Jettisoning McCoy Key For Arizona Cardinals
By Chad Barrett
Under Utilizing Larry Fitzgerald
Any Cardinal fan will tell you that no matter how gloomy or desperate things get, there’s always Larry, so there’s always hope. Well, until now.
For whatever reason, the future Hall of Famer is all but absent from McCoy’s offense. In week 5, Fitz had only 3 targets.
In week 3, he had only 2 (which, by the way, was only the second time in his career that has happened). In the other four games of this season, he’s had only 30 targets.
When you do the math, Fitz is currently averaging less than 6 targets per game. In 2016 and 2017, he averaged over 10 per game. Hmm . . . If there’s one receiver on this team you can count on, it’s Larry Fitzgerald, and the reason he is not the “go-to guy” for rookie quarterback Josh Rosen is baffling.
Run David Johnson Up the Middle. Fail. Repeat.
The comment I’ve heard over and over thus far this year is “why do they run Johnson up the middle every play?” Of course they don’t do it every play . . . but just about.
The stats are even more confounding when you remember that Johnson is one of the premier running backs in the game. In the Card’s week 1 loss to the Redskins, Johnson had only 9 carries for 37 yards.
In week 2, 13 of his carries were between the tackles, with only 3 of them over 5 yards. Weeks 3, 4, and 6 add up to 52 carries with only 10 being 5 yards or more.
Even during AZ’s week 5 “win” over SF, Johnson had 18 carries and roughly 5 of them weren’t straight up the middle. And guess what? The only carries Johnson had in that game that were over 5 yards were the carries that weren’t straight up the middle. So, for whatever reason, McCoy continues to run Johnson up the middle time and time again where he often loses yards due to Arizona’s below average offensive line. Strange.