Four areas proving the Arizona Cardinals remain a work in progress

Running game struggles

Following the Week Four outing against the Panthers, Kyler Murray leads the Cardinals in rushing with 265 rushing yards. And while running backs Kenyan Drake and Chase Edmonds have had their moments, neither fared exceptionally well in 2020.

Drake had a solid but unspectacular first three weeks to the season with 219 rushing yards and 4.1 yards per carry. In Week Four against a Panthers team struggling to stop the run, he logged 35 yards on 13 carries.

Drake opened the game with a nine-yard run. Meaning he had 26 yards on his final 12 carries. In short, the running game proved to be a mess in Week Four. And through the first three weeks of the season, only came through late in games.

But for the most part, has been a non-factor. And in the NFL, defenses will take full advantage of an offense forced to go one-dimensional because the running game can’t get going.

A solid running game is a combination of solid run blocking with backs capitalizing on their line opening holes. None of that happened Sunday with the Cardinals line mishandling a weak Carolina front seven with Drake failing to make anything happen sans his opening run. And if you take out solid fourth quarter performances from Drake in Weeks One and Two, you get a mess.