Leinart loses battle of rookie quarterbacks

Football Betting Lines

12/20/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona's Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler of Denver will probably be compared to each other for years to come.

Both were taken in the first round of the 2006 draft; Leinart was grabbed 10th overall, Cutler one pick later.

Neither started the season as their club's starting quarterback, but both are now expected to lead their team to glory. The two met for the first time on an NFL field Sunday, and round one went to Cutler, who picked up his first-ever win as a starting quarterback.

The Vanderbilt product threw for 261 yards and two touchdowns with an interception in the Broncos' 37-20 win over the Cardinals. Leinart, meanwhile, passed for 214 yards, was intercepted twice, sacked three times, and didn't throw a touchdown pass.

"It has nothing to do with that. That didn't cross my mind," Leinart said of playing against Cutler. "I wasn't worried about the Matt vs. Jay contest. It wasn't about that."

While Leinart has enjoyed some success so far this season, it was Cutler who outshone him early in just his third career start.

By the end of the first half, Cutler had completed 15-of-19 pass attempts for 180 yards for a QB rating of 123.7. Leinart had hit on just 4-of-10 for 30 yards with an interception. His rating was 8.3.

"We wanted to bring pressure, but at the same time wanted to extend coverage and make (Cutler) throw the ball," said Cardinals linebacker Gerald Hayes. "He knew the whole package. We just didn't do enough to win today."

Leinart's longest pass of the first half was a 13-yard completion to Bryant Johnson. Cutler's was a 54-yard TD strike to Javon Walker on Denver's first drive of the game.

"It's hard to say. We just weren't on our game offensively," said Arizona head coach Dennis Green on comparing the two quarterbacks. "We dropped some passes early, dropped some passes late. Matt got hit a few times. The pressure was a lot more out of their front four than it was last week against Seattle or Detroit."

In his defense, Leinart was facing the now 13th-ranked defense in the league. Cutler picked apart a defense ranked 30th in the league.

Leinart's success will come when he learns to control the ball. He has four games this season with multiple interceptions and has thrown 12 picks in 11 outings this year.

His first came right after Cutler's long touchdown toss. Leinart attempted a short pass to Anquan Boldin, but instead, the pass was grabbed by Denver's Champ Bailey, who had both of Denver's interceptions.

That led to a 30-yard field goal by Jason Elam and a 10-0 Denver edge in the first quarter.

"It was tough. You can't turn the ball over against a very good defense and offense," said Leinart. "That type of offense, they grind the clock, they grind the clock, that's what they're designed to do and they made some big plays. But as an offense, we kept our defense on the field too long in the first half, and that's something we can't do."

Denver held the ball for 21:01 minutes in the first half. Arizona, which fell to 4-10 on the season, had it for just 8:59.

In fact, the Cardinals' first scoring drive featured just one completed pass in 10 plays, a short reception by Edgerrin James, who carried the load on the ground to set up a Neil Rackers' second-quarter field goal.

Leinart has been blessed with two star wideouts to help him along in his career. Yet, he completed zero passes to Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald in the first half.

"I give a lot of credit to their defense, they played hard," Leinart said. "They got a lot of great players on that side of the ball. For whatever reason, we just couldn't get them the ball."

JAMES STILL CLIMBING THE CHARTS

James rushed for 63 yards and a touchdown in the loss. He had only 14 carries as Arizona falling behind early took him out of the game.

"We just had to throw more," said Green. "You like the combination of being able to run and play-action and pass. We had to go to more of a straight, drop-back passing game."

Still, James rushed for a score for the second straight game, and now has five on the season.

James -- who has 10,214 career rushing yards -- now needs just 59 yards to pass former Cardinal and New York Giant O.J. Anderson (10,273) for 18th on the all-time list.

Eddie George is 17th with 10,441 yards.

Also, Leinart upped his passing yard total to 2,385 yards in defeat, which moved him past Jake Plummer and his 2,203 yards in 1997 for the club rookie record.

Two big games to wrap up the season would give Leinart a shot at passing Rick Mirer for the third-best rookie total in NFL history. Mirer threw for 2,833 yards in his first year with Seattle in 1993.

Current Colt Peyton Manning holds the rookie record with 3,739 passing yards in 1998.

HOT AND COLD

Boldin finished with five catches for 60 yards to go over 1,000 yards receiving for the third time in his career.

Safety Robert Griffith had eight tackles and intercepted his third pass of the year. His turnover came with Arizona down just 16-10 and gave the Cardinals the ball at the Bronco 28. Arizona, though, failed to move the chains and took a holding penalty to nullify a 40-yard field goal by Rackers.

Rackers then missed from 50 yards away.

"It's tough when your defense gets a huge turnover. We had a little momentum going into the second half, down by six points at halftime, have a chance to go up or put some points on the board, we missed an opportunity," said Leinart.

Also, linebacker Orlando Huff had a season-high 12 tackles.

On the cold side of things, Johnson had two catches for 33 yards, but dropped a probable touchdown pass on the Cardinals' first possession following Rackers' missed field goal.

"He's dropped some passes," said Green. "Everybody knows how to play catch. He knows how to play catch too. It's one of those things."

Rackers also continued his struggles this season. He hit on 40-of-42 field goal attempts last season, but is just 22-of-31 this year. He was 2-of-3 against Denver.

Last year, Rackers was 6-of-7 from 50 yards or longer, but is just 1-of-7 in 2006.

NEXT UP: DIGGING FOR GOLD

After wrapping up their first season in University of Phoenix Stadium 3-5, the Cardinals wrap up the season on the road, starting in San Francisco.

It was against the 49ers that Arizona got off on the right foot after the club recorded a 34-27 season-opening win to break in its new stadium.

Then starting QB Kurt Warner threw for three touchdowns and 301 yards. Fitzgerald caught nine passes for 133 yards and James rushed for 73 yards and a score.

49er quarterback Alex Smith threw for 288 yards in the loss, while Frank Gore kicked off his amazing 2006 season with 87 yards rushing and two scores.

Leinart will be getting his first look at this division foe.

The Cardinals have won their last three games against San Francisco, which is coming off a big Thursday win over Seattle, but is just 13-17 all-time against the Niners.