Cardinals Monday Morning QB: Jackson Barton, James Conner among notable performances for different reasons

Arizona Cardinals right tackle Jackson Barton was the subject of much pregame discussion on Sunday. The conversation wasn’t kind.

After the Cardinals lost starting right tackle Jonah Williams to IR in Week 1 with a knee injury, veteran backup right tackle Kelvin Beachum came up lame with a hamstring injury, ruling him out for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions at State Farm Stadium.

With Christian Jones already on IR with an ankle injury, the Cardinals elevated Barton and Charlie Heck to the active roster from the practice squad for Sunday’s game.

Barton found out late in the week that he would be starting. His assignment for his first NFL start? Facing off with NFL sacks leader Aidan Hutchinson.

“I was confident,” he said. “I was ready for this.”

The best thing you could say about Barton’s performance on Sunday was a compliment that every offensive lineman would probably take: You really didn’t notice him. Pro Football Focus did not like his performance, giving him a 48.9 overall grade (second lowest on the offense) and 46.2 in pass blocking, but coach Jonathan Gannon publicly supported his player.

“I thought he played really good,” coach Jonathan Gannon said. “He battled in there.”

---

Unfortunately for Barton, he had to leave the game in the second half with a toe injury sustained on a bull rush by Hutchinson. That forced the Cardinals to dig deeper into their depth chart well and bring in Heck.

Barton’s availability may not be an issue next week. Beachum wasn’t well enough to play but he wasn’t wearing anything on his hamstring after the game and he was walking with a normal gait so he could return against the Commanders. Still, it was a tough ending for Barton, who was clearly amped for this opportunity and happy to talk to reporters about it in the locker room with his foot in a walking boot.

“I don’t know what’s going on right now, but I’ll just take it one day at a time,” he said. “I’ve never had this injury. I never had an injury like this before. I have no idea what it is.”

While Gannon admitted that there were some things the Cardinals altered on third-down passing situations because of the matchup, he gave Barton credit for helping hold Hutchinson sack-less — often without much help — in their critical matchup (Hutchinson got one sack later in the game against Paris Johnson Jr.).

“He didn’t want to come out of the game when I went out when he was down,” Gannon said. “True pro, man. I’m glad we have him. He stepped up today. When he got the nod that his role changed late in the week there, he was ready to go and stepped up and played.”

---

A tale of two running games

In the first two weeks of the season, the Cardinals made a concerted effort to establish the running game through the legs of bell cow back James Conner.

It worked well in Buffalo. It worked like a charm against the Rams. It didn’t work at all against the Lions on Sunday.

The Lions have been tough on opposing running backs for the better part of a year. Since their Week 9 bye last season, the Lions have allowed just 616 rushing yards on 197 carries for a 3.1-yard average per carry. They were particularly tough on Conner, who had just nine carries for 17 yards, forcing the Cardinals to largely abandon the running game.

The 17 yards represented Conner’s lowest rushing total since the season opener for the Steelers against the Giants on Sept. 14, 2020. It was a big wake-up call for an offensive line that prides itself on being able to run the ball — even with the right tackle slot in a state of flux. When Conner has fewer than 10 carries in a game, Arizona is just 2-7.

“We knew coming in that’s a good defense and they stop the run well, but we never got that one explosive,” Gannon said. “I know Kyler had the one [a 21-yard run], but I don’t think we had any explosives in the run game.

“We knew it was going to be dirty, two, three yards, but you’re kind of waiting for that one to pop. Give hats off to them. They did a good job.”

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, their defense did not do the same in the first half. Lions running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs carried 39 times for 188 yards (4.82 average) and a TD. Much of that damage came in the first half, but it relieved a lot of pressure on QB Jared Goff, who emerged from his early-season struggles to complete 18 of 23 passes for 199 yards and two TDs (one interception).

Perhaps the biggest run the Lions manufactured came on third-and-12 just after a blown call at the two-minute warning cost the Cardinals a pick-6 and a 14-13 lead.

The Lions looked like they were playing to punt the ball and milk their lead into halftime. Instead, Gibbs ripped off a 14-yard run for a first down on a draw play. Three plays later, he caught a 21-yard TD pass and the Lions had a 20-7 lead.

“It’s tough to bounce back after that call, but at the end of the day, if we make our plays and do our job it shouldn’t matter,” said safety Jalen Thompson, whose unit responded by shutting out the Lions in the second half. “It’s just [about] going out there and executing the play call, executing the technique and the assignments. We did a much better job of that in the second half than we did in the first.”

