Mason's Morsels

7:01 P.M. MDT: The Sound of the Rockies, our national anthem singers tonight, have departed the field. Quarterbacks Darrell Hackney and Preston Parsons are warming up. I presume Hackney will start, given his place on the depth chart, one notch ahead of Parsons. The Broncos have a much more robust corps of running backs tonight than last week, with Selvin Young, Mike Bell, Cecil Sapp and Andre Hall all in uniform and in pads. Now we await the coin toss.

7:05 P.M. MDT: Arizona wins the coin toss by calling tails. Denver’s captains are Jason Elam, Curome Cox and Darrell Hackney.

7:07 P.M. MDT: Todd Sauerbrun clobbers the opening kickoff seven yards deep into the end zone. Arizona opens with its first-string offense agaist Denver’s No. 2 defense … and Edgerrin James promptly darts 13 yards up the middle on the game’s first play.

7:10 P.M. MDT: Denver’s starting defense: Ends Tim Crowder and Jarvis Moss … tackles Marcus Thomas and Antwon Burton … outside linebackers Cameron Vaughn and Louis Green … middle linebacker Nate Webster … safeties Curome Cox and Hamza Abdullah … cornerbacks Karl Paymah and Jeff Shoate.

7:11 P.M. MDT: Ouch for Denver’s second-team defense … having forced the Cardinals into third-and-10 from the the Arizona 38, James promptly skips left on a draw and gets 11 yards to revive the possession.

7:12 P.M. MDT: Two plays later, James gives way to Marcel Shipp, who proves just as successful as the starter darting 22 yards to the left side and moving Arizona to the Denver 24. One play later, Curome Cox nearly intercepted a Matt Leinart pass towards Anquan Boldin.

7:14 P.M. MDT: It’s not so much third downs as runs that are killing the Broncos on this drive. Shipp and James each have a pair of double-digit-yardage carries as the Cardinals are now at the Denver 10 with second-and-8.

7:15 P.M. MDT: Not a good moment for Jarvis Moss on the second-and-8 play; he slipped while chasing after Leinart, leaving the quarterback enough room to look beyond the lanky first-round defensive end and find tight end Leonard Pope for a connection that set up first-and-goal at the Denver 2.

7:17 P.M. MDT: Nice play by D.D. Lewis in the back of the end zone to break up a Leinart lob for Pope. Arizona takes timeout and has third-and-goal forthcoming after the respite.

7:18 P.M. MDT: Arizona’s Web site refers to their head coach, Ken Wisenhunt, simply as “Whiz.” With this kind of official confirmation, I feel secure providing this link.

7:20 P.M. MDT: Great play by Bill Alford to close on Larry Fitzgerald on third-and-goal, although it made no difference because Fitzgerald was out of bounds. Alford was slow in rising after the play; it appeared Fitzgerald inadvertently got a foot into the cornerback’s gut, but he is now walking off the field.

7:21 P.M. MDT: 3-0 Arizona after Neil Rackers’ field goal.7:26 P.M. MDT: Andre Hall drops the opening kickoff in the end zone as he fields it for a touchback … Darrell Hackney starts at quarterback. Cecil Sapp is at fullback with Selvin Young at tailback. The wide receivers are Brian Clark and Domenik Hixon, with Stephen Alexander at tight end. The right tackle is Chad Mustard; the left tackle is Chris Kuper; the right guard is Emmanuel Akah; the left guard is Mark Fenton; and the center is Greg Eslinger. Meanwhile, Hackney notched a 10-yard run on third-and-5 for a first down.

7:26 P.M. MDT: Some nice blocking from Nate Jackson helps spring Young outside for an 8-yard run, moving Denver to its 43. The Broncos now face third-and-2 … and Young’s carry will leave the Broncos about a half-yard short.

7:28 P.M. MDT: Looks like the Broncos might go for it; they huddled and will now call timeout. As Dan Fouts might say, “Last game of the preseason; can’t hold anything back.”

7:30 P.M. MDT: So much for that; Broncos are now punting.

7:32 P.M. MDT: I’m watching Andre Hall closely, since it’s his first preseason game after injuring his hamstring … so far, he’s dropped a kickoff but also made a fine special-teams tackle, beating all his teammates to Cardinals punt returner Steve Breaston just now. Kurt Warner and the Arizona understudies are now in the game.

7:34 P.M. MDT: So that’s what John Lynch is talking about … he speaks with admiration about Hamza Abdullah’s potential, and he just made an outstanding open-field tackle on Arizona tailback J.J. Arrington for a three-yard loss. Denver now has Arizona in third-and-8 from the Big Red 25.

7:35 P.M. MDT: A third-down stop, as Kurt Warner overshoots Breaston. Arizona punter Mike Barr sends one out of bounds … but not until it first went 50 yards, forcing the Broncos to start at their 25.

7:38 P.M. MDT: Denver opens its second drive with Mike Bell lining up at fullback in front of Andre Hall. Interesting …

7:41 P.M. MDT: Very nice pass to Brian Clark on third-and-7 … and now, an excellent end-around handoff to Domenik Hixon, who made some excellent moves — and followed a block by Glenn Martinez — to get downfield and into the red zone. But some bad news on the play, as Stephen Alexander is injured back near midfield. He looked like he could barely put any weight on his right leg and was helped off the field.

7:42 P.M. MDT: The quarter ends with the Broncos set for third-and-9 at the Arizona 13.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Arizona Cardinals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.