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Cardinals Monday Morning QB: Anemic offense, rampant injuries and free-agent Foibles
GREEN BAY, Wis. — PHNX Sports’ Johnny Venerable did the legwork on an interesting stat after the Green Bay Packers walloped the Arizona Cardinals, 34-13, at Lambeau Field on Sunday.
Is this deficiency all on Petzing? Of course not. The roster the Cardinals fielded last season was either woefully inexperienced or hot garbage — the product of a complete tear-down and rebuild. On Sunday, the Packers pre-game show spent a lot of time dissecting the Cardinals receivers’ inability to get separation from their coverage.
On top of that, the offensive line is ridiculed with injuries and the most likely candidate to top 100 receiving yards, Marvin Harrison Jr., has had an uneven start to his rookie season — marked by big plays but also numerous miscommunications with quarterback Kyler Murray and now an apparent concussion that knocked him out of Sunday’s debacle.
There is plenty of nuance that can’t be gleaned by superficial stats, but there is no arguing that the Cardinals’ offense has been a disappointment through six weeks of the NFL season. Maybe we were sold a bill of goods on how many playmakers this offense would feature. Maybe those aforementioned injuries to Jonah Williams, Will Hernandez and now Evan Brown are a much bigger deal than even the obvious analysis offers.
Maybe Murray has been good on most occasions, but not game-changing on enough occasions — a necessity for a franchise quarterback taken with the top overall pick in the draft. And maybe Petzing’s inexperience in play-calling at any level, and his inability to adapt to in-game or in-season changes has been a contributing factor.
Just for fun, we went back and examined Kliff Kingsbury’s first 23 games as the primary OC (even though he was the head coach). In those games, Kingsbury produced 13, 100-yard receiving games. Of course, he had Larry Fitzgerald and DeAndre Hopkins (and Christian Kirk), adding to the nuance.
In truth, 100-yard receiving games do not always equate to offensive success. Kingsbury’s 2019 team finished 24th in the NFL in average passing yards per game and averaged 22.6 points per game. Petzing’s Cardinals offense ranks 23rd in passing yards per game this season and averages 22.2 points per game. Last season, it ranked 24th in passing yards and 24th in points per game. The 2021 season is the only prolific offensive season since Bruce Arians departed. The promise of the 2024 offense has not yet been realized.
Injuries galore
Garrett Williams has seen a lot of football in his prep, college and pro days. He’s never seen an injury report like the one the Cardinals produced on Sunday.
“That was crazy,” the Cardinals defensive back said. “Hopefully none of them are too serious. Thankfully, we get an extra day playing on Monday [Night Football against the LA Chargers]. For what happened, that was probably the best thing that could happen.”
Coach Jonathan Gannon did not have real updates beyond what was reported during the game, but here is the list of players who sustained injuries in Green Bay.
LB Kyzir White (knee)
DL Bilal Nichols (stinger)
WR Marvin Harrison (concussion)
DB Joe Blount (hamstring, returned)
OG Evan Brown (ankle)
CB Sean Murphy-Bunting (neck)
LB Mack Wilson also came off the field with an undisclosed injury but returned.
CB Starling Thomas V left the game in the fourth quarter with an undisclosed injury and Gannon did not address it in his postgame comments.
The Cardinals were already playing without starting offensive linemen Jonah Williams and Will Hernandez, expected starting linebacker BJ Ojulari, starting defensive lineman Justin Jones, and likely rotational defensive lineman Darius Robinson. Kicker Matt Prater (knee) missed his second straight game.
Free agents floundering
Here are the top five external free-agent signings for GM Monti Ossenfort this offseason: OT Jonah Williams; DT Justin Jones; DT Bilal Nichols; LB Mack Wilson Sr.; CB Sean Murphy-Bunting.
Of the five, only Wilson has made a significant impact and can be deemed, at this point in the season, a good signing.
Williams looked like he might help the Cardinals solidify the right side of their offensive line until he went down with a knee injury on the final play of the first quarter in the season opener in Buffalo. There still is no timeline for his return.
Jones was lost for the season when he sustained a triceps injury in a week-three loss to the Detroit Lions. He graded out poorly before the injury.
Nichols has left each of the past two games with a stinger — a concern for the immediate future — and he also has made minimal impact.
Murphy-Bunting was supposed to be the Cardinals’ shutdown corner — a role he had never really held before — but he hasn’t held up well against the pass. He did have an interception on Sunday, but only because Green Bay receiver Bo Melton fell as Packers QB Jordan Love released the ball. Just before he sustained a neck injury that took him out of the game, Murphy-Bunting had a disastrous final series, sealing the Cardinals’ fate.
As we near the midpoint of the season, the signings do not reflect well on the Cardinals pro scouting staff.
There has been this assumption that Ossenfort will go all in on defensive improvements for the 2025 season when he has more than $80 million in cap space. But Ossenfort has a lot of work to do on that side of the ball.
