It’s been hard to figure out the Arizona Cardinals. Their defense is underfunded and plucky, but an offense that came into the year with a clear identity has been more than hit or miss.
Offensively, a lot of inconsistency can be put on the passing attack. Marvin Harrison Jr.’s insertion wasn’t an immediate success, and the offensive line has taken a bit to find its legs through injuries before hitting a stride in the past two weeks.
Quarterback Kyler Murray will take the brunt of the criticism, as he also has waded through an up-and-down start.
ESPN’s Benjamin Solak listed Arizona as one of the teams that confuse him the most, and he brought key stats to partially explain why the Cardinals remain hard to believe in despite looking like a top-12 offense.
But I don’t understand why it vacillates between being so hard and so easy for the Cardinals to move the ball. On Sunday against a strong Dolphins defense, they were excellent. Kyler Murray authored magical play after magical play, winning with his arm in the pocket and his legs (and arm) outside of the pocket. Murray’s ability to thrive under pressure has been particularly key this season; he is first in the league in EPA per dropback when pressured (0.16) and 23rd in EPA per dropback when unpressured (0.14). That’s both super cool and super worrisome.
Obviously, why Murray’s efficiency is lacking when he’s not facing pressure isn’t ideal.
Perhaps that’s on his receiving group not getting open before pressure gets to Murray, who according to NextGenStats is 14th — middle of the road — in time to throw.
Solak points out that offensive coordinator Drew Petzing being in the middle of his second season might have something to do with things. Same thing goes for Arizona’s lack of a veteran go-to option for Murray in the passing game. The running game hasn’t lined up with the scorelines, either. Arizona’s ground game averaged 5.7 yards per carry and piled up 181 yards in a blowout loss against the Washington Commanders but struggled in the win against the Dolphins on Sunday, for example.
Solak saw a difference in how the Cardinals used its No. 1 wideout against Miami, and that could be a sign that consistency is close to being found.
The Cardinals finally got clever with Harrison, who ran 40% of his routes from the slot (a single-game high) and was targeted on a crossing pattern for the first time since Week 3. It should not be hard to build a passing game around Harrison, who has only struggled in games in which he has been stuck running vertical routes and comebacks while pinned to the sideline by an unchallenged cornerback.
Still, Solak doesn’t know what went wrong for Arizona’s passing attack in a 20-13 loss to the Detroit Lions. And why the visit to Green Bay was 10 steps backward. Or why the offense was so “shaky” in a close win against the San Francisco 49ers a few weeks ago.
Solak doesn’t think the defense will be able to carry enough weight to keep Arizona in the thick of the NFC West. As for the offense:
Any hope they have hinges on this offense ascending from a pretty good unit to a weekly juggernaut, and that ascension demands finding some consistency. If Arizona does what it did to the Dolphins for the next month, call me. Until then, I have my doubts about this team.