---

Misfiring with Marv

Sunday’s Kyler Murray-Marvin Harrison chemistry was a good reminder that progress isn’t linear.

Harrison had a game-high 11 targets, but only caught five of them for 64 yards and the TD shown above. Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold had a great pass break-up of what looked like a TD pass right before halftime – but there were other flat-out misses where either Harrison didn’t make a play, or Murray misfired, including an interception early in the third quarter on which Murray underthrew Harrison, and a ball that he airmailed over Harrison’s head.

Big-picture perspective

As we have noted many times, the NFL’s once-a-week format is ripe for overreactions and that was the case again on Sunday with fans and media lobbing blame at Kyler Murray, Marvin Harrison Jr., the officials (this one was warranted: 😏), OC Drew Petzing, and the defense.

Some of it was at least fair, but as I noted in my game column, when you looked at the Cardinals’ first-half schedule at the beginning of the season, a 4-4 record through eight games seemed like a good goal to set for a team stacked with young players still learning how to win. Arizona can be 2-2 with a win over a Washington Commanders team that isn’t very good. The four games after that are at San Francisco, at Green Bay, home against the LA Chargers, and at Miami.

That’s a tough four-game stretch, but if QB Tua Tagovailoa isn’t ready to return from a concussion for Miami, and if the Cardinals can get a pair of wins in that stretch, they have a much more favorable schedule in the second half, and they should have players returning from injury, including defensive lineman Darius Robinson, who has been working out on the side at practices.

Stats & stuff

• The Cardinals were 1 for 9 on third down, failing to convert on their final eight opportunities.
• Linebacker Dennis Gardeck followed up his standout performance against the Rams with an interception, a pass defensed and four tackles (two solo; one for loss) against the Lions. “I thought he impacted the game,” Gannon said. “The interception was a huge play, he was rushing good, he was playing the run well. I thought he played excellent.”
• Linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. continues to show up for the Cardinals. He had eight tackles (three solo, one for loss) a sack and he should have had a pick-6. “He’s playing extremely well right now,” Gannon said. “He battles, man, and we use him a couple different ways. You saw him on the edge today. He’s stacked. He does a lot for us.”
• You have to wonder if we are going to see much more of the “dynamic” half of the new dynamic kickoff. DeeJay Dallas‘ kick return for a TD in Week 1 in Buffalo may end up being the outlier because it put the fear of god in so many special teams coordinators. In Sunday’s game, there were no kick returns. Cardinals kicker Matt Prater booted three touchbacks and Detroit’s Jake Bates had four.
• Prater’s extra point marked the 1,800th point of his career. He is the only active player to reach that milestone.
• The Cardinals honored the passing of the longtime voice of the Suns, Al McCoy, on Sunday. McCoy, 91, died this past weekend. Cardinals play-by-play man Dave Pasch used McCoy’s trademark “Shazam!” on the call of the Cardinals’ first touchdown.
• When Cardinals lineman Dante Stills took over for injured defensive lineman Justin Jones, he made an immediate impact. Stills, who was inactive the week before with a shoulder injury, had six tackles and his first sack of the season. We may see more of Stills next week with Jones’ availability in serious doubt.
• Murray’s 11.6 average intended air yards on Sunday was the highest of any QB in Week 3. The Cardinals got the message from Week 1 and continued to take shots downfield, but they didn’t have nearly as much success as they did against the Rams.

---

Here are the overall offensive and defensive grades for the Cardinals from Sunday’s game via Pro Football Focus (squint or enlarge). As always, take these with a grain of salt, given that PFF does not know individual assignments and there have been questions about the data gathering and methodology of the site.

---

Injury front

As noted above, Barton left the game with a toe injury and was in a walking boot after the game.

Defensive lineman Justin Jones left the game with a triceps injury and was immediately ruled out for the game — not a good sign for his immediate availability.

Trey McBride was being evaluated for a concussion after a big helmet-to-helmet collision with the Lions’ Brian Branch. Both players were injured on the play.

Defensive lineman Khyiris Tonga sustained a knee injury.

---

Up next

The Cardinals host the Washington Commanders and former ASU QB Jayden Daniels on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. at State Farm Stadium. Daniels won the 2023 Heisman Trophy after transferring to LSU. The Commanders selected him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Also in town for that game: Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who was the Cardinals coach from 2019-2022.

Top illustration via Sidney Pinger and Damon Fairall, ALLCITY Network

Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter