Cardinals: Three Takeaways From Loss vs. Chiefs
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To say what happened just 24 hours ago was not ideal would be an understatement if you are a Arizona Cardinals fan.
The offense gave you some minor twinkles and glimmers of hope at times but the defense bombed worse than Thor: Love and Thunder.
The defense on Sunday could have used the God of thunder, and then some, but alas they never appeared. The end result was the Kansas City Chiefs and Pat Mahomes having their way with the Cardinals defense.
Not going to waste time here, because the Chiefs didn’t when they scored 23 first-half points. Here's three takeaways from Sunday:
Vance Joseph is Going to Be a Problem
NFL Next Gen Stats left the world with a less than ideal number for Cardinals fans. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph blitzed Pat Mahomes on 54% of his dropbacks, an approach that is bold, to say the least.
Mahomes responded to the blitzes that Joseph was bringing by throwing four touchdown passes, the most in a single game against the blitz since 2016. In the Super Bowl a few years ago people saw that if you pressure him, he won’t be able to make plays. The issue though is to do that without bringing extra defenders, it is a combination of pass rush and coverage sacks meeting and working as one.
That perfect storm of chaos never came together and because Joseph wouldn’t adjust the Chiefs hung a whopping 44 points on the Cardinals.
Pass Rush Without J.J. Watt is Non-Existent
J.J. Watt was ruled out prior to the game starting, meaning that pass rush responsibilities fell on Cameron Thomas, Zach Allen, Dennis Gardeck and Markus Golden. The result? Mahomes kept a clean jersey on for the entirety of Sunday’s game.
The team has been bulking the receiver and secondary rooms in the draft in recent years but has neglected to build the front of the defense. In the last three years alone they have missed out on names like Javon Kinlaw, Kwity Paye, and Jermaine Jonson.
While they selected players who have played well the lack of presence up front is making those picks look less than they should. A better pass rush presence makes the entire defense look and play better, it has to be the focus of the college scouting department from now till April. Sadly Watt and his body aren’t getting any younger and he can’t play forever.
The Run Game Leaves Us With Hope
Since the team was down from the beginning of the very first drive for the Chiefs, the run game lost its priority. Despite it lacking the ability to be used, we did see promise when it was.
The team averaged 4.7 yards per carry which is a great number to have, especially in a run-first offense. James Conner looked to be his normal self and worth the contract he earned this offseason. Eno Benjamin looked phenomenal in the short amount of carries he received as well. If those two can be thunder and lightning to each other this run game can take this offense to the next level it needs.
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