Yeah, you really can’t get much worse than generating just 58 yards of total offense, but the Arizona Cardinals somehow managed it. But, it’s also important to remember that this wasn’t the real Cardinals offense, or at least a good portion of it.
While those who still believe the team is in tank mode for a quarterback who’s now struggling to pick up his USC Trojans and lift them to new heights, the fact was, the Cardinals were down to their rookie backup quarterback, plus their RB3 and 4. And it wasn’t exactly like they had much of a choice but to roll with them on Sunday.
Sure, Murray is healthy enough to start, but would any logical coach let him return against Myles Garrett and Company? There was also nothing they could do about holding out James Conner and Emari Demercado, along with receiver Michael Wilson.
But, perhaps the crew will return this coming week against a substantially weaker Atlanta Falcons team.
3 burning questions heading into Week 10 vs. the Falcons
1 - Will those missing time on the Cardinals offense be healthy enough to play?
It’s clear that Clayton Tune was not ready to start an NFL game, even under the circumstances. Although the Cardinals were down a few key contributors, he arguably had the worst performance of a quarterback at Cleveland Browns Stadium since Spurgeon Wynn in 2000, though to be fair, he had a slightly better game than the former sixth-round pick.
But the overall performance of the unit begs the question of whether the “real” Cardinals offense will be back. While it’s true the Falcons defense is nowhere near as talented as the Browns, they still rank 13th in the league, and are 11th in passing defense. Therefore, the Arizona Cardinals offense we saw yesterday probably isn’t faring too well against the Falcons defense.
But an offense featuring Kyler Murray, James Conner, Emari Demercado, and Michael Wilson will, or even if two of them came back in Week 10, would change the trajectory of the offense.
2 - Will the Cardinals defensive line stop a dynamic Falcons rushing attack?
The Cardinals defense, despite the final score, played the Browns strong rushing attack well. Cleveland ran the ball 40 times, but they picked up only 113 yards on the ground, which ended up with them attaining 2.8 yards per carry. Quarterback Deshaun Watson averaged 7.3 yards on the ground, but he only had 22 yards on three attempts.
The Browns leading rusher, Jerome Ford, had just 44 yards and 2.2 yards per, while Kareem Hunt carried the rock 14 times for 38 yards. Cleveland still has the fifth-best rushing offense in football, and they have collectively averaged 4.1 yards per carry against opponents.
Atlanta is in the same boat, sitting at seventh in the league and racking up 4.1 yards per of their own. The dynamic duo of Tyler Allgeier and Bijan Robinson, especially Robinson, has fueled this team’s offense. But if the Arizona Cardinals prove they can stop the run for two weeks running, it should make life easier for the passing defense.
3 - Will the Cardinals defensive unit have a repeat performance?
As ironic as it sounds, you can seriously say the Cardinals defense ended up with a rather impressive outing. They held the Browns to just 326 yards and 4.6 yards per play, and their third-down defense stifled the Browns 64.7 percent of the time.
Cleveland also netted just 213 passing yards, which averaged to just 6.9 yards per pass. And this was against an above average talent in Deshaun Watson, so what are the Cardinals capable of against either Desmond Ridder or Taylor Heinicke?
While they are 12th in the league, the Falcons passing attack isn’t great, and there is a chance Heinicke can keep the job this week over the pedestrian Ridder. It serves as the ultimate opportunity for the Arizona Cardinals defense to hold strong against what could be a weak passing game. If they can, then the Cards will keep this week’s game much closer than this past Sunday’s.
(Statistics provided by ESPN.com and Pro-Football-Reference)