“We will soon find out exactly what this team is made of.”

That’s what I wrote on the eve of the opening game of the season against the Buffalo Bills about this Arizona Cardinals side. Heading into a Monday Night Football game against the LA Chargers, for their seventh game of the season, there are a lot of fans who don’t like who the Arizona Cardinals currently are.

Sitting at 2-4, Jonathan Gannon’s team has contended with Super Bowl hopefuls, shocked San Francisco, decimated the LA Rams and are still within punching distance of the top of the NFC West 

On paper, the majority of Cardinals fans would’ve taken that at the start of the season given the opening 6 games were viewed as a tough task.

Yet, the manner of the defeats to Green Bay and Washington, missed opportunities against Buffalo and Detroit, and noticeable concerns on both sides of the ball has completely crushed the optimism the fanbase had for this season. 

The Cardinals, without a doubt, still have one of the worst defences in the league. Only Jacksonville (27.7), Dallas (28) and Carolina (34.7) have allowed more points per game than Arizona (27.2). 

Before this weekend, only 5 teams allowed more yards per game than the Cardinals, they sat 29th for rushing yards allowed per game with 153 and no team was as poor through the first 6 games as the Cardinals for third down rate – almost half (49.3%) of the third downs this defence has faced have been converted to first downs. 

They’re currently on course to finish worse off in those categories than the 2023 team did.

After not making a meaningful improvement to the pass rush during the offseason, Monti Ossenfort has watched this defence get just 11 sacks between them. Only 5 teams have less while there isn’t a unit in the NFL with a poorer pass rush win rate (28%) than the Cards.

Though it is important to not live and die by PFF grades, Sean Murphy-Bunting who was brought in as CB1 on a $25.5m contract is currently ranked as the 6th worst corner in the league with a 50.9 defensive grade.

That gets even worse when looking at pure coverage with just three players being graded below SMB’s 45.4. 

This inability to get to the quarterback, stop the run and to effectively cover receivers has meant that the defence has only forced 3 opposition punts in the last 3 games.

While total blame can’t be put on the players either individually or collectively – there frankly isn’t enough talent and that lies with Ossenfort- their effort against Washington was inexcusable and at times against Detroit, Buffalo and Green Bay they may as well have been invisible. 

They have shown themselves to be capable of moments of sheer dogged determination. They were fucking fantastic in the second half against San Francisco and Detroit, totally shutting out both teams and set the tone magnificently against the Rams. 

That on its own isn’t sustainable throughout an NFL season. 

Nick Rallis has drawn some criticism for his tactics in the opening 6 games, mostly for employing a soft coverage that leaves opposition players wide open and for not blitzing Jordan Love who came into the game against the Cardinals with an obvious weakness when under pressure. 

Rallis is locked in a damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t phase with this defence. He could’ve blitzed Love all day long last week and it could’ve completely disrupted the Packers QB.

On the other hand, he knew he didn’t have the playmakers to look after the field if Love could get the ball out. Neither Budda Baker or Jalen Thompson are best served in coverage.

The same goes for the soft coverage. It’s safety first because of the personnel but it’s time for the young defensive coordinator to bite the bullet, mix things up and demand that players step up. 

The defensive issues aren’t all on the defence itself, either. They’re being asked to be on the field more often than most teams in the league, with the Cardinals currently averaging 27.46 minutes of time in possession (28th in league).

Only New Orleans have had less time in possession in the last 3 games than the Cardinals. 

While some of Nick Rallis’s decisions are understandable because of the personnel he has been given by Monti Ossenfort, offensive coordinator Drew Petzing cannot be given the same leniency. 

Petzing’s approach to both the rushing and passing games have been baffling at best and downright negligent at worst. 

A team that came into the season earmarked as a potentially explosive offence has averaged just 16 points per game since the blow out of LA. 

One reason for this is Petzing’s inconsistent deployment of a rushing attack that was one of the best in the league last year. They are still one of the better sides for total rushing yards (8th with 871), average yards per carry (2nd with 5.3) and yards per game (7th with 145.2) but something is off. 

It sometimes feels like Petzing doesn’t know if he’s coming or going with the rush. Against Buffalo and Detroit he leaned on it too heavily instead of letting Kyler Murray loose, while he completely abandoned it against Washington at pivotal moments. 

James Conner, the war dog of this offence, is at his best when he can smash through a defensive line.

This was best displayed against the 49ers when Conner punched holes through Kyle Shanahan’s line in the second half yet in key situations, he has been asked to run outside zone, which has led to drives stuttering and spluttering. 

In short yardage situations, one of the league’s best 1st down converters has often been ignored in favour of other backs or the pass. 

It’s hard to imagine a world where the Cardinals offence would be worse off if they leaned a bit more on Conner in those situations – they are down from where they finished 2023 in 3rd down conversion, 4th down conversion and first downs per game. 

Rookie Trey Benson has looked incredibly unconfident in the majority of his touches so far which has reduced the juice in the rushing game while Emari Demercado is not justifying his inclusion on the roster. PFF have Demercado graded at 41.9 for pass blocking. 

