Conclusion? If Veldheer can play against Porter every week he’s going to the Pro Bowl. After a tough rookie year Veldheer had no problems containing Porter whatever he tried.
With such limited game time it’s hard to tell a lot. For Cardinals fans they’ll be happy Kolb showed some chemistry with Fitzgerald, but concerned that he doesn’t seem to have much faith in his protection (understandably so). Raider Nation will be looking at more from Campbell, more of Denarius Moore and more of the same from Jared Veldheer. Maybe, just maybe, that combination will get their offense going.
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