There are many reasons for a dominating victory in the NFL and Sunday’s 41-10 win by the Arizona Cardinals over the L.A. Rams had many.
But one significant domination was third down on both sides of the ball. For the game, the Cardinals converted 7-of-11 opportunities and one of the failures came in their final possession. Conversely, the Rams also had 11 third downs, but were successful on only two and one was in their final possession.
Striking was that each team had a majority of manageable situations: eight for the Rams with five yards to go or less and seven for the Cardinals.
On offense, quarterback Kyler Murray completed all five of his third-down pass attempts for 79 yards and a touchdown and also ran 10 yards for a first down on third-and-1 that led to the final touchdown of the afternoon two plays later.
Murray’s BAPR (Balzer Adjusted Passer Rating) on third down in the game was 217.9 and he leads the NFL with a 158.3 official passer rating after two weeks. Notably, his BPAR is 200.6. For those that insist on using the word “perfect” for the 158.3 rating, it’s notable that he is, in fact, perfect in completion percentage in the first two weeks, completing all 11 of his attempts.
Overall, the Cardinals completed 63.6 percent of their third downs Sunday and after two weeks, they are No. 1 in the league with a 58.3 percent conversion rate.
“I think that’s huge,” Murray said Wednesday of the third-down success. “It goes back to practice and the guys being prepared. Obviously, we’re coached well. Understanding what the defense could bring, possibly bring and try to do us, and just executing the third-down game plan. Sometimes with my legs, being able to create; that’s a big part of staying on the field. I think it’s demoralizing for defenses when you can continue to have long drives and stay on the field.”
On the 13-play, 99-yard drive that led to a 21-0 second-quarter lead, there were three third-down conversions for 56 yards, including the off-schedule 18-yard touchdown pass from Murray to tight end Elijah Higgins for a touchdown.
Head coach Jonathan Gannon also used the word “huge” to describe the third-down success, adding, “I thought we’ve done that for the better part of two games now. I know in the second half in Buffalo got a little bit longer there (leading to 2-for-6 conversions after being 5-for-7 at halftime), but I remember talking about (in the) first half (that) it was kind of manageable. The playbook is a little more open. As a defensive guy, it’s significantly different defending third-and-5 than third-and-10; like way different. There’s just a lot that goes into that, so I think if we can stay ahead of the sticks, we’ve done a good job.
“We got set back in the backed-up drive; the 99-yard drive. We had the hold, and we got out of it (thanks to a defensive holding penalty on second-and-19 from the 7-yard line), but I think we’ve done a good job through two games of not going backwards. Our pre-snap operation is really good, so the whole phrase of, ‘You can’t win till you stop from beating yourself’, or however that phrase goes, I think it’s true, and that goes into that so they’re doing a good job of that.”
Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing explained, “The manageable part was certainly important. It definitely changes from a mindset of how long it takes to get guys open, to get past the sticks is real. And certainly against a front like that, the longer you have to block the harder, it’s going to be to execute. The longer you have to push your route down the field to get the first down, all of those things go into it.
“But it was a number of things. Player execution is always at a premium in those areas and I’ve always told those guys, a lot of times in critical third downs, it comes down to one-on-one football and you got to win your one-on-one matchups. I thought the other day, we were able to do that more than not and I think that’s a big reason for the success.”
Flipping to the defense, four of the Cardinals’ five sacks against the Rams were on third down and all were with five yards to go or less.
Said Gannon, “Rush and cover were executing. I thought the plan was good with what we’re trying to get done. We had a lot of guys win one-on-ones, so that typically bodes well for you. As far as our third-down defense, there’s a lot of things we have to clean up too. We’ll always work to keep improving on that, but they did a good job on third down. No doubt about it.”
Defensive coordinator Nick Rallis said, like most results in football, it was a complementary team effort.
“Combination of things,” he said. “It can depend on the call a little bit. But when it’s just four-man rush, the rush and coverage play off each other. So if the rush is getting there fast, guys are able to not have to defend routes very long. That happened on a couple of them. If the rush isn’t there immediately, but it’s body on body in the back end, and there’s nowhere to throw the ball, the quarterback has to slow a little bit. That’s when the rush could finish it.
“Both those things happened on some of those third and more manageable situations. Obviously, if you have any kind of pressure up or anything like that, that can force the issue as well. But it was a combination of the rush helping out the coverage, coverage helping out the rush.”
Despite the loss in Week 1, the Bills converted only 3-of-9 plays on third down, so the Cardinals are currently tied for third in the NFL with the Bears and Eagles, allowing only 25.0 percent conversions.
Surely, two games is a small sample size, but if anything close to those numbers on offense and defense can hold up, the Cardinals should be in position to reach the expectations they have for themselves.
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