After last week’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks, a game in which the Arizona Cardinals scored only six points, head coach Jonathan Gannon noted that about one of every six plays was for negative yardage.
Including penalties and negative yardage plays, there were nine for 79 lost yards of the 58 snaps in the game (one every 6.44), which is right at Gannon’s number. Adding to that were 13 incompletions, including one interception, and two plays for no yards.
It was more of the same in Sunday’s gut-wrenching 23-22 loss to the Minnesota Vikings with much of the damage done in the red zone.
On 86 total snaps, including false starts on which there isn’t actually a snap, there were 13 negative plays for 77 yards, which is one in every 6.62 plays. Eight were penalties for 60 of the yards. There were also 14 incompletions, including two interceptions and a spike, plus 12 plays that gained only one (six) or two yards (six).
Gannon said, “We fouled too much today because that’s a low-flag crew. To have whatever we have, almost 100 yards (10-96) in penalties, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit. It’s the presnap penalties on offense (where) we’re going backwards. These are negative plays because of our own accord. So got to get that cleaned up.”
The red zone was incredibly painful. Six trips resulted in one touchdown (a 15-yard pass from quarterback Kyler Murray to wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. for a 19-6 lead), four field goals and one missed field goal. That’s 19 points of a potential 42. The Vikings scored two touchdowns and two field goals in the red zone, a total of 20 points of a possible 28.
It is fair to note that the Cardinals’ red zone possession on the opening drive of the game began at the 17-yard line on third-and-6. An excellent tackle left running back James Conner two yards short of the first down on a reception.
On three others, numerous mistakes left the Cardinals with third downs that had 12, 16 and 21 yards to go.
As Murray said, similar to Gannon, “We shot ourselves in the foot. We put ourselves back behind the chains how many times all together? I feel like every time we got down there, besides the touchdown to Marv, obviously right before the two-minute, we had penalties.
“They’ll beat you if you play bad football in the red zone. You get up against a good team and a good defense, and that kills you.”
Overall, the Cardinals did gain 49 yards on nine plays thanks to three opportunities that exited the red zone after reaching it. Those yards were offset by five penalties for 40 yards lost.
The worst came with the Cardinals poised to take control of the game in the final quarter.
It began on the 30 after the Vikings crept to within 19-16 on a 31-yard field goal. Starting at the 30 with 11:08 to play, key plays were:
- A James Conner 16-yard run;
- A 14-yard catch-and-run by tight end Trey McBride on third-and-12;
- An 8-yard run by Emari Demercado on third and-6 that moved the ball to the Minnesota 31.
After that, Murray ran for five and Conner ran for seven with the latter sandwiched between passes of five and nine yards to McBride that got the ball to the 5-yard line with 4:14 to play.
Prior to a first down and goal-to-go failure against Seattle, the Cardinals had been successful scoring touchdowns 16 consecutive times.
This one made it two straight misses. The roof began caving in when tight end Tip Reiman was whistled for his third false start although it was clear that Vikings defensive lineman Jerry Tillery was across the line of scrimmage before Reiman moved.
Instead of moving the ball close to the 2-yard line, where a touchdown would have produced a two-score lead, it went back to the 10. Murray was guilty of intentional grounding, losing 15 yards. A Trey Benson run and McBride reception got the ball back to the 4-yard line, but Gannon opted for a field goal and a six-point lead.
Was Murray frustrated not going for a touchdown?
“I trust JG,” he said. “I see both sides. Go up six and make them score; trust the defense to go get a stop. Go for it, you don’t get it, they’ve still got to go down and score. If you do get it, you probably put the game away. Obviously, if we run the play, I’m confident to get it, but I have full faith in JG.”
Asked about trying for the touchdown, Gannon explained, “There’s thought about it. Just wanted to go up more than a field goal there. Definitely a decision point that we talked about. So be it. … I’d rather they have to score a touchdown to beat us there.”
Which, of course, they did on an eight-play, 70-yard drive that lasted only 2:07. Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold was 5-for-7 for 57 yards on the drive that ended with a 5-yard scoring pass to running back Aaron Jones and that had continued on with a fourth-and-5, 12-yard pass to wide receiver Justin Jefferson to the 21-yard line.
On Minnesota’s final three drives that put 17 points on the board, Darnold was 12-for-17 for 156 yards and two touchdowns after being 9-for-14 for 79 yards on the first six possessions. Seven of the completions in the three scoring drives totaled 129 yards (18.4 average).
As for what happened prior to that fourth-down decision, Gannon said simply, “That was brutal.”
A legion of Cardinals fans surely agree with him on that.
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