Black and Blue Review
The Cardinals could certainly come into Charlotte and end the Panthers’ season Saturday.
Arizona won 11 games this year behind a defense that was one of the stingiest in points allowed. Former friend Ted Ginn is capable of tearing apart Carolina’s suspect special teams. Bruce Arians has worked some major magic en route to what could be his second Coach of the Year award in the last three years.
But Arians will now have to work some miracles if his badly battered team is going to make a run in the playoffs.
While the Panthers didn’t necessarily go through a Murders’ Row during their four-game win streak, they’re one of the hotter teams in the league. Plus they’ll be at home, hosting a West Coast team who has lost four of six, on a short week.
Of course, you only have to look so far as Carolina’s last two home wins, and its six-point total margin of victory against the lowly Bucs and Browns, to see how the Panthers can keep floundering teams in games. But for what it’s worth, the Cardinals enter the postseason after ending the regular season as a hot mess.
They currently have …
Problems at Quarterback
Unless the Cardinals can find a Mr. Miyagi to work on Drew Stanton’s knee, the strong feeling in Arizona is the backup quarterback won’t play Saturday. That would leave the offense in the hands of third-stringer Ryan Lindley.
The 25-year-old had the misfortunate of having to face the stout Seahawks in his first NFL start two weeks ago. It didn’t go well. Lindley completed just 18 of his 44 passes for 216 yards and an interception.
He was better in his second start Sunday in San Francisco, going 23-of-39 for 316 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw a trio of interceptions.
Even if Lindley plays a near-flawless game, the Cardinals have …
Problems at Running Back
Arizona finished the regular season ranked 31st in rushing, one spot ahead of Oakland.
In their seven games since losing starting quarterback Carson Palmer to an ACL tear, the Cardinals have averaged 79.4 rushing yards. But while quarterback issues have hampered the run game, it’s not like No. 1 running back Andre Ellington was piling up yards before he had sports hernia surgery earlier this month.
Ellington was the Cardinals’ best back, though, and the top item on the Panthers’ to-do list will likely be making sure Kerwynn Williams and Stepfan Taylor have no room to run.
Which brings us to Arizona’s defense and its …
Problems Stopping the Run
While they were winning nine of their first 10 games, the Cardinals allowed just one team (Eagles) to rush for at least 100 yards. Since then, they’ve given up five 100-plus games on the ground, including a total of 473 yards in the last two weeks.
For Arizona, this isn’t a good time to have a leaky run defense. The Panthers averaged 195 rushing yards the last five weeks, and they’ve gained more than 100 yards on the ground in 11 straight games.
Running back Jonathan Stewart is playing arguably his best football as a pro, which is more bad news for a team that suddenly has …
Problems Tackling
According to Pro Football Focus, the Cardinals missed a combined 27 tackles the last two weeks. Also according to Pro Football Focus, Stewart has the league’s second-highest ‘elusive rating,’ with 56 total broken tackles.
But the Cardinals haven’t just struggled to bring down running backs lately. During his weekly radio appearance on Monday, general manager Steve Keim said of his team’s defensive effort against the 49ers: “The tackling in general was unacceptable.” He added: “[They] made us look extremely bad in space, and that was disappointing.”
San Francisco running back Frank Gore rushed for 144 yards while Arizona continued to have …
Problems Against Running Quarterbacks
A week after Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson rushed for 88 yards and a touchdown, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick picked up 63 yards on seven carries.
Arizona’s biggest issue against those two was allowing them to gain big chunks of yards. Wilson had rushes of 55 and 22 yards while Kaepernick gained 30, 19 and 15.
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton ran in for a score during each of his last three games while averaging 65.7 rushing yards.
Again, with a great coach, a once-formidable defense, and a handful of weapons, the Cardinals are more than capable of winning Saturday. But they’ll have to fix at least a couple of their five major problems quickly, and they’ll likely need some help from the Panthers.