AZ Vibe – The Ultimate Phoenix Entertainment Resource

Yeah, Homer Simpson sums up what happened to the Cards today.  They lost a damned good defensive and anemic offensive battle to the San Francisco 49ers 20-16.

Here’s how we scored the Cardinals effort in Week 1:

Offensive Line – F – If there was a lower number I could give them it would be either a ‘Y’ or ‘Z’.

Running Backs - Tim Hightower  C-/D  Beanie Wells – B

Even in his brief performance, Wells did on the field with just seven carries that Hightower couldn’t in his rushing or receiving all game long.  Punish the Niners for extra yards after initial tackles.

Hightower may be a good receiving option for the Cards but he’s not very good at rushing.    However, he lacks the vision to find the weaknesses in the opposing teams defenses and is afraid to pound the defenses for extra yards.  As I said on our Twitter account after the game, Hightower might want to look at tape of Adrian Peterson’s performance today as this is what is expected from NFL running backs when they hit the secondary with the ball.  A few more games like this and you just might see Wells as the Starter.

Quarterback/Receivers – No Score – How can Warner and the receiving corps expect to be productive if the Offensive line can’t pick up defenders penetrating to the backfield with ease?

Defense - A-/B+ – Played a near perfect game.  Only the mental break down that caused Frank Gore to score unopposed in the 4th quarter along with 5 penalties keep the defense from getting a higher score.

Special Teams – B- Not really a factor like the defense was but they did make some great plays.

Coaching (Defensive) – A+ – Save for the Frank Gore score in the 4th, the play calling was pretty damned impressive.

Coaching (Offensive) – F—   Ok, how do you give Larry Fitzgerald only one reception before the end of the first half and not bench Hightower for wussing out when he approaches opponents in the secondary?  Sure he had 121 yards receiving but given the other weapons on the field and the fact that Hightower doesn’t know the first thing about trying to gain extra yards when he hits the secondary, most other NFL opponents would leave him open too.

More on the story and tons of stats…

http://espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=290913022

Popularity: 6% [?]

The Arizona Cardinals Announced a few minutes ago that the TV Blackout for their game this Sunday with the San Francisco 49ers has been lifted!  The Game will be shown on Fox 10 in the Greater Phoenix Area.

http://blog.azcardinals.com/2009/09/11/cards-get-sellout-avoid-blackout/

Popularity: 12% [?]

I wanted to post this video we shot from the Assist4Africa tournament last weekend as it’s taking off like wild fire on YouTube right now with the amount of views it’s gotten so far.

This footage was shot April 19, 2009 during the Assist4Africa Charity Basketball game at US Airlines Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. Over $50K was raised during this event! The MC had the great idea to get Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald out on the court to strut their stuff right after a kids dancing contest. Enjoy.

Editor’s note: As of 3:33 AM Arizona Time on April 25th, 2009 this video has received over 60,000 Views thanks in part to it being featured mainly on Yahoo! and Sports Illustrated’s websites.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/extramustard/hotclicks/04/23/kelly-brook-jennifer-ellison-hot-clicks-anniversary/index.html

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Deep-Posts-Kurt-Warner-and-Larry-Fitzgerald-bri?urn=nfl,158601

Popularity: 4% [?]

I’ve been thinking about a lead paragraph for this review but all I can come up with is ‘Man what a great event this was!’  The Assist4Africa Charity Basketball Game consisted of current and former Phoenix Area pro sports athletes and local media.  The list of Celebrities included former NBA players Tom Chambers, Dan Majerle, Eddie Johnson, current Phoenix Coyotes Daniel Winnick, and Keith Yandel, as well as players like former Arizona Diamondbacks star Quentin McCracken.

From the opening tip off, the fans were in for a treat the entire game long. There was some players that were taking the game a wee bit seriously but there were some hilarious moments during the game as well.  Most of them came from former Suns player Cedric Ceballos.  For example, whenever former Suns player Mark West went to the foul line, Ceballos layed down on the court and said that (paraphrasing) “West is shooting, we’re going to be here for a while”.

Here’s another gem from Ceballos after Larry Fitzgerald fouls him.  His comments come after he jogs off screen to the right:

Even though this was a basketball game, it didn’t follow any sort of format or time schedule which was not only refreshing for a change but it added to the fun atmosphere of the event.  The players on the team were there to entertain and left the fans more than satisfied.  Various stoppages in play brought out different activities from a live auction of a Kurt Warner Autographed jersey along with lunch with Mr. Warner, to a dance contest with Kids, to a representative from Partners in Malawi (the organization where all the proceeds were going) talking about the wonderful work they have been doing.

On the opposite end of the floor, there was a silent auction with a large number of REALLY killer sports memorabilia available.  For example, Orlando Magic super star Dwight Howard had an autographed jersey available and there was a hockey stick signed by the entire Phoenix Coyotes team.

All in all, this was a spectacular event from start to finish.  I just wish there were more people there as they missed an extremely entertaining evening.  We would love to help out next year in the promotions department as this is a great event benefiting an extremely worthy cause.

I was re-reading the original press release for Assist4Africa just now and one line stuck out for me:

This is the third time for the event and it promises to be the best ever.

I couldn’t agree more.

Partners in Malawi is a non-profit organization designed to promote the awareness and education of AIDS/HIV in Malawi.  All of the proceeds from the event went to all the efforts this organization does in Malawi.

For more information about Partners In Malawi, please refer to their website:

http://www.partnersinmalawi.org/

Editor’s Note:  We are experiencing challenges with the photos we have taken at the event.  Until we are able to post the images here, we have uploaded the all of our pictures from the Assist4Africa Charity Basketball Game to our Facebook Fan Page:

Part 1:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77418&id=33123943379&l=354ecd7161

Part 2:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77420&id=33123943379&l=f4bd8ae385

Part 3:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77413&id=33123943379&l=4afbc89e53

Popularity: 17% [?]