Arizona Cardinals: Creating more balance

The Arizona Cardinals ran the ball more than they threw it on Sunday

If this was the actual game plan, then it worked.  For Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury, it wasn’t his “Air Raid” offense that got the job done.

The Cardinals actually ran the ball.  They had 38 rushing plays to the 32 they went to the air with.  Quarterback Kyler Murray was 20-32 for 253-yards.

The key was they were able to keep the offense on the field at times and also were able to keep the Cardinals defense off of it for good stretches.  It got dicey in the 4th quarter on Sunday though.

After taking a 23-9 lead, they allowed the Cincinnati Bengals to run two consecutive offensive drives for touchdowns that ate up 14 plays and almost 5 minutes of game time. Still, in the end the Cardinals had about a 3 minute advantage in time of possession.

It wasn’t the one-headed monster running the ball.  Murray, David Johnson, and Chase Edmonds all contributed.  They ran the ball to the tune of 266-yards.  It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a Cardinals team be able to do that.

Granted, the Bengals were a little banged up but still to go out and do that was impressive.  Could this be the game plan going forward? Maybe.  It is going to still likely be a week by week proposition.

With the Cardinals hurting at receiver with Christian Kirk and Damiere Byrd out on Sunday, being able to run the ball was key.  However, they ran and threw the ball well on Sunday.

The Cardinals will never get a true balance in any given game, although Sunday is about as close as you’ll probably see it.  Sunday seemed to be by design.  It may not always look that way based on how the game is dictated.

Now they come home to face the Atlanta Falcons.  It might be a good idea to game plan the same way for next week and see what comes of it.