What Went Wrong For Cardinals’ Offense in Loss to Seahawks

The Arizona Cardinals collected fewer yards of total offense (151) in their 31-7 loss to Seattle than they allowed to Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (155). It was a stark reality check from Arizona's week one upset of the Chargers, in which they churned out nearly 400.

Against a defense of Seattle's caliber, it wasn't shocking; it was closer to status quo than anomaly, given how much trouble the Seahawks have also given most other teams.

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But for head coach Mike LaFleur — whose innovative, McVay-and-Shanahan-like system provided a breath of fresh air from the lackluster offense of Drew Petzing — moving the ball against even the tougher defenses in football is more of a standard than a success story.

But that didn't happen Sunday.

Mike LaFleur on Cardinals' poor offense vs Seahawks

The Cardinals only managed to throw for 95 yards. They ran for just 70. Their leading receiver — Trey McBride — had just 41 yards, while no other pass-catcher reached 20. With the exception of an 18-yard garbage-time scamper by Bam Knight, Arizona did not have a gain of more than nine yards.

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LaFleur, speaking to the media on Monday, said he felt the Cardinals "left yards out there," despite attempting to move the ball more explosively downfield.

"You can't dink and dunk [the Seahawks]. Like, that's proven," LaFleur said. "All you have to do is watch some of the best offenses in football last year go against them. Trying to do that, it doesn't work.

"We called four [play-action] passes in the first 23 plays. None of them were able to get up. Had an opportunity on the second play of the game… that if we execute, I do believe that's a touchdown. And that ball is going to have to travel about 50 yards. We had two other ones where we were trying to take shots down the field."

LaFleur said the Seattle defense was able to keep those deep balls in check due to their secondary alignment. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is known to incorporate heavy doses of Cover 2 and Cover 3 to take explosives away — a luxury he's mostly afforded by an elite defensive front and explosive linebackers.

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That forced Arizona to take the smaller gains underneath, and even those short-yardage plays were held to a minimum.

"They were playing in a ton of shell, and they were giving us the checkdowns," LaFleur said. "Some of it is the timing of when they're called. I got to call them at the right times. … And then the other part is we got to execute. We got to block a little bit better. We got to strain a little bit better. And when we have the opportunities, take the chance.

"I thought we were excellent against the Chargers. We had to even be better against this team because of their team speed and how well they closed underneath."

But LaFleur said the rough offensive afternoon ultimately came down to a lack of early execution on third down, despite facing plenty of shorter-yardage situations. Arizona converted only three of its 12 third-down attempts on the day.

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"I thought in the first half we did play efficient football on first and second down," LaFleur said. "When we're in third and five and manageable against one of the better defenses, we've got to execute in those situations, and that's where the game-changer was for us on offense.

"The second half is what it is. We had no rhythm. It was crap across the board, starting with me. But the third downs where we have the pen on the third and four and we're not converting, that's the problem. That was the game from our perspective on offense."

Ultimately, the blame can be distributed to many. Players did not execute properly; play calls were less than ideal in some circumstances. Both pass protection and run blocking were obvious areas of deficiency, and Brissett looked like a more inaccurate version of himself.

To be dominated by an elite defense is not reason to give up on the Cardinals' offensive potential. The important part will be how LaFleur and his players respond to a clunker.

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Schematic rigidity can allow even the less-talented defenses to mimic what Macdonald and the Seahawks did on Sunday. The Cardinals have offensive talent; they simply could not execute. That will happen from time to time, but it can't be the norm moving forward.