Teams Arizona Cardinals - The Buzzsaw

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

This is from CBS: (https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...ders-ravens-steelers-in-top-5-before-matchup/)

“When the season started, my thinking was the Arizona Cardinals would be a nice story -- an undermanned team that was well coached to the point they would be a tough out every week, but one that might not win a lot of games.

Ten games into the season, they are much more than that.

They are winning. They are leading the NFC West. They are for real.

The Cardinals dominated the New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers on Sunday to win their third straight game and improve to 6-4 on the season. They did so with Kyler Murray playing near-flawless football, a running game again keyed by the toughness of James Conner, and a no-name defense that flies around and plays all out on every play.”

“But it's the defense that is the true surprise so far. It is tied for 13th in scoring defense at 22 points per game, but it has allowed just 14.0 points per game in the three-game winning streak. It gives up 5.5 yards per play on the season, but 4.4 over the last three. A pass rush that averages 2.4 sacks per game has averaged 3.3 per game over the past three.”

This is from ESPN: The Big Thing: Are the Cardinals for real? (https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/st...solak-cardinals-caleb-williams-trade-deadline)

“This offense has been long in the making, and now that it is fully realized, it is extremely cool to watch. It starts with the running game, which is the most unique in football. By ESPN's charting numbers, the Cardinals pull an offensive lineman on 32% of their rush attempts, which is the most of any team. They also have at least two tight ends on the field on 49% of their snaps (only the Chiefs do it more frequently). That's seven bodies to block in the running game before we even count wide receivers, and with all those pullers flying across the formation, there are now two problems for defenses to solve.

The first: Where is the ball going? The second: Are we even going to survive at the point of attack if we figure that out?”

“So much of the Murray skepticism over the first five years of his career was misplaced criticism of his supporting cast and offensive environment. The change at playcaller from Kliff Kingsbury to Drew Petzing has been tectonic. Murray is taking about half as many snaps in empty formations, throwing 60% fewer screen passes and facing only 6.7 yards to go on third down this season (lowest in his career). He's also dropping back against base defenses on a whopping 27.4% of his dropbacks and hitting a play-action fake on 30% of his dropbacks -- both career highs.”

“I have never been more confident in the system that Petzing is deploying in Arizona -- it's unique, coached well and a headache to stop. This offense can win the Cardinals some games. But if the offense sets the floor, the defense sets the ceiling -- and it's the defense that has really taken me aback the past two Sundays. By success rate and EPA, the game against the Bears was the best defensive performance of the entire Cardinals season, and the Jets game was third best.”