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http://www.azcardinals.com/news/detail.php?PRKey=1166[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cardinals Run The Ball!
Ron Wolfley
Cardinals Analyst[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I thought the headline would make you read this story and if you stick with me you’ll see the Cardinals running-game against the 49ers was much better than most people are giving them credit for.
Some will call me Pollyanna; but based on hard-core evidence from the NFL Game Summary the Cardinals victory over the 49ers on Sunday was no pipe-dream.
Any good analysis will include the context of the information provided. Mike Nolan’s 3-4 defense of 2005 gave up more yards, by far, than any other team in the National Football League (391-yards/game) and only two teams gave up more first-downs than San Francisco’s defense. It was the 49ers pass-defense that was awful, yielding almost 280-yards/game through the air. The savaging of the 49ers secondary kept drives alive, moved the chains and exposed the defense to a ton of offensive plays. Yet the 49ers run-defense only allowed 3.8-yards/carry against them in 2005, good for #11 in the league. Teams that allowed 3.7-yards/carry included respected defenses such as Miami, Chicago and Baltimore. Even the heralded rush-defense of the Jacksonville Jaguars finished behind the 49ers, allowing 3.9-yards/carry.
The abomination that was the 49ers defense in 2005 never included their run-defense.
Edgerrin James came into this game with 7-carries as an Arizona Cardinal. His limited exposure to his offensive-line in game situations made The Edge look more like The Ex, as in exhibition. Taking this into consideration against the 49ers, it doesn’t surprise me the Cardinals struggled to run the ball effectively early in the game. For all intents and purposes, The Edge was taking the offensive-line for a Sunday-drive, a test-drive.
The line on James has people hurling themselves over The Edge: 26-attempts, 73-yards, 2.8-yards/carry, a long of 10-yards and 1-TD. Yet, a closer look at what transpired on Sunday against a decent rush-defense reveals the malaise affecting the Cardinals running-game wasn’t nearly as acute as many fans think.
James’s first 8-carries netted him a grand total of 4-yards. A rushing performance that had many waving their arms, picking scabs and proclaiming the end of all goodness could be found in the ruddy hands of the offensive-line. But then, starting with the Cardinals fifth-possession of the game, something started to happen, something good oozed from the sweating brows of the Butt-Guts and it smelled like prosperity. James’s next 17-carries totaled 67-yards or 3.94-yards/attempt. Starting at the 10:25 mark of the 2nd quarter, the Cardinals began to rush the football, effectively! Moreover, the Cardinals ran the ball effectively in run-down situations (1st & 10, 2nd & 1-6). In these down-and-distances, James had 15-carries for 53-yards – averaging 3.5-yards/attempt.
If James would have had these kinds of numbers in the first-quarter, he would have finished with 26-carries for 102-yards and a touchdown. These are solid numbers for any NFL running-back and don’t include the 2-carries for 24 yards James had nullified due to penalties – his two-longest runs of the day.
This is progress.
But any good running-game is not just about numbers, yards/attempt and down-and-distances. It’s also about where you run the football effectively and when running the football wins games. And this was the most encouraging development of Sunday’s victory, where the Cardinals effectively ran the football when they needed it most.
On the Cardinals second-possession of the game, after Gerald Hayes returned a fumble to the 49ers 5-yardline, the Big Red did something they could have only dreamed of in 2005: lined up and ran three punishing plays and pounded the football into the 49ers end-zone. Three consecutive trips on The Edge and the Cardinals took a lead they would never relinquish.
This message was not lost on the 49ers. The Cardinals were 4-of-6 in touchdown conversions in the red-zone (67%) and 4-of-4 in goal-to-go situations. The Cardinals established they could pound-the-pig into the end zone and this allowed the passing attack of the best skill in the National Football League to score at a rate they were incapable of a year ago. It became very apparent to me, sitting in the booth, the Redbirds had proved something to the 49ers and the result was like watching the video, When Receivers Attack.
But this possession was only a foreshadowing of what was to come. The best evidence the Cardinals could provide that their running-game on Sunday wasn’t as awful as people were saying came in the fourth-quarter, when the game was still in doubt. With almost 9-minutes to go in the game the Cardinals ripped off the kind of drive needed to win football games in the NFL. Clinging to a 7-point lead the Big Red started a 13-play drive on their own 20-yardline that ended in a field-goal, pushing their lead to ten. That drive took over 7-minutes off the game clock and set up the end-game inside the two-minute warning. More specifically, of the 13-plays the Cardinals ran from scrimmage eight of them were running plays – including an 11-yard run from James to the 49ers 1-yardline that was called back because of a holding call.
Take this time consuming drive away from the Cardinals effort on Sunday and the game may have ended differently. Although the Cardinals didn’t convert third-downs rushing the football, they accomplished their objective. They were able to run the ball enough, in a 1-possession game, to move the chains, eat-up time and score points.
When you analyze the facts of what occurred on Sunday and look a little deeper into the numbers, there is evidence of an improved running-game. Do the Arizona Cardinals need to run the football better? Yes. But from where I was sitting the running-game showed signs of life I haven’t seen here in quite some time.
If the Cardinals can find some continuity on the offensive-line, starting the same five with reasonable expectations, they have the ability to light-up the scoreboard and keep opposing defenses busier than Paul Calvisi’s barber. Where the Cardinals need to improve offensively is obvious, but when this improvement helps you win games, as it did last Sunday, the smoke from Pollyanna’s pipe smells oh so sweet. [/FONT]
http://www.azcardinals.com/news/detail.php?PRKey=1166[/FONT]
he also made some very nice runs when he had nothing to work with.
