Matt Leinart Plays Poorly and Gets Demoted; Subsequently Blames Coach

If Leinart is so off-base as to believe that complaining to the media about how he was treated will help matters, then it’s hard to give credence to anything else he says.

…but moaning about that is just going to create the impression that Leinart’s not worth the trouble. You see good players fall out of favor in soccer all the time before re-establishing themselves somewhere else under a different manager, but the key thing is that they are re-establishing themselves… not trying to demonstrate that they weren’t actually a drafting error.

From everything I’ve read and heard he outplayed Anderson.

Joey, Joey, Joey, this take is really shallow. First of all, it was only the 3rd preseason game for goodness sake. Secondly, Leinart ONLY HAD 13 attempts to Anderson’s 41 in the first two games, with a QB rating of 95 & 77 to 45 & 73. After the third preseason game, the competition is: Matt Leinart 19/23 161 yds 1 TD 0 Ints QB Rating: 110.3; D.Anderson 31/53 287 yds 1 TD 2 Ints QB Rating: 70.2.

Matt Leinart has a QB RATING of 110.3 in preseason! He holds the NLF rooking record for most yards passing in a game at 405 vs the Vikings. Furthermore, Leinart replaced Warner and started for 11 games as a rookie, and was the starter for the first 5 games in 2007 before being replaced by Warner due to a season-ending injury.

He was much more than “just the clipboard holder” in his first two seasons, and he has clearly outplayed Anderson despite only being given 13 passing attempts in the first two games. Whisenhunt may still pick Anderson, but it’s not because Matt has shown that “he isn’t a particularly good NFL QB”.

It appears that you are trying too hard to be provocative, which fits in well with ESPiN or Yahoo or Sportsline. But, if you are going to slam a Trojan legend on a USC fan site, you should support your take with more than superficial analysis. Lest you aspire to be the next Scott Wolf.

I feel Matt is not the type of person such as Mark Sanchez that can start in their rookie season. Matt is better at feeling out the situation or program, then stepping in and making a difference. Is Matt a bust in the NFL don’t and will not know until he really gets a chance, along with at least 40% play calling. W-Hunt will never let a non-veteran QB call most of the plays, like PC has to much into the cookie jar. I also feel the Cards were very lucky to make it to the SB and it will never happen again under this Myopic coaching staff. As I said before it would be better for Matt to move on, heck who the hell wants to live in Phoenix anyway.

Oh and BTW those numbers do show that Matt is better than Anderson, as Anderson will throw you into a game and also out of a game. Plus I really have seen but one preseason game and yes I didn’t think Matt looked good, but I don’t feel he agreed with the PLAY CALLING>

Have a great day all——this just my stupid opinion.

A 4th year NFL player has no business making an statement like this. Fact is, Arizona practically handed Leinart the keys to the car when Warner retired. Let’s face it, you don’t sign DEREK ABDERSON to be “the man”. I have no idea what happened, but its absurd to speculate that Wisenhut is placing some personal vendetta above the interests of his team. Arizona’s offense lit it up under Warner, and doesn’t under Leinart. Like Joey said, the “it factor” is missing.

Despite Leinart’s contention that he “hasn’t been given one (an explanation)”, anyone who follows the sport knows that the coaches have reviewed the game film and discussed exactly where improvement needs to be made. If Leinart really doesn’t understand, then maybe he’s just not paying attention. He needs to be working on improving, not playing victim. He should be fighting to win back the starting job. Because…it’s not going to get any easier at his next stop. If he thinks Pete Carroll will put up with these types of statements, he’d better think again. Look how long Lendale White lasted with the Seahawks. Bottom line is that Leinart needs a change of attitude at least as much as he needs a change of scenery. JMO.

Matt was a great QB at SC.

He also had an attitude. And if you were ever lucky enough to bump into him often on campus or around town, you knew that instantly.

I hope he does well, of course, and he seems to have lost that attitude. But there’s no way around it- the stunts he pulled after being drafted with his beer bong parties made SC look bad. Too bad, dude. I’m not going to be PUMPED TO DEFEND YOU on the internet when I’ve gotten razzed at work about the “useless crappy quarterback who came from your school who beer bongs with teenagers.”

I’d be way down with that. We finally have a decent front O-line. This could be happening, weirder things have happened with my beloved Raiders. (now, if Al Davis would just step down. That guy is so old and out-dated- he looks like King Tut’s twin. The mummy, not the person.

…after Leinart’s impressive rookie season, I remain convinced that things would’ve worked out completely differently for the QB. Green believed in Leinart and ran an offense (Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense) that was perfectly suited to Leinart’s skills.

However, Green was sacked (due to the Cards’ atrocious play on defense, which has been a long-standing issue ever since their relocation to Phoenix), and an entirely new coaching staff came in — including Wisenhunt, who seemed to take an instant dislike to Leinart, partly because of Leinart’s bawdy “after hours” activities. Leinart then tried the milk-and-cookies routine as a sop to Wisenhunt, but to no avail.

I believe Leinart went public with his displeasure because this marks the second consecutive preseason that Leinart has played well enough to be named the starter AND had to listen to Wisenhunt publicly praise him, declaiming that Leinart would definitely be the team’s starting QB, only to have Wisenhunt then demote him right before the start of the season. With the lockout looming after this season, I think Leinart felt like he had no cards (pun unintended) left to play and complained to the press, perhaps hoping to force his release.