The Cardinals 1980 season was nearly over before it even got going. In 1979 St Louis picked up quarterback Mike Loyd as a possible eventual replacement for the veteran Jim Hart. Loyd ended his career completing 17.9% of his passes, and with a 9.4 quarterback rating, and barring an injury to Hart, Loyd will likely never see a snap in the Tecmo Legacy League (TLL). Some inside the Cardinal organization feel as though Hart his far past his prime, yet the sentiment coming from the same camp is that management is going to allow Hart to ride out his career as a Cardinal, shuffling off on his own time.

Hart did quietly have an excellent 1979 season, throwing 27 TDs to only 3 INTs, as St Louis narrowly missed the playoffs. 1980 is a different story all together. The baby faced Hart is anything but a young man. Through seven games the Cardinals have has many wins and ties, as Hart does touchdowns: ONE. What has happened? Well, for one the Cardinals changed coaches, from deadfaulkner to cheapcatch, and word is cheapcatch doesn’t have the same confidence in Hart as Faulkner did. The current coach denies this accusation, citing, ‘If you look at the film, we’ve allowed Hart to air it out. The plays just aren’t being made.’ Workhorse running back Ottis Anderson is second in the league rushing, but realizes the team needs more out of Hart if they are to finish with some semblance of a satisfactory season. ‘I don’t know what’s going on with Hart. I don’t know what’s going on with the management, and the direction of this team. I’m out of answers.’ Word is that opposition to simply allowing Hart to ride out his career on his own accord exists within the Cardinal brass, with the thought being that St Louis should plan on selecting a legitimate, high-round quarterback in the 1981 draft, beginning a new era under a young signal caller.

The Cardinals wasteful 1980 season has a few silver linings. St Louis has largely been competitive, losing two out of their five games to SKP contests, while losing in overtime to the Eagles and tying the Oilers. The central source of the competitiveness is a defense that is giving up a respectable 14 points per game in MAN contests.

This is directly opposed to the productivity of the Cardinal offense, a unit that has crossed the goal line a measly five times. The Cardinals possess a putrid offensive line, one of the worst in the entire league, but Anderson has had little trouble putting together good games behind it. However, the limits of the Cardinal offense were on full display in week 7 against a good Oiler defense. The entire second half saw the Oilers crash through the offensive line of St Louis play after play. Anywhere from two to four offensive linemen were being charged through, flung and knocked down, and the overall speed of the Oiler drones negated the shiftiness of Anderson. What the Cardinals needed was a pressure valve release in the form of Jim Hart. But all Hart did was go 2/6 with 2 interceptions. This 1980 St Louis Cardinal team has several deficiencies: the aforementioned weak offensive line, lack of hitting power on defense, shallow all around depth. The main culprit, though, is that the Cardinals have no Hart.

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