How to Fix Cardinals’ Offense

First and foremost, the Cardinals lost one of their all-time greatest players and champions in Charley Trippi. I hope the team dedicates tonight’s game to Charley Trippi’s outstanding legacy. Rest in everlasting peace, champ.

What needs to change?

Many Cardinals fans responding to this chart immediately blamed the offensive line for the near-bottom bottom here. Many blame Kliff. Sure, everyone involved in the Cardinals’ offense shares some of the blame.

But the Cardinals’ pass protection rankings in the NFL currently sit 14th, according to the PFF. And in Kliff Kingsbury’s long history of playing from Houston through Texas A&M, Texas Tech and the Arizona Cardinals, that sort of temporary inability is never occurred until this season.

One theory is pretty simple:

The best and most beneficial place to revise and retune an NFL offense is through OTAs. However, since this was a missed and wasted opportunity not only for Kyler Murray but also for the Cardinals’ offensive line, and with Kyler being injured through much of training camp, the coaches had to fall back on last year’s offense, which over time seemed more likely being tailored to Kyler’s “comfort level” rather than a more varied and unpredictable attack.

Same old same old.

On Twitter yesterday, I tried to sum up the Cardinals’ offense:

1. Move the bag through sprint outs, bootlegs and wobbles

As we’ve seen compared to the Seahawks, if Kyler continues to stand in a stationary spot behind a shotgun, he’s playing right into the defense’s hand and their best chance of winning.

Why? Because it’s so predictable and teams are now good at containing rushes on the edge and creating a wall of rushers in the middle that bring down the pocket.

As the old saying goes, “A moving target is harder to hit.”

Here’s a case late in the game where the Cardinals eventually tried to pass Kyler in a sprintout, and as you can see the right side of the formation did a good job of sealing the edge.

But Kyler just ran it like a wobble, just shifting the bag behind the right device, where he didn’t have the visibility or clear passing lanes he would have if he literally sprinted over the edge. Also, a sprint over the edge would have given him a run option.

It’s called a sprint for a reason.

When Kyler pulls off the spirit outs, bootlegs and waggles, very good things can happen – if you ask DCs in the NFL, their toughest challenge would be preparing for a mobile, fast QB like Kyler Murray.

2. Set up the running game to set up the game action

The Cardinals’ running game feels like a token most of the time. You have to commit to it. Even if James Conner is out, Eno Benjamin and Keaontay Ingram should be combined for 20+ carries. Watch how hard Eno hits this hole and how he follows his blocks:

Then, using direct snapshots, imagine the game action options that Kyler could use.

Also, what happened to the Cardinals’ RPOs from the shotgun?

By constantly throwing short passes, the opposing defense can become very aggressive with their Front 7. As we saw. You just can’t play NFL offense into a 10-20 yard rectangle and hope to win. You have to hold back the linebackers and defensive backs or they’ll come after football like gangsters.

3. Use RBs more in the passing game

Not only with Eno and Keaontay in today’s game, but also with Greg Dortch back there and guide him on routes. Having Rondale Moore’s circular motion and then simply standing on a horizontal line 25 feet from Kyler isn’t a wise scheme because by the time the pass reaches Moore that far away, multiple defenders are descending on him.

4. More gatherings, less confusion

The Muddles are where the offense isn’t huddled and waiting at the line of scrimmage for the play to be sent in — which, imo, creates more standing around and confusion than necessary. Save the mess for quick mess in the 2 minute exercises.

Otherwise, huddle together to make game and task communications crystal clear — especially now that DeAndre Hopkins is playing in his first game and Robbie Anderson needs confirmation of his tasks every game. And especially now that two starters are out on the offensive.

5. Exploit mismatches in coverage (study the opponent)

Week after week – game after game. It’s as if the Cardinals are unaware of the other team’s weaknesses in their plans and staff.

In terms of exploiting discrepancies, the coaches and Kyler should relay to Rondale Moore a lot more often. And to attack the intermediate areas, they should feed Greg Dortch again. Look at that!

Clearly, the Cardinals haven’t fully capitalized on those types of top 10 breakup abilities in recent weeks. Hell, like I said on this week’s Red Rain, Dortch is going to be Isabella-ed now.

Get that – Greg Dortch as a WR3 or WR4 is likely to draw a safety or a CB3 or CB4. How could that be for a mismatch? CB2s struggled with him early in the season.

6. Throw in front of the sticks and throw into the end zone!

On third down conversions and in the red zone, Kyler developed a bad habit of throwing quick passes under the sticks and just short of the end zone. In both cases, receivers rely heavily on finding the necessary RACs needed to move the chains or cross the goal line. This is one of the main reasons why the offensive had to face a plethora of 4th and 1st situations.

Throwing past the sticks and into the end zone is why practice is paramount. Teams must have a series of passing plays designed for downs and distances where the QB and receiver can connect in front of the sticks. There’s no reason Kyler and his talented group of receivers can’t choreograph this.

For some reason, Kyler is very reluctant to shoot in the end zone this year in the red zone and near the goal line. Case in point: Despite being in the red zone four times against the Seahawks, Kyler only threw once into the end zone. It was the incomplete pass to Rondale Moore on the very first drive of the game, where Moore faked the fast slant and then redirected towards the corner.

So what was Kyler’s pass to 3rd place and his goal from the 5 yard line? A quick side bubble screen pass that leaves no one yet to figure out which receiver that rushed, flawed pass was intended for.

With a full week of practice for this game, this play call and execution was inexcusable.

That’s right — this game epitomized the Cardinals’ unnecessarily rash and careless misunderstandings that have cost them ball games since losing at home in Green Bay last year — the start of a totally unacceptable 8-game home losing streak.

DeAndre Hopkins’ return this week could be a significant plus given his adeptness at scoring touchdowns in the end zone and how willing Kyler is to throw him in the end zone.

Kyler has other excellent options in the red zone – from Ertz to Moore to Dortch to McBride to Green and now to Anderson.

But to consistently score well in the NFL, QBs must make numerous shots into the end zone, as seen weekly by Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. Again, these are passing plays that teams have to repeat over and over in practice, including practicing what to do when the QB is flushed from the pocket.

The last time Kyler threw multiple times into the end zone, here’s what happened:

Cardinals won 26-16.

During the Cardinals’ two losses to the Eagles (17-20) and the Seahawks (9-19), Kyler threw just one pass into the end zone in both games. The same goes for the Cardinals’ home loss to the Rams (12-20). The Rams’ only throw into the end zone of the game was the pass that Kyler threw at an open thin post too high for Zach Ertz.

On the next play on the 3rd and the goal from the 5, Kyler incompletely threw James Conner into traffic at the 2-yard line. It didn’t make any sense at all. That unfortunate decision came as the Cardinals had an opportunity to cut the Rams’ lead to 13-7 on the first-half 2-minute caution.

Imagine how a TD at that point in the competition could have changed the complexion of this ballgame.

So, in my opinion, these are the key areas the Cardinals offense needs to change in order to get rid of crawl ball and introduce wall-to-wall ball.