There’s no need to remind everyone that Michael Carter, who averaged 6.8 yards per carry last season, remains on the practice squad. Oops. 

The biggest concern is in the passing game though. Only the Chargers, Patriots, Titans, Dolphins and Browns have less cumulative passing yards than the Cardinals (1122) so far this year. 

That’s one run first ask questions later team in LA, a team with Will Levis at QB, the Patriots with a rookie, the Dolphins with a backup and the Browns with one of the worst starting QBs in the league.  

For a fairer look, as some teams have played an additional game, the offence is ranked 24th for passing yards per game (187). 

Kyler Murray has the 5th best QBR in the league (66.7) but only one player has had a 100 yard receiving game when Marvin Harrison Jr. went for 130 yards against the Rams and only Trey McBride has had more than 2 games with 50+ receiving yards. 

Some of this is down to the players and circumstance. Only Amari Cooper, Darnell Mooney and Dontayvion Wicks dropped more passes than Harrison through the first 6 weeks (4) and the chemistry between the #4 pick and K1 is still a work in progress. 

The team have also been without starting RT Jonah Williams since Week 1 and are now without Will Hernandez too, though kudos to the offensive line for holding up.

Yet there is quite obviously a scheming issue. 

Murray hasn’t had a 3rd and long conversion all season, the only regularly starting quarterback without one. There have been times when he’s wavered, hasn’t looked confident in his options and has been forced into or has made poor decisions, though that’s the life of an NFL quarterback. 

In terms of “getting open”, using ESPN’s receiver scores, MHJ and McBride are the best on the team with scores of 58. This puts them joint 45th league wide. Per The 33rd Team, a league high 40.5% of throws to MHJ have been in tight windows. 

Marvin Harrison Jr. has been brought to Arizona to be a gamechanger but he’s also a rookie. Petzing has to do far better in getting him straight forward opportunities. Confidence breeds success. Treating him like Kliff Kingsbury treated DeAndre Hopkins (a bonafide superstar) out of the gate isn’t helping. 

Let’s see Marv be given the opportunity to run across defences or move around. When he has been allowed to do that, like in the game changing 4th down catch against the 9ers or his standout performance against the Rams, he can excel. 

Concerns on both sides of the ball have dovetailed to handcuff one another. The defence couldn’t keep the Bills at bay while the offence stuttered in the 3rd quarter. 

The Lions swept to an early lead. When the defence got into form, the offence couldn’t capitalise.

The Commanders carved the defence up like a hot knife through butter, forcing the Cardinals offence to aim for perfection to keep in the game, rather than make incremental inroads.

The Packers had beaten the Cardinals defence into submission by the 2nd quarter last week. 

The long and the short of it is the Cardinals have played a game and a half of complementary football through six games.

There is a lack of talent on defence which piles the pressure on the offence. Drew Petzing hasn’t displayed the nous to consistently keep the offence on track which leads to Nick Rallis and his defence being asked to perform way above their overall ability.

The cycle continues. 

While that could be expected from a team whose entire modus operandi is geared towards 2025 being “the year”, patience is wearing thin amongst sections of the fan base.

Seeing the insipid pass rush being left to flounder while there are players available for trade or who could’ve been signed in free agency is a hammer blow every Sunday.

This is a team that hasn’t won back-to-back games in three years. They haven’t won a playoff game since the 2015 playoffs. Years of false hope have petered out into nothingness.

Things have to change at some point in the desert. 

However, there have been some major positives that are being lost within the woe of losing. Paris Johnson is absolutely proving himself to be a franchise-calibre left tackle.

He’s currently ranked as the 10th best tackle by PFF with a 83.5 grade. That top ten includes the true elite of the position like Trent Williams, Terron Armstead, Penei Sewell and Rashawn Slater. 

Though it completely collapsed against Green Bay after it being pointed out all week, discipline has improved tenfold for the Cardinals on the field, entering that game as the least penalised team in the league. Who could’ve seen that coming? 

James Conner is still proving to be one of the best running backs in the league. Kyler has shown flashes of MVP level play and certainly feels at his most comfortable in a Cardinals jersey. MHJ has had moments of brilliance and Trey McBride is showing that last year wasn’t a fluke by any means. 

Even on defence, Zaven Collins has delivered solid output in the run game from the edge, Mack Wilson has been Ossenfort’s best free agent signing and Roy Lopez has far exceeded expectations.

Garrett Williams, with a full training camp under his belt, is displaying the pedigree that had him pegged as a first round pick until being injured in college. 

Rookie Dadrion Taylor-Demerson has been the standout amongst the draft picks and Max Melton is starting to find his feet. 

Despite all of the doom and gloom, the Cardinals enter Monday Night Football with a chance to go second in the NFC West. If they win tonight, they will head to a Miami team ripe for the taking as the Seattle Seahawks play the Bills. There is a chance the next 6 days end with the Cardinals atop the division. 

Maybe this is when we truly find out what this team is made of.