Saints 14 Cardinals 28 summary ^^^^^^^ The Saints hit rock bottom by looking awful in a loss to the lowly Cardinals. play-by-play ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Jim Everett handed to Ray Zellars on the first two plays of the game for gains of 3 & 1. A delay of game call was followed by an incompletion, and former Saint Marcus Dowdell returned the punt 21 yds to the Arizona 48. The first Cardinal (ordinal?) play from scrimmage saw Kent Graham hit Frank Sanders for 22. Two plays later the QB connected with Dowdell for 21 on 3rd & 12. Three runs (with a Renaldo Turnbull offside penalty thrown in) brought up 4th & 1 from the 2. The Cardinals came out in FG formation, but switched to a standard set that allowed Graham to sneak past the 1st down marker. However, the formation-shuffling procedure was deemed to have been illegal, so the play didn't count. Greg Davis kicked a 26 yarder. The O looked much better in the second Saint possession. The first five plays were Torrance Small 11 catch, Michael Haynes 8 catch, Mario Bates 3 run for 1st, Irv Smith 6 catch, Mercury Hayes 6 end-around for 1st at the Arizona 38. The drive stalled there, but a fine special teams play by J.J. McCleskey forced the Cards to start at their 4. The D forced a 3 & punt, so the Saints took over at the NO 45. Zellars gained 4, 6, and 10 on the first three plays of the posession, then ran for 8 more following a play cancelled by offsetting penalties. Everett snuck for a 1st on 4th & inches from the 25, then hit Paul Green for 7 on the next play. Two more Zellars runs were good for a 1st, but one play later the fullback was stripped during a run that otherwise would've gone for a TD. Arizona took over on the 6. The D again prevented the visitors from gaining a 1st, and the O started out from the Arizona 49. Carl Smith decided to go for the whole enchilada right away, but the fact that two receivers ran routes to the same spot allowed a Cardinal to make an easy INT at the 3. Arizona got out of the hole this time, as Rob Moore outjumped Mark McMillan for a 42 yd catch on the possession's first play. Johnson ran for 13 on the next play, but the D didn't allow another 1st. A fair catch gave the ball back to the Saints at the 18. The O committed a turnover on their third consecutive play from scrimmage when Zellars dropped a handoff. Arizona recovered the ball and settled for a 28 yd FG. The O finally did something right when Ricky Whittle made a nice one-hand catch and ran 28 yds to the Arizona 49 on a 3rd & 12 play. Three Bates runs were good for another 1st, but the team ultimately failed to penetrate into FG range. A fair catch put the Cards at their 15, and the D prevented them from moving the sticks. Ernest Dixon broke through the line and blocked the punt, and Brian Jones took it in for the score. The PAT made the score 7-6 Saints with a little more than two minutes left in the first half. The Cards picked up a couple of 1sts and drained some clock before booting the ball back to the Saints. A clip on the punt put the Saints at their own 5, so the timeout-less homeys opted to kneel away the final 40 seconds of the half. The Cards came out of the locker room strong with Johnson running twice to pick up a 1st. One play later the RB ran for another 1st, and on the following play he gained 8 on a pass. The next play saw Graham fumble during a scramble, though, and Winfred Tubbs recovered at the NO 40. Two Zellars runs set up 3rd & 1, but Carl Smith got too cute and called a pass to Lorenzo Neal that lost 2 yds. The special teamers downed the ball at the 9. Johnson ran for 5 & 6, then one play later Sanders caught a ball for 13. One play after that Moore made a 16 yd reception, and a little while later Johnson ran 7 yds to the NO 38. A 13 yd Moore catch and a 13 yd Johnson run followed, and shortly thereafter Moore caught a 20 yd scoring pass between Eric Allen and Anthony Newman. During the try for two, a pressured Graham threw a desperation toss toward the endzone. A Saint tried to catch the ball instead of knock it down, and a Cardinal caught the deflection for the points. A clip on the ensuing kickoff put the O at the 8. The team picked up one 1st, but after that there were no-calls on consecutive instances of apparent pass interference, so a punt was necessary. A pair of runs moved the chains for Arizona, then on 3rd & 11 a beaten Allen tackled his man to prevent a catch. On the next play, Johnson found a hole up the middle and ran 56 yds for a score. Fourteen seconds into the final quarter, the Saints were down two TDs. The O went 3 & punt, and the next Cardinal play looked like a replay of the previous one- Johnson broke up the middle and ran 70 yds for a TD. The game looked to be pretty much over when a 3rd down Everett scramble came up short, but Eric Swann speared the QB well after the play was over. The penalty put the ball at the NO 48, and the team needed only 3 plays to score- Whittle 12 catch, Haynes 17 catch, Jeffires 23 catch for TD. The Cards converted a 3rd & 4, but a no-gain run and an incompletion brought up 3rd & 10. A blitz forced a sideline throw that should've been returned for a TD, but Allen simply dropped the ball. It could've been a one-TD deficit with over seven minutes left to play, but instead the relieved Cards simply punted the ball away. The O went 3 & punt. Another great opportunity presented itself when Wayne Martin forced a 3rd down fumble in Cardinal territory, but Fred Stokes failed to make what should've been an easy recovery. Once again the Cards were happy to punt the ball away. Everett hit Jeffires for 8 and Lee DeRamus for 20, but the team's last four plays went incomplete-incomplete-sack-sack. Arizona ran the final 2 minutes off the clock. stats (from my notes, not official) ^^^^^ ....runnin'....../......throwin' & catchin'.... 3-(1) jim Everett 6-18 mario Bates 2-(3) Ricky Whittle 4- 46 12-57 ray Zellars 1- 1 lorenzo Neal 1- (2) michael Haynes 3- 31 torrance Small 2- 13 haywood Jeffires 2- 31-1 lee deRamus 1- 20 1- 6 Mercury hayes Irv smith 2- 11 paul Green 1- 7 hendrick Lusk 1- 2 incompletions 14 interceptions 1 24-77 18-33-160-1-1 yardage histogram (player marks are as in stats above- B=Bates, etc.) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ B B E BBBM <--runs W E ZZZZ EBW ZZZZZZ Z Z ***************************************************************************** - 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 yards gained 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 <------ ***************************************************************************** N WZS IHGH SW H R J W L I J W <--passes comments ^^^^^^^^ * I've been an apologist for the current regime so far this season, but I can't justify supporting it any longer; any changes (in coaching or personnel) will be fine with me * I would say that it can't get any worse than this, but I'm afraid the team might take that as a challenge and prove me wrong ******************************************************************************* Frank Serpas III serpas@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu