of arizona cardinals What did you do?
The Cardinals entered this week as one of the worst run defenses in the league by any standard. They were facing challenges, near the bottom in both EPA and success rate. chargerIt was one of the most physical offenses in the entire league.
And they closed them down.
Arizona held the Chargers to 59 yards rushing with -0.14 EPA per carry and a 35% success rate on the ground in a 17-15 victory. It was one of the most impressive team performances of the year, and one that showed the team breaking away from its schematic tendencies. They play the third-most snaps against the run with six or fewer players in the box (largely due to a lack of girth up front). However, he stepped up significantly against the Chargers, playing the majority of snaps as a base member, with linebackers Kuzir White and Mac Wilson on the field together. Playing with bigger personnel not only adds more bodies to the field, but also allows White and Wilson to flow to the ball faster if the defensive line plays correctly.
On the run that ended in a loss, EDGE's Zaven Collins hit a tight end in the face, collided with a pull guard, and single-handedly knocked down two blockers. This allowed Mack Wilson to get a really hard trigger and come downhill to make this tackle, something we haven't seen much of with the Cardinals this season.
We've talked a lot about gaps and wasting blockers when it comes to the pass rush, but the Cardinals on Monday were also able to waste blockers in the run game. Again, Arizona has the basic personnel in place, but with a six-man front, someone on the defensive line will have to step in in coverage if they want to maintain structure. Arizona drops the weakside EDGE, meaning RT Joe Alto has virtually no one to block. This leaves the right guard and center one-on-one, and when nose tackle Roy Lopez crosses the center's face, he doesn't see the White Trigger come down hard on this split-zone run to get a stop. Great run defense for the Cardinals.
As the Chargers went lighter, the Cardinals went with it, but they still had the ability to stop runs from deep. Arizona has a good trio of safeties who can get down from deep and play the run, which allowed them to have some fun with their personnel group. When Arizona employed the “penny” package of five linebackers at the line of scrimmage and one linebacker off the ball, one of the edge players was actually LB Mack Wilson. A player who has great feel for coverage and drops from the line and can function as an edge player to create one-on-ones up front for Arizona. That would allow either Jaylen Thompson or Budda Baker to come in from deep and essentially be the weakside linebacker, cutting off any cutbacks the Chargers might be able to take advantage of.
This is how the Cardinals hope to run their defense with lighter players, and if Los Angeles goes lighter, Arizona will win in the run game.
The Cardinals are a strange team. They sit at 3-4 and boast a win against them, even though there are still many questions on both sides of the ball. san francisco 49erswhich keeps Arizona in second place in the NFC West. The road from here will be even tougher, with two more games against Seattle and Sunday's matchups against Chicago, Minnesota, and Miami, but if they can come up with a game plan similar to the one they had against the Chargers, they can make it to the playoffs. You shouldn't miss it.
