As we head into the bye week for the Arizona Cardinals lets be honest, it is mostly for the fans.
The team has lost five straight games, all of which they held the lead or were tied for the lead in the fourth quarter.
They are giving up an astonishing 10.8 points per game in the fourth quarter alone. That is not ideal.
Part of the reason for that is that the team just doesn’t do well when rushing the passer.
To close out games in the fourth quarter, you need two things.
1. A running game that allows you to chew up clock and grind your opponents down.
2. A pass rush that can get home consistently and create problems for the opposing offense.
The Arizona Cardinals have neither.
We can lament the rushing attack later, because there are a lot of negatives there, but this offseason the bounty was found on the defensive side of the ball.
We were expecting to see an improvement over last year, and to be fair, we have, it is just not commensurate with the investment made.
Now, to say that the Cardinals pass rush is bad is a little excessive I am sure, but it is not good, or even average. Their pressure rate of 28.1% is 21st, their pass rush win rate is 40% which is 12th.
The issue becomes there is nothing in between those two numbers.
The Cardinals sack rate is 28th. The Cardinals pressure to sack rate is 29th.
One would think maybe bringing more players to create pressure would be ideal, but their blitz rate is 28th.
Now, we are not talking be like the Miami Dolphins and blitz to just blitz, but can the Cardinals not be a little closer to the Atlanta Falcons who are slightly below them in non-blitz pressure rate (24th for the Falcons and 22nd for the Cardinals), but blitz the most in the NFL and are sixth in sack rate and 10th in pressure rate?
Sure, maybe they don’t need to blitz that much, but do they not want to get more pressure on the quarterback, especially in the fourth quarter where they have the worst defense in the NFL?
I get it, you invested in Josh Sweat, Baron Browning, Darius Robinson and hopefully Walter Nolen III, but outside of Sweat, is anyone doing enough?
This team needs to be better in the fourth quarter, they need to be able to get after the passer, create big plays on defense and in turn play complimentary football and get the game over with.
However, no one is to blame, but the Cardinals defense for how bad their fourth quarter defense is.
At some point, you have to have some pride, and make plays. But also, you need coaches who see that their scheme isn’t working, and to adapt.
Because the reality is, if the players aren’t executing, then eventually it is a scheme problem.
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