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The play dominating the national discourse surrounding the Arizona Cardinals this week has, naturally, been Emari Demercado’s goal-line fumble.
The Cardinals' issues, though, do not start there, or even with Dadrion Taylor-Demerson’s interception-turned-fumble. Those were freakish moments — ones that likely won’t be repeated for years to come.
The bigger issues lie in the other 63 offensive plays in their loss to the Tennessee Titans. Those were the plays that enabled a 21-3 lead to become a nailbiter in the first place.
As left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. said after the game: “Why did it have to be close? Even if this was a win. Why do we have to be close?”
The answer rests with an offense that now ranks 27th in yards per play, sandwiched right between the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints. Last year, the Cardinals ranked seventh in that metric.
Here are 10 plays from their Week 5 loss that explain the offensive struggles — and why turning this season around won’t be easy.
The first sign of trouble actually came on the Cardinals' biggest passing play of the game.
The Cardinals ran play action with Kyler Murray rolling to his right. His progression starts with a pair of intermediate crossing routes from Trey McBride and Elijah Higgins. The Titans, though, immediately have four defenders keying on that part of the field — while Marvin Harrison Jr. is in man coverage with no safety help over the top.
If Murray had recognized that coverage, he could have hit Harrison for a walk-in touchdown. Instead, he begins scrambling before working to Harrison. That enables the weak-side safety to get over and forces Murray to throw on the run.
Harrison saves the play with an incredible catch, but it was one he should have never had to make.
On their next snap, the Cardinals had a chance to follow up Harrison’s catch with an immediate score.
They motion tight end Tip Reiman across the formation, which prompts the safety to move with him. That gives tight end Elijah Higgins inside leverage on a crossing route. But right as Higgins is approaching a hole in the Titans' secondary, Murray bails from the pocket.
Murray isn’t the only culpable party here. The Cardinals had a miscommunication with their protection, continuing a season-long trend. But the league’s best pocket passers are able to stand in against pressure and make anticipatory throws into holes in opposing coverage.
Over the first three weeks, Murray excelled with his command of the offense. But in the past two losses, he’s been both less decisive and less accurate, compounding the Cardinals' struggles.
Another trend this season: The Cardinals being overly risk-averse in the passing game. Murray has checked the ball down on 11.1% of his pass attempts, a career high. That’s a directive from offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork, who have repeatedly preached taking what they describe as “boring” throws.
Sometimes, that’s the correct decision. Other times, it prevents the offense from moving the ball downfield.
That’s what happens here, on a play where the Cardinals had all sorts of issues. For one, left guard Isaiah Adams loses almost instantly. But Murray makes his decision to pass to running back Michael Carter before Adams loses.
Because the ball comes out so quickly, the Cardinals' receivers don’t even have time to get into their route concept, which is designed to put the cover-2 flat defender in conflict. Instead, Murray hits Carter short of the sticks, and the Cardinals punt two plays later.
Plus, Harrison gets off coverage on a stop route, an ideal look. But Murray never even looks that way, because the Cardinals' offense often has him go through a pre-determined series of progressions, rather than reading the coverage at the snap.
After a 79-yard first quarter, Harrison had just one more catch the rest of the way. Petzing said that after rewatching the game, he felt he didn’t do enough to get the ball to his top receiver.
“Going back and looking at it, I think there's maybe a couple things I could've done differently here and there,” Petzing said. “… I wanted to get him the ball more there toward the end and needed to.”
Immediately after that checkdown to Carter, Murray tries a deep shot to Michael Wilson, who had gained two steps of separation on his cornerback.
Murray, though, misses badly, throwing behind Wilson and out of bounds — albeit under pressure once again. A potential big gain becomes a punt.
Murray’s accuracy has been far down the list of the Cardinals' offensive problems this season, but it showed up multiple times against Tennessee. Two drives later, he overthrew McBride on a seam route, missing another potential big play.
This was the Cardinals' first truly comedic play in a game that would come to be defined by those moments.
As he gets to the top of his drop, Murray looks over the middle but never pulls the trigger to an open Zay Jones on a hook route. That indecision creates time for right tackle Jonah Williams to lose to All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, who finished with seven pressures. Once the pressure arrives, Murray dances around in the pocket before flipping a backhanded intentional grounding into the turf.
The Cardinals allowed 14 pressures against Tennessee despite being blitzed just three times. They gained just 29 passing yards on those plays.
“A little bit of (blocking) technique, a little bit of firm it up, a little bit of hand placement, a little bit the ball's gotta come out a little bit quicker,” Gannon said. “… We've gotta make sure that we're not allowing the other team to affect our quarterback in dropback pass.”
If the previous pressure was on Murray’s indecision, this one was solely on the offensive line.
Gifted excellent field position after the defense forced a turnover on downs, backup right guard Jon Gaines II allows an instant pressure on the offense's first play. It’s actually an edge defender who gets home first for the sack, but the pressure from Gaines’ assignment prevented Murray from avoiding that defender.
Then, on the very next play, Gaines allows more instant pressure, forcing Murray to escape the pocket and throw an incomplete pass.
Entering this week, Gaines had played just 25 career snaps. But the Cardinals entered the season with him as their only healthy depth on the interior of the offensive line after failing to improve that position with external additions this offseason. They paid the price against Tennessee.
Every Monday, Gannon seemingly has a common refrain: The Cardinals didn’t execute the details well enough.
This is Exhibit A. On a dropback pass, McBride blocks the edge defender before releasing into his flat route. It’s a normal concept for any offense — except that behind McBride, Tip Reiman does the exact same thing, as if it’s a Madden glitch come to life.
There are other issues here, like Williams again losing his block quickly, but the play broke down as soon as two players ran the exact same route. In his weekly press conference, Petzing was unable to remember the play when pressed.
After three drives in which they gained negative-nine cumulative yards, the Cardinals finally drove into the red zone, up 15 points with a chance to seal the game.
On first down, Adams committed a false start, leading Murray to throw his hands up and look to the sky in frustration. On second down, multiple players missed their blocks on a screen pass.
That was nothing compared to third down. As Gaines stands up to adjust the Cardinals' protection, center Hjalte Froholdt snaps the ball before anyone else is ready. It smacks Murray in the face and leads to an easy fumble recovery for Tennessee.
Gannon said that the Cardinals messed up their snap procedures three times against the Titans, saying that those plays fall on the “details of coaching.” Both Gannon and Petzing took blame for those details, but Petzing said he does not think those details have been worse this season than in 2024.
By this point, the Cardinals' collapse was in motion. They still, though, had plenty of time to stem the bleeding and come away with an ugly win.
This play was emblematic of why they couldn’t.
Murray sees the deep safety turned away from Wilson and wants to wait for him to come open on his seam route. But the Titans' cornerback grabs Wilson, preventing him from getting open. A flag probably should have come out, but there was still a chance for Murray to make an explosive play, with Harrison coming open on a dig.
Again, multiple elements go wrong at once. Adams and Johnson can’t pick up a stunt, enabling yet another four-man rush to generate pressure on Murray. But Murray still has time to stand strong and fire a layered throw to Harrison.
Like with the potential touchdown to Higgins in the first quarter, it’s not an easy play. But it’s a play that playoff-caliber quarterbacks make consistently.
This season, only four full-time starting quarterbacks have taken sacks on a higher percentage of their pressures than Murray has.
This was all about the playcall.
With one more first down, the Cardinals would almost certainly have sealed the game, escaping with a 21-19 win.
They elected to run the ball on third-and-8. Making matters worse, the ball was snapped with 12 seconds before the two-minute warning. A run only burned a few more seconds than an incomplete pass would have.
Petzing explained that the Titans had been selling out to stop the run and that the Cardinals thought they could exploit a hole in that aggressive defense, as they did on Demercado’s 71-yard run.
The difference: That play came on third-and-1. This one came on third-and-8, when the Titans could play more conservatively.
Before the snap, both Gannon and Petzing realized they didn’t like the call, given the look Tennessee showed. And yet, neither called a timeout.
“There’s a clock ticking,” Gannon said. “… There's an element of time, and at that point in time, do you want to use a timeout there or not? I just decided not, but it's a learning experience for myself.”
What came next — a 1-yard gain — was almost immaterial. The Cardinals willingly gave the ball back to the Titans' offense, and they paid the price.
In a game full of blunders, it was the decisive moment. For 60 minutes, the Cardinals struggled to block. They struggled with their pre-snap mechanics. They ran confusing routes. Their quarterback missed throws and was indecisive in the pocket.
And when it mattered most, two coaches put their team in a position to lose.
As they aim to resurrect their season, these are the issues that need to be solved. The Cardinals' salvation is not, unfortunately, as simple as carrying the ball through the goal line.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 10 plays that explain why Cardinals offense is in deep trouble
Continue reading...
The Cardinals' issues, though, do not start there, or even with Dadrion Taylor-Demerson’s interception-turned-fumble. Those were freakish moments — ones that likely won’t be repeated for years to come.
The bigger issues lie in the other 63 offensive plays in their loss to the Tennessee Titans. Those were the plays that enabled a 21-3 lead to become a nailbiter in the first place.
As left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. said after the game: “Why did it have to be close? Even if this was a win. Why do we have to be close?”
The answer rests with an offense that now ranks 27th in yards per play, sandwiched right between the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints. Last year, the Cardinals ranked seventh in that metric.
Here are 10 plays from their Week 5 loss that explain the offensive struggles — and why turning this season around won’t be easy.
First quarter, 11:26: First-and-10, Tennessee 44-yard line
The first sign of trouble actually came on the Cardinals' biggest passing play of the game.
The Cardinals ran play action with Kyler Murray rolling to his right. His progression starts with a pair of intermediate crossing routes from Trey McBride and Elijah Higgins. The Titans, though, immediately have four defenders keying on that part of the field — while Marvin Harrison Jr. is in man coverage with no safety help over the top.
If Murray had recognized that coverage, he could have hit Harrison for a walk-in touchdown. Instead, he begins scrambling before working to Harrison. That enables the weak-side safety to get over and forces Murray to throw on the run.
Harrison saves the play with an incredible catch, but it was one he should have never had to make.
First quarter, 11:17: First-and-10, Tennessee 1-yard line
On their next snap, the Cardinals had a chance to follow up Harrison’s catch with an immediate score.
They motion tight end Tip Reiman across the formation, which prompts the safety to move with him. That gives tight end Elijah Higgins inside leverage on a crossing route. But right as Higgins is approaching a hole in the Titans' secondary, Murray bails from the pocket.
Murray isn’t the only culpable party here. The Cardinals had a miscommunication with their protection, continuing a season-long trend. But the league’s best pocket passers are able to stand in against pressure and make anticipatory throws into holes in opposing coverage.
Over the first three weeks, Murray excelled with his command of the offense. But in the past two losses, he’s been both less decisive and less accurate, compounding the Cardinals' struggles.
Second quarter, 13:19: Second-and-3, Arizona 33-yard line
Another trend this season: The Cardinals being overly risk-averse in the passing game. Murray has checked the ball down on 11.1% of his pass attempts, a career high. That’s a directive from offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork, who have repeatedly preached taking what they describe as “boring” throws.
Sometimes, that’s the correct decision. Other times, it prevents the offense from moving the ball downfield.
That’s what happens here, on a play where the Cardinals had all sorts of issues. For one, left guard Isaiah Adams loses almost instantly. But Murray makes his decision to pass to running back Michael Carter before Adams loses.
Because the ball comes out so quickly, the Cardinals' receivers don’t even have time to get into their route concept, which is designed to put the cover-2 flat defender in conflict. Instead, Murray hits Carter short of the sticks, and the Cardinals punt two plays later.
Plus, Harrison gets off coverage on a stop route, an ideal look. But Murray never even looks that way, because the Cardinals' offense often has him go through a pre-determined series of progressions, rather than reading the coverage at the snap.
After a 79-yard first quarter, Harrison had just one more catch the rest of the way. Petzing said that after rewatching the game, he felt he didn’t do enough to get the ball to his top receiver.
“Going back and looking at it, I think there's maybe a couple things I could've done differently here and there,” Petzing said. “… I wanted to get him the ball more there toward the end and needed to.”
Second quarter, 12:36: Third-and-1, Arizona 35-yard line
Immediately after that checkdown to Carter, Murray tries a deep shot to Michael Wilson, who had gained two steps of separation on his cornerback.
Murray, though, misses badly, throwing behind Wilson and out of bounds — albeit under pressure once again. A potential big gain becomes a punt.
Murray’s accuracy has been far down the list of the Cardinals' offensive problems this season, but it showed up multiple times against Tennessee. Two drives later, he overthrew McBride on a seam route, missing another potential big play.
Second quarter, 1:47: Third-and-6, Arizona 15-yard line
This was the Cardinals' first truly comedic play in a game that would come to be defined by those moments.
As he gets to the top of his drop, Murray looks over the middle but never pulls the trigger to an open Zay Jones on a hook route. That indecision creates time for right tackle Jonah Williams to lose to All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, who finished with seven pressures. Once the pressure arrives, Murray dances around in the pocket before flipping a backhanded intentional grounding into the turf.
The Cardinals allowed 14 pressures against Tennessee despite being blitzed just three times. They gained just 29 passing yards on those plays.
“A little bit of (blocking) technique, a little bit of firm it up, a little bit of hand placement, a little bit the ball's gotta come out a little bit quicker,” Gannon said. “… We've gotta make sure that we're not allowing the other team to affect our quarterback in dropback pass.”
Second quarter, 0:49: First-and-10, Tennessee 48-yard line
If the previous pressure was on Murray’s indecision, this one was solely on the offensive line.
Gifted excellent field position after the defense forced a turnover on downs, backup right guard Jon Gaines II allows an instant pressure on the offense's first play. It’s actually an edge defender who gets home first for the sack, but the pressure from Gaines’ assignment prevented Murray from avoiding that defender.
Then, on the very next play, Gaines allows more instant pressure, forcing Murray to escape the pocket and throw an incomplete pass.
Entering this week, Gaines had played just 25 career snaps. But the Cardinals entered the season with him as their only healthy depth on the interior of the offensive line after failing to improve that position with external additions this offseason. They paid the price against Tennessee.
Third quarter, 12:10: Second-and-9, Arizona 26-yard line
Every Monday, Gannon seemingly has a common refrain: The Cardinals didn’t execute the details well enough.
This is Exhibit A. On a dropback pass, McBride blocks the edge defender before releasing into his flat route. It’s a normal concept for any offense — except that behind McBride, Tip Reiman does the exact same thing, as if it’s a Madden glitch come to life.
There are other issues here, like Williams again losing his block quickly, but the play broke down as soon as two players ran the exact same route. In his weekly press conference, Petzing was unable to remember the play when pressed.
Third quarter, 4:57: Third-and-12, Tennessee 20-yard line
After three drives in which they gained negative-nine cumulative yards, the Cardinals finally drove into the red zone, up 15 points with a chance to seal the game.
On first down, Adams committed a false start, leading Murray to throw his hands up and look to the sky in frustration. On second down, multiple players missed their blocks on a screen pass.
That was nothing compared to third down. As Gaines stands up to adjust the Cardinals' protection, center Hjalte Froholdt snaps the ball before anyone else is ready. It smacks Murray in the face and leads to an easy fumble recovery for Tennessee.
Gannon said that the Cardinals messed up their snap procedures three times against the Titans, saying that those plays fall on the “details of coaching.” Both Gannon and Petzing took blame for those details, but Petzing said he does not think those details have been worse this season than in 2024.
Fourth quarter, 10:20: First-and-10, Arizona 30-yard line
By this point, the Cardinals' collapse was in motion. They still, though, had plenty of time to stem the bleeding and come away with an ugly win.
This play was emblematic of why they couldn’t.
Murray sees the deep safety turned away from Wilson and wants to wait for him to come open on his seam route. But the Titans' cornerback grabs Wilson, preventing him from getting open. A flag probably should have come out, but there was still a chance for Murray to make an explosive play, with Harrison coming open on a dig.
Again, multiple elements go wrong at once. Adams and Johnson can’t pick up a stunt, enabling yet another four-man rush to generate pressure on Murray. But Murray still has time to stand strong and fire a layered throw to Harrison.
Like with the potential touchdown to Higgins in the first quarter, it’s not an easy play. But it’s a play that playoff-caliber quarterbacks make consistently.
This season, only four full-time starting quarterbacks have taken sacks on a higher percentage of their pressures than Murray has.
Fourth quarter, 2:12: Third-and-8, Arizona 35-yard line
This was all about the playcall.
With one more first down, the Cardinals would almost certainly have sealed the game, escaping with a 21-19 win.
They elected to run the ball on third-and-8. Making matters worse, the ball was snapped with 12 seconds before the two-minute warning. A run only burned a few more seconds than an incomplete pass would have.
Petzing explained that the Titans had been selling out to stop the run and that the Cardinals thought they could exploit a hole in that aggressive defense, as they did on Demercado’s 71-yard run.
The difference: That play came on third-and-1. This one came on third-and-8, when the Titans could play more conservatively.
Before the snap, both Gannon and Petzing realized they didn’t like the call, given the look Tennessee showed. And yet, neither called a timeout.
“There’s a clock ticking,” Gannon said. “… There's an element of time, and at that point in time, do you want to use a timeout there or not? I just decided not, but it's a learning experience for myself.”
What came next — a 1-yard gain — was almost immaterial. The Cardinals willingly gave the ball back to the Titans' offense, and they paid the price.
In a game full of blunders, it was the decisive moment. For 60 minutes, the Cardinals struggled to block. They struggled with their pre-snap mechanics. They ran confusing routes. Their quarterback missed throws and was indecisive in the pocket.
And when it mattered most, two coaches put their team in a position to lose.
As they aim to resurrect their season, these are the issues that need to be solved. The Cardinals' salvation is not, unfortunately, as simple as carrying the ball through the goal line.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 10 plays that explain why Cardinals offense is in deep trouble
Continue reading...
