Who are the Arizona Cardinals?
Seaside Joe 1318: The Cardinals banked on Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray, but that seems to have left them in debt
Back in the 1960’s, two decades before I was born, I was reading a book that was almost entirely comprised of cartoon pictures, the protagonists and villains of which were almost always people who had powers atypical of humans. This particular cartoon picture book that I was reading featured a man who had powers like spider, and he was facing the dilemma of running into another man who appeared to have powers like a spider. In the 60 years since I read that comical book, nobody has ever seen that image again.
Until now…
I will now do something that nobody on the internet has ever done before: I will use an image to convey a message that seems unrelated to my point but in fact has the same exact essence of the picture itself.
As of this time, the Seattle Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals could be such spider-based men, pointing the finger at one another.
The Seahawks and Cardinals are both 2-3 wading in the unknown waters of an NFC West division that seems much weaker than advertised before the season. The Los Angeles Rams have played much more like the team they were before Sean McVay than a team that just won the Super Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers lead the division at 3-2, but they haven’t made a convincing argument that Jimmy Garoppolo will be the answer this time when he wasn’t the answer for the past four seasons.
What would the 49ers even be if not for their wins over the Seahawks and Rams?
That’s how we arrive at a Week 6 game between Seattle and Arizona that could help clear up which of these teams is going to sink and which is going to swim. It’s not that Kyler Murray reminds me of Geno Smith or that Pete Carroll and Kliff Kingsbury are at similar stages of their career or that the Seahawks and Cardinals approach the game alike.
It’s that both franchises could make a case that they’ll be better than their 2-3 record. Both could make a case that the other is going to end up much worse than only being one game below .500.
The winner will be at worst a game behind the 49ers.
The loser will be in last place and 0-2 in the division.
So if we were to rip that mask off of this team to reveal their true identity, who would we find the Arizona Cardinals to be? Spider-infused superhumans? Or just regular old birds?
Arizona’s Wins
The Cardinals defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 29-23 in OT in Week 2, needing to come back from a 23-7 fourth quarter deficit in order to pull off the miracle. And two weeks ago, Arizona faced a 10-3 halftime deficit against the Carolina Panthers, but scored 23 unanswered to pull out an easy road win against Baker Mayfield.
The Raiders and Panthers have a combined record of 2-8.
Carolina beat the Saints, which may not bode well for Seattle’s argument.
Las Vegas beat the Broncos, which seems just as fitting.
The Cardinals have played five games and their two wins could be wins that any team could muster with a decent one-day performance. But their three losses are just as interesting.
Arizona’s Losses
In Week 1, the Cardinals lost 44-21 to the 4-1 Kansas City Chiefs, and Arizona is coming off of a 20-17 loss to the 5-0 Philadelphia Eagles. I’ll prepared for Patrick Mahomes to start the year, the Cardinals pushed Philadelphia to think brink and lost when kicker Matt Ammendola missed from only 43 yards away.
But the Cards defense might deserve as much blame, as the Eagles got the ball with 9:43 remaining and converted three third downs, not giving the ball back until a 20-17 lead with 1:48. An eight-minute drive that included 13 running plays to only three passing plays.
Murray led two 90-yard drives against the Eagles, but one of those ended in a field goal, and Arizona had too many drives that failed to accomplish the mission: I don’t even know how it’s possible to have a nine-play, 10-yard drive that runs 5:22 off the clock, but Kyler Murray managed it.
The Cardinals also lost 20-12 to the Rams, a team that has otherwise managed to do very little this season, especially on offense. If not for Arizona, even the defending Super Bowl champions would be just 1-3.
Cardinals Defense
Since giving up 44 to the Chiefs in Week 1, the Cardinals haven’t allowed more than 23 in any of their last four contests. They are 22nd in points allowed and 17th in yards allowed, but these rankings may be generous.
The Cardinals are 30th in points per drive allowed, 26th in DVOA, and 27th against the pass by DVOA.
Teams aren’t beating the Cards with volume, they’re beating them methodically. Offenses are not in a rush because as noted in the Eagles game, Philadelphia was able to run play after play against Arizona knowing that eventually they would reach the destination. The Cardinals run a lot more plays then their opponents—first in plays per drive—but to what end?
Similar to a Seahawks problem (remember our two spider-folks?), Arizona’s pass rush is nonexistent. J.J. Watt and Zach Allen have a couple of sacks each, and the rest of the team has 1.5, basically. The loss of Chandler Jones in the offseason is proving to be a problem that GM Steve Keim opted to not address, if he even had any choice.
Arizona has two interceptions on the year, one by a linebacker and one by a safety. Tariq Woolen has more picks than the entire Cardinals defense.
DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett should have favorable matchups against Marco Wilson and former Huskies cornerback Byron Murphy; Murphy and Wilson have been targeted at the same rate this year, allowing basically the same number of completions, with Wilson allowing more yards per completion but Murphy giving up more touchdowns.
First round picks used on Isaiah Simmons and Zaven Collins seems to have supplied the Cardinals with a bit more talent, but little additional value. Perhaps a cautionary tale before Seattle uses another first round pick on a linebacker.
Let’s say Shane Waldron wants to run a similar attack to the one that his former boss used in Week 3 against Arizona. Without being pressured like he normally is, Matthew Stafford came out firing against the Cardinals, throwing passes on nine of L.A.’s first 12 offensive plays, followed by a pass call turned into a scramble for a first down. The next play was a 20-yard rushing touchdown by Cooper Kupp.
Then again, the next nine of 12 plays before halftime were Stafford passing attempts.
We could see Smith and the number one passing attack by DVOA decide to just attack Arizona’s cornerbacks and secondary in the first half, knowing that a) the Seahawks have one of the best first half attacks in the NFL and b) the Cardinals have one of the worst defenses.
Then it would become Kenneth Walker III’s show in the second half, similar to how the Eagles ran down Arizona in the fourth quarter to secure a late victory. The Rams also turned on the run in the second half and forced Murray to try and beat them deep. He couldn’t and so many short passes ran too much time off of the clock for Arizona’s comeback bid.
Cardinals Offense
The Cardinals banked everything on Kyler Murray once they secured the number one pick in 2019, going as far as to trade Josh Rosen less than a year after drafting him and hiring Kliff Kingsbury even though he had just been fired by Texas Tech. Kingsbury was a perfect match for the Kyler plan though because Arizona wanted to do anything in its power to attempt to make the air raid work in the NFL.
Kyler Murray’s not going to run another type of offense. Nobody knows it as well as Kingsbury, except for maybe Mike Leach. I would have paid to see that happen.
I have wondered at times this year if the Seahawks want to mesh their offense to one that resembles Arizona’s. Seattle drafted not one, but two Mike Leach offensive tackles and they’re both doing great to start their careers. Knowing that a quarterback will be added through the draft in 2023, it is possible that Mississippi State’s Will Rogers or Washington State’s Cam Ward could be among their targets.
Maybe the Seahawks would even hire Kingsbury as an offensive assistant… if they help send him back into unemployment first.
As well documented as his late season collapses have been, I still see fans express surprise when they find out about Kingsbury’s consistent track record for losing after November. More important than a nine-year history though is merely what has happened recently.
The Cardinals were 10-2 last season. They have since lost eight of their last 11 games. Imagine that Arizona was 3-8 and then lost to the Seahawks at a time when Seattle had the worst defense in the league. How can Kingsbury even survive his job to get to November if that happens?
Hired for his knowledge of the passing game and to develop Murray into an MVP quarterback, Kingsbury’s offense currently ranks 30th in net yards per pass attempt allowed… which is a shame if you’re a Cardinals fan because Arizona has thrown more passes than any other team in the league.
The air raid offense is much more “dink and dunk” than most people realize, but this is just cruel and unusual punishment for their fans.
Yes, DeAndre Hopkins has been out with a suspension (he returns in Week 7), but the Cardinals have seen no ROI with 2021 second round pick Rondale Moore (sounds familiar) and there may not be a legitimate deep threat on the roster. Even Marquise Brown, acquired for a first round pick in the offseason, is earning his keep by catching a lot of short passes.
Death-by-a-thousand-cuts only works…if you kill somebody.
Running back James Conner has gone from 18 touchdowns in 2021 to having only scored once in the team’s first five games. Update: Conner is expected to be out this week. Similar to Tyler Higbee being Stafford’s number two target in L.A., the Cardinals have force fed tight end Zach Ertz a total of 41 passes… but the result is just 28 catches and 229 yards. Ertz is averaging just 5.4 yards per target in the last three games.
Arizona’s offense has been horribly boring, awfully predictable, and hardly something worth a copycat effort.
Almost exactly why NFL teams have long feared adopting the spread offense in the pros as opposed to the frequency its been seen at the college level. I would even argue, though nobody else seems to, that Lincoln Riley has been a little overrated. At least as far as quarterbacks go.
At one time, Riley could boast that he had helped Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray become number one picks. His system then proved to be a saving grace for Jalen Hurts, now surprisingly the best NFL quarterback out of the trio. But Riley’s system couldn’t help Spencer Rattler, the top recruit in the 2019 class, and now Mayfield is halfway to being the next Sam Darnold.
While Murray’s $230.5 million contract feels like a big, fat “Why?” if the success only happens when Hopkins is available.
The Cardinals offense is ranked 23rd by DVOA, 23rd in passing and 16th in rushing. Can they have their best game of the season, as most of Seattle’s opponents have this year, by facing the Seahawks defense?
Can the Seahawks wear down the Cardinals by exploiting a bad pass defense with their two number one receivers and the starting debut of Walker?
These teams are not alike. But they might be in the same place and it’s time to pull of their masks to reveal their true identities.
This is Walker's first *start* and I expect to see him rip off some long runs vs Arizona.. I actually would not want to be Arizona's DC preparing for this game. The Seahawk's passing offense is the main threat that you would have to plan for, but KW3 is going to cause some worry as well.
As it will be all season though it comes down to the Seahawk's D: can it keep the scoring down enough to allow the Offense to win the game? With a Hopkins-less Arizona team, I believe they can.
In the multiverse, there is a reality where the Hawks and Cardinals have completely and identically flip-flopped player and coaching personnel. I prefer the universe in which we live now.