The Arizona Cardinals are in a slump and they have finally looked like the team most of the NFL universe was expecting them to look like - a group with absolutely no hope in 2023. While the 34-20 final score didn’t look as bad as the 35-16 final from last week, you can argue the Cards played better in Week 4.
Sure, they had a lead in this game, but following Joshua Dobb’s ill-timed interception, the momentum shifted and the Cardinals never had a chance to truly climb back into this one, even if they did draw within four points in the third quarter.
So to prevent a repeat performance in a Week 6 matchup against their NFC West rival, the Los Angeles Rams, what do the Cardinals need to do? Here are three major issues they must improve between now and next Sunday if they want to put themselves into the best position to win.
3 improvements the Arizona Cardinals must make now
1 - Pass protection
Joshua Dobbs had what you could call a bad game, but it’s hard to pin all the blame on him, considering how poorly the Cardinals picked up the Bengals pass rush. Nobody could stop Trey Hendrickson, who racked up 2.5 sacks and three quarterback hits, and the Redbirds aren’t winning anything if they allow elite pass rushers to keep wreaking havoc like that.
Dobbs was also hit eight times, and he rarely had a chance to set his feet and throw a clean pass. Overall, the Cards offensive line put up its worst performance to date in pass protection, and not a single player on the front five looked like an NFL starter when Dobbs dropped back.
The Cardinals either need to run the ball more and pass only when necessary approach, or adopt something more of a three-step dropback and immediately throw, until the line proves it can slow down opposing pass-rushers. If one good thing came out of the situation, it’s that the backs and receivers had running lanes to work with, so this issue involves only pass protection.
2 - Pass coverage
It seems like I’m talking about pass coverage issues at least twice a week these days, but this is the absolute worst it’s been. Joe Burrow’s calf injury looked like a non-issue for most of the day, and he threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns on the Redbirds.
Ja’Marr Chase, who has done next to nothing this season as far as star receiver standards go, hauled in an astounding 15 catches, 192 receiving yards, and three touchdowns. His performance pretty much mirrored that of Brandon Aiyuk’s last week, even if the latter had significantly fewer receptions.
To make matters even worse, the Arizona Cardinals also let the New York Giants tear apart their passing defense for two quarters. 31 of the 62 points the Giants scored this season came against the Cardinals, so clearly, there’s a problem here that nobody is taking ownership of.
At this point, you could probably put Mac Jones up against the Cardinals defense and he’d enjoy a career outing. And no, that’s not an exaggeration, even considering how poorly the third-year quarterback has played so far this year.
3 - Playing to their offense’s strengths
James Conner or no James Conner, the Arizona Cardinals are pretty good at running the football, and ironically, the line does a halfway decent job when run blocking. And while it’s a passing league, the Cards need to play more to their offense’s strengths, and run the ball between 60% and 65% of the time if it means picking up consistent positive yards.
Arizona may have lost by a pair of possessions today, but you can’t fault the running game, which picked up 142 yards and 6.5 yards per carry. Once again, Rondale Moore looked like a better back than he did a receiver, leading the team with 50 rushing yards and 16.7 yards per carry.
Before he went down with an injury, Conner was averaging 7.7 yards per touch, and Emari Demercado pitched in with 45 yards on 10 carries. The system is friendly toward running backs and obvious end-arounds, but the Cards don’t utilize it as often as they need to.
(Statistics provided by ESPN.com)