Arizona Cardinals Are Doomed If Run Defense Struggles vs. Panthers

You’ll strain to remember it now, but there was a time this season when the Arizona Cardinals were powered by one of the league’s best run defenses. Opposing runners needed to claw for every yard and were often met at the line of scrimmage by a wall of humanity.

But that’s vanished, and if the Cardinals’ shutdown run defense doesn’t return quickly, they’ll disappear too. Beating the Carolina Panthers during a Wild Card matchup with Ryan Lindley at quarterback (or beating any team in any playoff game with Lindley) was already set to be a Herculean task.

If the Panthers can rumble at will, then an 11-win team will become a zero-win team in the playoffs.

Still struggling to remember that suffocating Cardinals defense against the run? Try flipping back a few months. Here, this will help:

That’s from Fox 910 AM’s Mike Jurecki, who also notes that the Panthers averaged a mountainous 199.3 rushing yards per game throughout their four-game win streak in December.

The Cardinals faced their first true test in Week 9 from Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray. At the time, he had set a record with eight straight 100-plus yard rushing games to begin the season. The Cardinals had a nice streak of their own: 17 games without allowing a 100-plus yard rusher.

Something had to bend, break or at least give a little, and it wasn’t the Cardinals. Murray was held to 79 yards on 19 carries, a massive tumble from his per-game rushing average of 131.8 yards over the Cowboys’ first eight games.

Sure, the Cardinals could load up on the run in that game with Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo out due to a back injury, but Murray had been a fast-moving house up until that point in the season, and he continued to be after Week 9 en route to posting a league high 1,845 rushing rushing yards.

That’s 484 more yards than the next guy (Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell). So it certainly seemed like Murray was matchup proof, quarterback proof and downright indestructible until he met the Cardinals.

After Murray was stuffed, the next two games brought much of the same for Arizona's run defense. The St. Louis Rams were limited to 70 rushing yards at a pace of 3.2 per carry in Week 10. The Detroit Lions managed a bit of a dent in Week 11 (98 yards at 5.2 per carry), but lead runner Joique Bell was still held below that sacred 100-yard mark.

It’s at this point in our march through recent memory when the journey goes from pleasant to overwhelming sadness. And dare I say, a regression?

Week	Rushing yards allowed	Yds/carry
Week 12 (@Seahawks)	124	4.3
Week 13 (@Falcons)	142	4.4
Week 14 (vs. Chiefs)	126	7.4
Week 15 (@Rams)	69	3.5
Week 16 (vs. Seahawks)	267	7.9
Week 17 (@49ers)	206	6.2

Over their final six games, the Cardinals allowed an average of 155.7 rushing yards each week and 5.6 per carry. That stretch includes three runs for 50-plus yards, highlighted by Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch’s crotch-saluted 79-yarder.

But the moment when the Cardinals run defense was first exposed came before that in Week 13. A core problem was revealed: speed at the point of attack.

The Cardinals dropped that game to the Atlanta Falcons, losing 29-18. Prior to it, aging and gradually decaying Falcons running back Steven Jackson had posted nine games in which his longest run didn’t top 15 yards. Overall on the season, the plodding 31-year-old went full dust cloud, finishing with an average of only 3.7 yards per carry.

I mention all that as a reminder that Jackson is far past the point in his career when he’s expected to rip off a 55-yard run. Yet, there he was, galloping down the field on his second carry of the game just like it’s 2009 all over again.

How did such an unnatural event happen? Cardinals middle linebacker Larry Foote had good intentions mentally with his aggressive approach, yet he fell short physically.

There were even numbers—four Falcons blockers and four Cardinals defenders—as Jackson looked to hit a developing hole on the right side. Foote faced a choice: fight through guard Jon Asamoah in an attempt to plug that hole while leaving a cut-back lane open, or sweep in from the backside and down Jackson before he reached the line of scrimmage.

Foote choose the blue arrow.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Foote was free to roam and lay some smack down with two blockers occupied by defensive tackle Tommy Kelly, making his decision to pursue from the backside a fine one. Tackles such as Kelly who vacuum up blockers are the foundation for any effective run defense.

The problem didn’t lie with the approach. Foote intended to use his freedom to create a negative play or at worst keep Jackson to a minimal gain. No, the problem lay with the execution.

Foote lacked the speed to reach Jackson. He was more than a step behind when the running back busted through a gaping hole before breaking several tackles downfield and setting up Atlanta’s first touchdown.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

That’s one failure to launch among other recent damning examples of missed tackles and botched opportunities to halt significant chunk gains.

A week after Jackson turned back the clock, it was Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles creating some embarrassment.

You surely watched that Week 14 game, but let’s use our imaginations for a moment and pretend you didn’t. You also haven’t seen a single box score somehow. It’s the only Cardinals game you missed all season, and it doesn’t exist for you outside of this freeze frame.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

That’s Charles after an inside running lane was quickly filled by Foote, and he was forced to bounce outside. That's fine by him because he’s in his natural habitat running to the outside.

He's surrounded by five defenders in position to make a tackle: one trailing just behind, two directly to either side, one diving and making contact to slow him (nose tackle Dan Williams) and another facing the runner head on and in position to minimize the damage (safety Tony Jefferson).

So with only that simple moment in time to work with and nothing else, you’d assume Charles was taken down for about a 10-yard gain, right? Try adding 53 more yards to that guess.

Charles scored on a 63-yard touchdown run after somehow turning a play that looked contained into six points. Once again, the problem wasn’t positioning or design. It was execution, and allowing what should have been a nice, chain-moving gain to become a touchdown instead.

The heaviest hammer was swung by Lynch during a critical game in Week 16. In the fourth quarter, he danced through the line and broke into the Cardinals’ second level. But there was still an opportunity to stop the bleeding.

Three defensive backs were in position to make a play, and two were unblocked.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Lynch should have been stopped before he even moved any chains. But nope, cornerback Patrick Peterson over-pursued, leaving the entire right side of the field exposed.

For over half of this season, fierce run defense was a defining Cardinals characteristic. Forcing an opposing offense to become one-dimensional often leads to welcome returns when Peterson and Antonio Cromartie are waiting to steal passes.

It’s an identity that needs to return against the Panthers. Winning with Lindley was already going to be difficult, though not impossible. But if gushing weaknesses against both the run and tight ends continue, then the Cardinals’ season will end quickly—Arizona is giving up a league-worst 66.2 receiving yards per game to tight ends, according to Football Outsiders.

If the Cardinals are trampled by Panthers quarterback Cam Newton and running back Jonathan Stewart, an 11-win team will lose to a seven-win team and an offseason of lamenting what could have been with fewer injuries will begin.

That doesn’t feel like a deserving fate for a team that spent much of the season leading its division and conference. But football has always been far more painful than fair.