- Win One-on-Ones Outside When Cardinals Go Spread
It’s no secret how the Cardinals plan to try and win this game. You know it. I know it. Every football fan in America knows it. The best bet the Cardinals have is to spread the field with 3, 4 and even 5 receivers and go to work on the likes of Jarrett Bush, Brandon Underwood and Josh Bell. And that’s all well and good, but it puts the Cardinals in the position of having to protect the edge with their offensive tackles.
And this is a match up that favors the Packers.
Yes, the Cardinals will do whatever they can to ’stay ahead of the sticks’ as it were, putting themselves in 3rd and 3 or less as much as they can. But on the 3rd and longs the Packers do get them in, and when the Cardinals go to their spread formations, it will be up to Clay Matthews and Brad Jones to win against Cardinal tackles Levi Brown and Jeremy Bridges. In particular Jones, with what will no doubt be a concentration by the Cardinals to have the running back on Matthews’ side, will have to get to Kurt Warner.
Jones is more than capable – watch how well he does in the clip below at getting Browns’ hands off of him, cutting the corner and getting to the quarterback.
The completion is made, but it is far short of a first down on third and long. A win for both Jones and the defense.Yes, Kurt Warner and the Cardinal receiving corps (which more and more sounds like it won’t include Anquan Boldin) can expose the lack of depth on the back end of the Packers defense. It’s up to Jones and Matthews to make sure they don’t get the opportunity.














