Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt ripped into his players Monday after Saturday's poor performance against the Texans. "I was disappointed that we were not more effective in the first half and I was certainly not pleased that we put the ball on the ground the second play," Whisenhunt said. "That to me is unacceptable." Quarterback Matt Leinart stumbled after the snap and the result was a botched handoff to Tim Hightower that lost 11 yards. Whisenhunt acknowledged that a lineman stepped on Leinart's foot, but noted that Kurt Warner often survived such situations. "A lot of times you'll see that happen, the center steps on the quarterback's foot," Whisenhunt said. "But I don't take that as an excuse. They're good enough athletes that if that happens we can still get the ball off. I mean, how many times did we see Kurt falling down, especially near the goal line, and still getting the ball out. And Kurt was not as athletically gifted as some of the guys out there now. That's the standard we expect, we expect them to get the ball handed off." It's not the first nor will it be the last time that Leinart is compared with Warner, who finished his career with two spectacular years for Arizona before retiring after last season. "Matt, unfortunately, had to go through some mistakes by other teammates," Whisenhunt said. "That affected the way we played, but quarterbacks have to overcome that. ... It wasn't good enough. That wasn't a reflection of a player individually as much as it was our team. When you don't have success offensively it falls on the quarterback, much like when you do have success, they get credit for it." Leinart, on the other hand, was far less critical of himself. "I thought I did OK," he said. "I was confident in the huddle and comfortable." Source: CBS Sports
um, coach, yelling at the guy isn't going to make him an nfl-caliber starting QB ................ you made the decision to hand him the ball
WTF??? Looks like Leinart's got a target on his chest for more than just this. Making a big deal of this kind of things smacks of behind the scenes issues. Pick your battles, Whisenhunt...of course unless you just want to grind this kid into the turf. :icon_rolleyes:
