I don't know how you can watch all the games last year, and not see a major difference when JJ was playing. Without Watt, any semblance of controlling the line of scrimmage was lost.
The differences in wins and losses were obvious. We were 7-1 with a healthy Watt, and although offensive injuries hurt as well, our D was severely effected without Watt.
Specific to run D, he had 5 tackles for loss before the injury, and was constantly causing disruption behind the line of scrimmage.
If you're looking for a deeper dive on the impact of Watt and his injury, this article is instructive:
Major info:
https://theathletic.com/3072479/202...ential-return-vs-rams-may-be-boost-they-need/
Defensively, the Cardinals’ problems began against the Rams in Week 14, when Los Angeles quarterback
Matthew Stafford was nearly perfect, with three touchdowns and no interceptions while completing nearly 77 percent of his passes.
Cooper Kupp, the NFL’s 2021 receiving leader, caught 13 passes for 123 yards that night. And Stafford’s 52-yard touchdown pass to
Van Jefferson was a sign of what was to come for the Cardinals defense over the next month.
In the next four games, Arizona allowed five touchdown plays of more than 29 yards, including a 25-yard pass and a 62-yard touchdown run last week in a loss to Seattle. The vulnerability on explosive plays coincided with a marked decrease in Arizona’s ability to create turnovers. After 23 takeaways in the first 12 games, an average of 1.91 turnovers a game, the Cardinals forced just four over the final five weeks, including just one interception in that span.
“Playing defense in this league is difficult, but if you don’t play with great detail and you make too many mistakes, it can look like it looked on Sunday,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said, referencing the Cardinals’ Week 18 loss to Seattle. The
Seahawks rushed for 202 yards and scored 38 points, the most Arizona allowed all season. “We have to get back to playing clean football; coaching better, playing better, that’s the key. When our defense does those things well, we’re a hard out for offenses. If we play 55 snaps of good football and three or four snaps of bad football, it can mean 21 points, and that’s the stress of playing defense against good people.”
Those are all areas in which Watt could help. He played at least 46 defensive snaps in each of his six full games before getting injured. And while it would be naive to expect him to handle a normal workload if he were to play Monday, Watt is enough of a pass-rush threat to force the Rams’ offensive line to have to account for him. That potentially frees up teammates such as
Chandler Jones or
Markus Golden. Watt had just one sack this season, but was credited with 27 pressures (per Pro Football Focus), including five in the Cardinals’ Week 4 win over the Rams.
Luckily we just jettisoned our leading tackler from last season!
That sounds good! I'd love to see the comparative #'s with and without Watt. I'm also incredibly skeptical of any statistic that would indicate the Cards having a top run D.
Finally - “There was never a moment that I didn’t consider it realistic. If I did, it wouldn’t work. I had to truly believe it every second for it to work,” Watt said. “The only thing that matters to me is being out there for my teammates, trying to help us win a game and get us to the end goal. Because that’s what this is all about. I’m not doing all this work and trying to come back in half the time for no reason.”
If only the rest of the team had half the heart of Watt...
