The Arizona Cardinals simply could not get the rushing game going in Week 3 during their win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In the offseason, when Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim doubled down on his desired runners Chase Edmonds and James Conner, one would have thought there would be an attempt to run the ball more. Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans went pretty well, as the Cardinals finished with over 130 yards rushing.
However, over the last two weeks, the number of rushing yards has dropped considerably against weaker teams in the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars. In the last two weeks, the Cardinals have only put up totals of 103 yards and 91 yards. What’s happening to the running game?
In the case of the Minnesota game, the early shootout nature was detected, and the game stayed that way until the end. Against Jacksonville, what was the reason that the run game was so ineffective?
Arizona Cardinals offensive line is still struggling to run block well
For the Cardinals, who operate in 11 and 12 personnel mostly (39 percent and 31 percent respectively), it’s an improvement from last year. In 2020, those percentages were 46 percent and 31 percent. But the Jaguars aren’t known for having a great defense- the Houston Texans blew them out of the water. The answer to this lies within the film.
In the first half, Arizona was running a lot of double-team blocks on Jacksonville’s base 3-4 defense. When a zone-based running scheme like what the Cardinals use goes up against that, “double team to chip” blocks become the make-or-break mentality of the offensive line.
There are two blockers involved in that double team, each with different responsibilities.
Blocker A is responsible for getting to the 2nd level. He must make contact with the DL first. Blocker B is responsible for making a hit on the DL, letting “A” go to the second level.
This can especially be seen when Arizona was pinned deep against their own goal line. When the Cardinals tried to run the ball, the offensive line just couldn’t get the separation for whatever reason. Credit Jacksonville with that as making Arizona one-dimensional nearly resulted in a victory.
Cardinals offensive line/run-game coordinator Sean Kugler needs to step his game up and devise a scheme or technique to prevent this from happening again. Otherwise, the rushing attack will be shifted to Kyler Murray, and that’s something the team cannot afford to risk.