Arizona Cardinals Leading NFL Because of Depth, More Depth and Defense

This season still feels like it should be a desert mirage for the Arizona Cardinals. The best kind of mirage too, with more than just the standard palm tree and babbling brook. This mirage has a log ride and endless cotton candy. There’s also a wall of ice for Larry Fitzgerald, because he climbs those for fun on vacation.

Everything the Cardinals have accomplished and every game they’ve won is more than deserved. But if we press pause to rub our eyes for a second and really absorb what we’re seeing, quickly you realize just how unlikely a 9-1 record was back in September.

So come with me then, and let’s take a stroll back to the beginning, looking for the very heartbeat of the NFL’s best team.

The Cardinals are winning with defense

Arizona’s latest win Sunday came over the Detroit Lions and their high-powered offense that was held to less than a touchdown, falling 14-6.

Running back Reggie Bush sat out, but the Lions offense is still fully loaded with wide receivers Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate. Johnson entered Week 11 with 461 receiving yards despite missing three games and gimping through two others. Meanwhile, Tate averaged 138 yards and nine catches over the Lions’ past three games.

The Cardinals’ response? Yawn.

Tate was eliminated and nonexistent, with Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford able to target him only twice. Johnson had plenty of opportunities with 12 footballs thrown in his direction, but it didn’t matter. He was held without a 15-plus yard reception for the first time this season, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

By extension, Stafford was stuffed too. His 183 passing yards marked the lowest total of his season, and it was also only the fourth time since 2011 he was held to less than 200 yards through the air. Prior to Week 11 he was averaging 277.3 passing yards per game.

That’s just a slice of the Cardinals secondary and how much it has drained the life from opposing passing attacks after some early-season struggles. Over the past three weeks cornerbacks Patrick Peterson and Antonio Cromartie have faced two of the toughest matchups the NFL has to offer, lining up across from Johnson and earlier Dez Bryant in Week 9.

In 2013 Johnson and Bryant combined for 25 touchdowns and 2,725 receiving yards. Their combined total against the Cardinals? Only 74 yards on seven receptions.

Once more with feeling: that’s combined.

Earlier in the season Peterson reminded us that football can be really, really hard, even for those with all-universe talent. He slumped through the first five games while allowing four passing touchdowns and 246 yards in coverage, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

Those hard times continued in Week 8 when he was owned by Philadelphia Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin, allowing a passer rating of 155.6 before leaving with a concussion. But over the past three weeks the impostor Peterson has vanished, with the real one returning.

During games against the Cowboys, Lions and St. Louis Rams he was targeted 22 times in coverage. Only nine of those throws were completions and two landed in Peterson’s hands for interceptions.

One took the long route to that final destination. Another reminder from Peterson: He’s not normal.

The Cardinals are second in interceptions with 15, and five of those have come over the past three weeks. Their secondary has benefited from general manager Steve Keim inserting the right pieces into the right places.

He gladly accepted a third-round bargain for safety Tyrann Mathieu during the 2013 draft, trusting the LSU standout would shed his character concerns. And last spring Keim signed off on another discount, snatching Cromartie for only $3.25 million. Cromartie has rewarded him by allowing just 23 receptions on 51 targets and giving up a catch only once every 16.7 coverage snaps, all per PFF.

The Cardinals secondary is doing all that ball swarming while having to defend 380 pass attempts, the league’s fifth-highest total. Opposing offenses are passing at such a high volume because running is failing so spectacularly and so often.

That brings us to the next reason this Cardinals mirage has become reality.

The Cardinals are winning with depth

Over 10 games the Cardinals have given up 20 or more points only three times, leading to a per-game average of 17.6 points allowed (third). They've accomplished that with the aforementioned turnover factory in the secondary and a stifling run defense (also third in the league).

Opposing runners are gaining only 3.5 yards per carry and 80.5 per game. Soak in all of those numbers for a moment, then recall how much Arizona was gutted defensively before this season even began, especially in a rather important area for run defense.

Player	2014 status	Sacks	Tackles	Defensive stops
John Abraham	Concussion, retired	11.5	37	31
Darnell Dockett	Torn ACL	4.5	46	30
Karlos Dansby	Left for Browns	6.5	122	63
Daryl Washington	Suspended	3	75	41
Matt Shaunghnessy	On short-term IR	3	36	22

The final tally there is 28.5 sacks gone, over half of the Cardinals’ 2013 total. Defensive end Calais Campbell also missed two games earlier in the season with a knee injury, and Mathieu missed one game while still recovering a torn ACL. He wasn’t ready for a full snap count until Week 3.

Yet the beat has carried on, with Keim to thank again because of his drafting and free-agency dollar-store shopping.

Without Washington and Dansby, this run defense was in crumble territory. They combined for 104 defensive stops along with 30 passes defensed and five interceptions. Those are the numbers of multi-faceted linebackers with the sideline-to-sideline speed to defend pretty much anything.

The nearly complete disappearance of a pass rush has been weathered with blanketing play in the secondary. But losing Dansby and Washington could have been an early death blow.

Enter Larry Foote, a discarded veteran signed in June to a contract that pays him the NFL equivalent of your kid’s rotting Halloween candy. Foote was scooped up on a one-year deal worth $955,000. For that economical price Keim has received 676 snaps—the most of any Cardinals defensive player at any position—and a team-leading 27 stops, per PFF.

Enter Tommy Kelly, another discounted trash-heap resurrection. Kelly was cut by the New England Patriots at the end of training camp. Even Bill Belichick, the mayor of the NFL’s junk pile, gave up on him and determined the 33-year-old couldn’t be effective after tearing his ACL in 2013.

Now Kelly leads the defense in quarterback hits with five and is second with 18 hurries, per PFF, while also being a run-plugging presence over his 474 snaps.

Cardinals defensive line coach Brentson Buckner was sure to thank Belichick for gift he unintentionally sent to Arizona, telling NFL.com's Michael Silver "one man's trash is another man's treasure."

And head coach Bruce Arians made an appropriate comparison.

Whether it’s Abraham a year ago (11.5 sacks during his age-35 season) or Kelly, Cromartie and Foote now, Keim has been able to identify veterans who fit into his team’s defensive system, and then pass them off to a coaching staff that squeezes out whatever talent they have left. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles has been given the weapons he needs to manipulate opposing offenses while blitzing on over 40 percent of Arizona’s defensive snaps, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

The depth carries on, going deeper and deeper with veterans and youngsters alike keeping the NFL’s best team afloat.

Four wins have now come with backup quarterback Drew Stanton as the starter. He may lack accuracy at times, but Stanton will keep the offense clicking without Carson Palmer, who's lost for the season with an ACL tear. Stanton's arm strength to consistently connect on deep throws eliminates the need to scale down a vertical-based system. He showcased that arm again Sunday against the Lions with 9.6 yards per attempt and a 42-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Michael Floyd.

Outside linebacker Alex Okafor (fourth round, 2013) has three sacks over the past two weeks and five overall. Rookie first-round pick Deone Bucannon has brought punishing physicality to the secondary and is even used as a middle linebacker in nickel packages. And although they’ve often played sparingly, linebacker Kevin Minter (second round, 2013) and defensive end Kareem Martin (third round, 2014) have also provided valuable contributions as chess pieces Bowles can utilize.

It feels like all season we’ve been waiting for the patchwork throughout the Cardinals defense to rip and for the flood to begin. But even with a backup quarterback and a heaping helping of hurt, the Cardinals’ January destiny—which could include home-field advantage throughout the playoffs—is theirs to control.

We could be waiting a long time for that defensive collapse, and it might not come at all.