Cardinals quarterback competition heats up
Matt Leinart has been benched after just two pre-season games, which means that Derek Anderson will get the start at quarterback for the second straight game on Thursday night when the Arizona Cardinals play the Washington Redskins in their final pre-season game.
This could be a temporary move – or maybe not, but Coach Ken Whisenhunt will stick with the same playing order as he did in last Saturday's 14-9 win over Chicago. As a result, Leinart will come off the bench once again and serve as a backup to Anderson. "It worked for us," the coach said, "so we'll see if it continues to work that way.”
The Arizona Cardinals really had no choice but to appoint Anderson the starter and see what he can bring to the table. At the start of training camp, Leinart was named the team’s starting quarterback and Whisenhunt declared that his troops would play good football in 2010. It sounded like a pretty good game plan, that is until Leinart, the 10th overall pick in the 2006 draft, started playing against opposing defences at the start of pre-season and seemed overwhelmed.
Whisenhunt can check starting Leinart off his list; however, he can’t do the same for being able to play mistake-free football thus far and put up points on the board. Not with Leinart in the lineup. Leinart has not been accurate, has not looked confident with the ball and has made some poor throws, failing to muster a touchdown with the team’s starting players.
In his last start, Leinart went four-of-six for a measly 28 yards and produced no points. But Leinart, the former Heisman Trophy winner, told reporters that he doesn’t see it that way and that in his mind, he has outplayed Anderson in training camp and in the pre-season. He went on and even said that the decision to start Anderson over him "probably goes beyond football."
While that may very well be the case, it’s hard to argue with numbers and Anderson, who was brought in for assurance purposes, completed seven of 12 passes for 94 yards and one touchdown in his last start. If we are comparing statistics and effectiveness, round one has to go to Anderson.
Following Kurt Warner's retirement, it seemed clear that this was going to be Leinart’s team at the start of the regular season. Now things are a little less certain and ambiguous as to how the team could get better and in terms of who should lead the Cardinals.
"Well, I don't think we've played really well enough offensively to make any determination other than we need to get better," Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said Thursday. "We're looking at different combinations of people."
But Whisenhunt hinted that he is looking to improve and play better at the start of the game to avoid trailing early and play catch.
"I'd like to see us operate a little better early in the game," Whisenhunt said. "That's not necessarily the first quarter, that's the first quarter, the second quarter. Seems like last week we went three three-and-outs, and then we had a drive going.
"I'd like to see us perform a little better earlier in the game. "This will be a major component in his decision as to who will get the start on opening day. If Whisenhunt knows who he wants to put behind centre on September 12, he is doing a good job at concealing it. "I don't have to make any decisions right now," Whisenhunt said. "The starting QB evaluation covers more things than just this game."
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