Getting Robinson and Ojulari back could help, but the Cardinals still have issues along their defensive line, on the edge, at cornerback and safety Budda Baker, the heart of the defense, may be playing his final season in Arizona. Can Ossenfort really do enough in free agency to shore up one of the NFL’s worst defenses?
Penalty plethora
The Cardinals entered Sunday’s game with a league-low 19 penalties. They left Green Bay with 13 more on their record, totaling 100 yards. By our count, six of those came pre-snap.
“Those are non-negotiables for us,” coach Jonathan Gannon said. “Uncharacteristic of us. That’s what we’ve got to look at — why those things happened — and do a better job there because bang-bang plays happen. You don’t want to go backward before the ball’s snapped.”
Add to that three turnovers against the league’s leading takeaway team and it was a perfect storm kind of day in the shadow of the Great Lakes.
“Since JG’s been here, I haven’t felt like we’ve played a game like that where we’ve made boneheaded mistake after boneheaded mistake,” QB Kyler Murray said.
One of the more maddening narratives you’ll hear after games is that the mistakes are all correctable. When they keep repeating, you wonder, but Arizona was averaging just one turnover per game before Sunday. And as noted, the Cardinals were not a highly penalized team coming in. At least a couple of the calls against them were questionable — notably Krys Barnes going so out of his way to avoid hitting close friend and Packers QB Jordan Love that he put himself in a compromising position.
As for the pre-snap penalties, Garrett Williams said it’s just a matter of discipline.
“At the end of the day, we’ve all just got to hold our water a little bit better, and then also understand what type of defense we run,” he said. “A lot of teams are going to use cadence to try to get tells from us.
“I think if we just do a better job of just understanding that going into the game as a unit and going forward because that’s going to be… you know… obviously teams mimic what they see from other teams.”
Quotable
The 2024 season began with such high hopes for the Cardinals offensive line. Then Jonah Williams went down in week one. Then Will Hernandez went down in week five. And now Evan Brown’s status is uncertain due to an ankle injury sustained in Green Bay.
Veteran Kelvin Beachum has tried to fill in at right guard, and both Trystan Colon and rookie Isaiah Adams got work on Sunday and performed reasonably well, but the line is still a shadow of its expected self.
“I’m really proud of all the boys that are stepping up,” center Hjalte Froholdt said. “Trystan and obviously Beach since week one, but he’s been in the league for a very long time; knows how to play ball. He’s been playing good ball. Same thing with Trystan coming in today. Isaiah got a chance to come in and play some drives. I’m really happy and impressed with those guys out there coming in and just the next man up mentality. They’ve been doing a really good job.”
Stats & stuff
- Running back James Conner carried a season-low seven times for 24 yards in Green Bay. He played sparingly in the second half and was seen on the sidelines working with trainers, but Gannon said his limited work in the second half was part of the offensive plan late in the game when the Cards were trailing by a big margin. Rookie Trey Benson carried five times for 26 yards — most of it on a 20-yard run — and Emari Demercado (RB-high 31 snaps, many in pass protection) had four carries for 25 yards.
- Lost in the shuffle of the disheartening loss was tight end Trey McBride’s best offensive game of the season. He had eight catches on eight targets for 96 yards.
- The Cardinals defense is allowing opponents the highest third-down conversion rate in the NFL: 49.25 percent. Over the past three games, that rate is a whopping 62.86 percent.
- The Cardinals’ streak of scoring a TD on their first drive of the game ended at five games. Arizona went three-and-out in Green Bay, with Murray missing Harrison on a miscommunication on third down. Murray took the blame for the miscommunication after the game.
- Arizona is 2-0 against the NFC West; 0-4 against the rest of the NFL. In those four losses the Cards have been outscored 130-68.
Pro Football Focus grades for week six
(Getty Images)
Up next
The Cardinals host QB Justin Herbert and the LA Chargers on Monday Night Football at State Farm Stadium. LA built a 23-0 lead on Denver and then held on for a 23-16 win Sunday to improve to 3-2 and move into second place in the AFC West.
The Cardinals and Chargers (formerly in San Diego) are two of seven teams to relocate in the Super Bowl era, joining the Baltimore Ravens (formerly the Cleveland Browns), the Indianapolis Colts (formerly in Baltimore), the Tennessee Titans (formerly the Houston Oilers), the oft-moving Los Angeles Raiders (formerly in Oakland and LA) and the equally mobile LA Rams (formerly in St. Louis and LA again).
The Ravens have the highest winning percentage of the seven teams (.569) with two Super Bowl titles in their new city. The Colts and Rams (two appearances) have one Super Bowl title apiece in their newest cities. The Titans and Cardinals have both appeared in a Super Bowl in their newest cities.
Top illustration via Sidney Pinger and Damon Fairall, ALLCITY Network
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