| Gary D. Brown. 12th July, 2006 - 10:51 pm
 Arizona Cardinals season tickets sold out?
For a perennially struggling franchise that has had seven consecutive losing seasons and slightly more than 5 wins on average during that span, 2006 has been a pretty good year for the Arizona Cardinals.
Cardinals Stadium, the team's new state of the art facility with its unique “cactus barrel” design, will make its NFL debut on September 10th as Arizona hosts San Francisco. This marks the first time the Cardinals will host a home opener in week one since they moved from St. Louis to Arizona in 1988.
The new stadium will have air conditioning, a welcome relief for fans used to sweating in the scorching heat in Arizona State’s Sun Devil stadium. For fans who cannot wait until September, the Cardinals official website offers excellent interior and exterior visuals of the new stadium.
The new stadium alone would have increased season attendance, but when Arizona signed former Colt running back Edgerrin James on March 12, and had what many experts consider the top amateur draft this past offseason, the good news has rolled on for the Cardinals.
They won five games last season. Arizona ranked last in rushing yards per game in 2005, which forced them to attack from the air. Behind a rejuvinated Kurt Warner, the Cardinals finished # 1 in passing yards, led by Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, who ranked 4th & 5th in receiving yards, respectively.
Edgerrin James should bring balance to the force….er, offense. He finished fourth in rushing yards in 2005 with 1,506, matching his career average of 4.2 yards per carry, giving indications that he is not ready to slow down anytime soon. Entering his 9th season, James is still under 30 years of age, a time when, some believe, running backs begin to break down physically.
Then again, for all the balance Edgerrin James brings to the offense it might be the red-zone defense that determines whether Arizona has a successful 2006 season.
Last year, the Cardinal defense ranked a very respectable 10th in rushing yards allowed and 12th in passing yards given up per game. It was a nagging statistic called “points allowed” that haunted the Cardinals. Arizona’s defense allowed 24 points per game in 2005, placing them 26th out of 32 teams in the NFL. Solve that, and sleeper Arizona might have a shot at the playoffs once again. |
