Beanie Wells spoke his mind and now we are in the inevitable "He should keep his damn mouth closed" reaction phase.
Well, no actually, he shouldn't.
Beanie Wells has every right to be mad about only getting 14 carries in his first game back from a "bruised knee" and then only five attempts on Sunday against the Chargers.
This is on the coaching staff whose bone-headed play calling had the team with the worst quarterback in the league run the ball on 14 out of 51 total plays.*
If Whisenhunt has a grand plan in his head, he's certainly yet to share it. But that's no surprise; it's not like we can trust what he tells us anyway.
Whiz has let the "In Whiz We Trust" stuff and his new extension go to his head.
He's acting like he's General George S. Patton and his players, the media, and the fans are expected to simply salute and shut-the-heck-up. We are supposed to trust him, not the other way around.
He just does it with a smile and a joke instead of a yell and a cuss, but the result is the same.
If you have a player like Wells -- who has every right to expect to be a big part of the game plan -- and you don't use him at all in the first quarter when the game was still actually a game and not a blow out, then you HAVE to proactively talk to him.
The "my door is always open" excuse simply doesn't fly.
It is the leader's job to seek out the player and understand that Wells will have questions and be upset. It's a matter of respect.
To ignore Wells and make him come to the coach's office on his knees and beg for an explanation is old school management that simply won't fly in this day and age. And it shouldn't.
So, good for Beanie sticking up for himself. This is a crappy football team right now and he has every right to not only be mad about his role but to speak out about the lack of respect he was shown by his coach.
Offensive play calling review:
1st Drive
In the Cardinals' first drive, they moved the ball down the field with 11 plays (including the 22-yard Hightower touchdown run that was called back). Five runs, six passes. Nice balance and perfectly effective until Derek Anderson was picked off.
2nd Drive
Down 7-0, on their second drive after effectively running the ball earlier in the game, Whisenhunt puts his trust back in Derek Anderson, who was picked off to kill the first drive. Only one rush out of seven plays. Punt.
3rd Drive
After the defense scored on a fumble recovery and then promptly gave up a long drive, the score was Chargers, 14-7.
Now Wells comes in and snaps off two seven-yard rushes in a row. Whisenhunt goes back to him a third time for a short gain and then has Anderson throw the ball twice in a row. That's three straight rushes followed by two pass attempts in a row (incompletion and sack).
Nice balance there.
4th Drive
Now down 21-7 thanks to the completely ineffective and uninspired play by the defense, Whisenhunt called Anderson's number again. Incomplete pass. Sack. Interception returned for Chargers touchdown.
28-7 Chargers. Game over.
You get the point?
The only effective drive the Cardinals had was the first of the game and it was balanced and, save for a holding penalty, ended on a touchdown run.
From that point on, Whisenhunt went away from the run completely. It's almost as if he was trying to justify his picking Derek Anderson over Matt Leinart and when that failed, it was too late, so he needed to show off his new guy, Max Hall.
So much for this team adjusting to the loss of Warner by running the ball more.
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