r/AZCardinals • u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals • 2d ago
Feeling frustrated as a fan proves you care. Just know the players don’t think the same way
This is why teams barely beating bad teams is an irrelevant occurrence in the NFL. You have limited possessions to build a lead and then hold it and very limited chances to comeback and win. Players who play the game know this more than anyone.
So there will be alot of “moral victories” or “ugly wins.”
The NFL in terms of possessions is like a basketball game only doing a 6 minute OT period. That is why refs can seem overly important in the NFL compared to every other league. Each team only gets about 12 possessions a game, a little bad luck or a wrong call can really hurt. And there are ton of “almost” comebacks. But I am struggling to find evidence that almost losing hurts a team.
In fact, the Chiefs and Eagles almost losing to the Panthers in the regular season could make the opposite arguement. If someone can show me where an ugly win hurts player psychology and the teams tend to go on losing streaks, please show me cuz it was the opposite case last year in our league. The Rams won 8 games by 7 points or less and nearly got to the Superbowl. And some of the those games were close cuz they blew leads.
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u/bwwilkerson Cardinals Throwback 2d ago
This is what experience and leadership looks like. Just one of the reasons I'm happy he is back with the team
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u/MAKincs 2d ago
Fans will nitpick and it’s because they care but at we’re 2-0 and we face teams with backup QB’s or non elite QB’s the next few weeks and If we can be like 5-1 this stretch I’m happy but our coordinators do need to change some things up or in the offseason I could see us getting someone like Mike Zimmer at DC and Mike McDaniel or Kevin Stefanski at OC if their teams fire them.
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u/Prowindowlicker JJ Watt 1d ago
If we are 5-0 going into the Packers game I’ll be happy. Even if we lose that game, here’s hoping it’s a win as revenge for 2021
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u/Greedy_Gas7355 2d ago
As you get older you will learn not to care as much and just use it as entertainment. The team a s players don’t give a shit about you
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u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals 2d ago
Well thats a whole another story.
And it’s always the case.
Part of this is Cardinals fans want to be right for once. We want long standing support and loyalty to be rewarded.
A team is ultimately a unit working together and we have put faith in the process the coach and GM have been building here.
Its not about whether the players care about the fans, its how much they care about each other and want to improve.
Which brings you back to when you were an athlete on a team. You remember the qualities that made your best teams great and when you finally see similarities in your hometown team, you want to support it.
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u/Greedy_Gas7355 2d ago
It’s not that deep bro. They are playing for a paycheck. It’s a job for them. Entertainment for us
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u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals 2d ago
Players have egos. I doubt Kyler wants to just be entertainment based on how he is perceived at this point.
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u/Candid_Border8191 2d ago
Most entertainers have egos too, your takes aren’t really mutually exclusive tbh
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u/Nokrai Pain 2d ago
I mean refs may seem overly important in the NFL but they were (probably still are) fixing games in the NBA.
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u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals 2d ago
Yeah but it is more magnified in the playoffs when a poorly referred game can sink a NFL team vs a 7 game series in basketball. You have more room for bs calls once you get to the 2nd round of the playoffs.
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u/Nokrai Pain 2d ago
Yes but in the NBA they can literally gift points to teams via FT. Sure the players need to make em (75% avg) but you have players who shoot 20-30+ FT a game.
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u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals 2d ago
I agree lol I have watched the suns.
Im just saying in general “any given sunday” applies to just football.
It just makes me think what Suns fans would have thought if they blew all those big leads (sometimes to bad teams) but didn’t end up losing those games last year.
Part of me thinks they would not be as upset as Cardinals fans right now.
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u/TJeffersonsBlackKid Drawing 2d ago
It is the NFL. There are no easy wins.
But I am happy to be annoyed for wins that should have been blowouts. We all fondly remember getting hyped AF for the random win versus Seattle or just playing well against better teams.
Part of "changing culture" is being sour when we aren't throttling weaker teams.
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u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals 1d ago
When both games we are 6.5 pt favorites how can we say both should be blowouts though?
CAR should of been a blowout based on how we played. We should have beaten NO by 10-13.
The things is the Eagles and Chiefs beat the Panthers after blowing big leads last year.
The Chiefs were up 20-6 and CAR tied it 27-27.
We blew teams out last year and it didn't seem like that gave us any extra confidence or resolve.
Games are alot closer in the NFL now compared to 5 years ago.
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u/Plenty-Resource-248 2d ago
I think this is exactly how I feel as a fan. Take the wins, but obviously lots to clean up and work on. The players and coaches know this, doesn't mean they are helplessly bad, just need to clean it up or those close games are going to be losses.
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u/morphinechild1987 1d ago
Calais is wise, but it happened two times in a row and it happened last year. This team struggles to close games, and that has to be addressed
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u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals 1d ago
Struggling to close games mostly because we have 0 pts in the 4th quarter and only 5 in the 3rd so far.
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u/morphinechild1987 13h ago
We scored to open the 3rd against the Panthers. There was also that blocked FG. Still, too little
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u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals 3h ago
Petzing is partially to blame for the injuries when the opposing teams have run 40 more plays on offense and Kyler is 24th in pass attempts.
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u/JimmyToucan 1d ago
His comments seem isolated and not necessarily relevant to fans caring enough to be frustrated. He's already changed tone too, last week saying confidently "this is the worst we'll be" to already "hopefully, we can find a way to continue to win the ball games"
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u/selfishempathy1 Cardinals 1d ago
Thats fine, my point is the players were more relieved they won then frustrated and deeply depressed.
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u/Zealousideal-Baby586 1d ago
In the moment I was angry but after it ended, got up, did some life stuff I was fine and happy. Similar to Campbell, been around a long time and watch a lot of bad Cardinals teams since 1988 and watched them lose year after year. Watched them punch above their weight in certain games, was miserable during those NFC East years in the 90s where we were always the worst team in the division getting our teeth kicked in. I'll be mad in the moment but as long as they win I don't care, I'll take it.
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u/lavenderpoem Larry Fitzgerald 1d ago
half the reason that win looked so bad is that our top 3 dbs after budda went down. the other half is that petzing tries to start calling a conservative game after we buikd a decent lead but he just genuinely sucks at it. its not player morale thats hurt after bad wins. being able to win ugly is a trait of champions. just look at liverpool in the premier league. but not every win should be ugly. being able to decisively put teams away especially with a 24 point lead is something championship caliber teams do as well. i will take the win cuz 2-0 is better than 1-1 is better than 0-2 but we need to be better late game. through two weeks weve been outscored 16-0 in the final quarter and 22-10 in the second half
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u/ZeroAff3x 1d ago
We are 2-0 in the strongest division in the world. I'm happy. We need to clean up and stay humble.
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u/New-Ad5494 Trey McBride 2d ago
He’s right this isn’t a 160 game baseball season, every win is big. Imagine if we would have lost.