Well, That Was Fun

Over the years at Sun Devil Stadium, season ticket sales for the Cardinals were pathetic. Typically, fewer than 20,000 were sold, and the stadium was mostly empty for the majority of games. With the move to the new stadium, all of the long time fans were the first to choose seats, but there just weren't that many of us. As a result, scalpers (as well as fans who buy more tickets than they need) are a significant portion of the season ticket holder pool.

In other words, entirely too many of the fans around me yesterday were fans of the Detroit Lions.

I'm typically quite polite to fans of opposing teams. I wish them well but, of course, hope they go home unhappy. Yesterday, the Lions fans were dishing big time. It's curious, of course, since Detroit boasts a history every bit as inept as the Arizona Cardinals have provided. You would think that they would be more reserved.

I heard everything. They criticized fans for wearing Vanden Bosch jerseys (okay, they were right about that one). They laughed about the fans cheering rushes of six yards (I'll take six yard runs any time), and they kept pointing out that the Lions are 6-2 while the Cards are 3-5. Hey Detroit fans, your team is 6-3 now, and here's a prediction for you: your team won't break .500 this year. Dallas will beat you, Green Bay will beat you twice, San Diego will beat you, the Giants will beat you. Detroit will be lucky to finish 8-8. Enjoy our dust.

And a big shout out to the defense. Sure there were plenty of turnovers, but every time the offense gave up a big one (save that first one), the defense answered to deflate the opposing fans.

This was a wonderful game, and the crowd was an important compenent of that. Arizona now has a significant home field advantage. When the team keeps the lid shut on the house, the noice reverberates enough to rattle opposing teams. That was nice.

And finally about the rushing. The trash talk from the seat next to me continued laughing at the Cardinals until late in the game pointing out that Edge was not breaking long runs. Hey, buddy, gaining three is six yards better than losing three. On average, the Cardinals gained only 2.6 yards per rushing play. But that's 4.8 yards per carry better than the Lions' average of -2.2.

Warner did not appear to be fantastic on the day, but check that box score at the end of the day: his passer rating was 108.4. Wow!

This is a game to savor. With tonight's matchup, the Cards will either remain a game behind division leading Seattle and be more separated from 3rd place San Francisco, or they'll be tied for the division lead in a bunched up battle. I like the outcome no matter what.

Nice playing guys. I'll be living on this for several days.