Before you could even blink, the Cardinals found themselves down 24-0 to the Packers Sunday morning. For a team that was going to be built on their explosiveness on offense needing to cover up the major defensive needs, the offense hasn’t been up to standard aside from the Rams game. It hit a low point against Green Bay, mustering only 13 points and looking discombobulated the entire game. Let’s try and find out why, and how the Cardinals can fix these issues going forward.
To start, the play calling was the one thing I liked. There were a good amount of plays that, with better execution, become big gains, but were missed for one reason or another. The Packers sat in zone coverage a ton and the Cardinals had some nice answers for it when Kyler Murray had the time to throw and receivers were getting open. The Cardinals struggled to run the ball with James Conner in some power and zone runs, which didn’t work much. The offensive line had a pretty brutal game (we’ll get to them soon!) but one thing I would’ve changed would be to get Trey Benson more touches, he popped their biggest rushing gain on a 20-yard inside zone play. Conner is an awesome running back and is a bowling ball of a human, but Benson gives you some juice that Conner doesn't have and I think it makes this offense more dimensional with Benson in the fold.
One more thing I’d change was that there aren’t many plays designed where they get Murray rolling out and making plays with his legs, it’s all very stagnant and doesn’t play to his strengths very well. Especially with o-line troubles, it didn’t seem like the Cardinals had many answers to this Packers pass rush (The interior offensive line is going to have nightmares about Kenny Clark). Murray was doing straight dropback passes and facing immediate pressure, and when he couldn’t make something out of nothing, it would kill drives and eventually put Arizona in a massive hole they couldn’t get out of.
Now, the offensive line. The Cardinals couldn’t block anyone. Not in the run game and certainly not in the pass game. Just looking at the box score you’ll see that the Packers didn’t register a sack all game, but there was constant pressure all game long.
— ? (@alexander_anger) October 17, 2024
Take this play for example- It’s a flood concept (if you’re a Madden player, you’ve run this play) to the boundary side of the field. The Packers have one single-high safety, meaning it’s cover-3 or cover-1. They didn’t rotate anyone, didn’t disguise it, just played it straight up with the Cardinals running the perfect play against it. The play is blown up immediately by Colby Wooden, who was going against backup guard Isaiah Adams, Murray checks down and takes a couple of yards instead of a sack. It wouldn’t have been a huge gain, but these are the types of plays that the great offenses make routinely and that the Cardinals couldn’t do.
— ? (@alexander_anger) October 17, 2024
This play is a prime example of how constant pressure and hits on a quarterback can change how they play mentally and physically. The Packers are in single-high again, but this time they are in man-to-man. Xavier Weaver, the replacement for Harrison Jr., makes a nice move on the corner and gets open, and with a good throw is a touchdown. Murray drops back a few steps and instead of stepping forward, into his throw, he jumps to the side and ends up awkwardly torquing his hips while he throws. I’m not sure if he did that because of the pressure he felt (which there wasn’t much on that play) or if he couldn’t see over the lineman and had to adjust his throwing angle (why there should be more designed rollouts!) but it turns into an incompletion and they settle for a field goal.
Now, I’m sure you’re reading this as a Cardinals fan. It’s with great pleasure that I’d like to say that not everything they did on Sunday was horrible! Take this play, for example.
— ? (@alexander_anger) October 17, 2024
Green Bay starts with two-high safeties, but Xavier McKinney rotates down right before the snap, once again showing a single-high structure and turning into cover-3. The Cardinals have Emari Demercado split out wide, running a delayed slant (a route they used to set up for a later, which was cool to see) and draws in McKinney, leaving Michael Wilson wide open on a post up the seam for a touchdown.
The Cardinals were never going to be world-beaters this season. Everyone knew this was part of a rebuilding year with a ceiling to maybe sneak into the playoffs as a six or seven-seed. Games like this were expected, but we’re going to find out about Drew Petzing and this Cardinals offense soon enough. The Cardinals have a great stable of young talent and have produced at times this year. They’re 10th in passing success rate and 14th in rushing success rate, meaning they’re consistently getting yardage and setting themselves up for easy second and third downs. The Packers game highlighted what happens when they don’t get ahead of the chains and end up in obvious passing downs, and it's not getting any easier. The Chargers, Dolphins, Bears, Jets, Seahawks (twice) and the Vikings are all coming up soon and have shown to cause massive problems for offenses.
The Cardinals have talented people on the field, on the sideline and in charge of roster decisions. I’m excited to see how they grow from this and get better, and you should be too.