Head coach Mike LaFleur was so confident in what the Arizona Cardinals offense would do Sunday, that he made a long-shot prediction the night before the game against the Los Angeles Rams.
LaFleur revealed to the media after the 18-16 victory, “I told the guys I didn't plan on using our punt team.”
He then said, “We obviously had a few punts (three with two in the second half), but for the most part, did a pretty good job of controlling the ball. I never want to see six kicks again unless they're extra points. I think our special teams has been really good all year. I think they're an edge for us for sure in all units.”
As good as the defense was except for two touchdown drives, this weekly exercise will understandably begin with the special teams.
The headliner
Five of kicker Chad Ryland’s six field goals were of the chip-shot variety, thanks to five red-zone trips by the offense that failed to result in a touchdown. In order, they were 34, 30, 22, 38 and 27 yards.
The game-winner as time expired was from 43 yards and produced two rather unique numbers:
- Only nine NFL teams in the last 20 seasons have won a game with six field goals and no touchdowns.
- For the Rams, it was their first loss since 2014 in a game where they didn’t allow a touchdown. That game was in St. Louis and was won by, yes the Cardinals, 12-6. That was also the Cardinals' first in their history for winning a road game without a touchdown.
Said LaFleur, “Chad's a stud. He's so funny too on the sideline. He's in it, and he's a stud. I'm happy for those guys.”
Elsewhere on special teams, a 40-yard kickoff return by Devin Duvernay after the Rams took a 3-0 first-quarter lead on a 44-yard Blake Grupe field goal, ended with Grupe running into Duvernay to get him out of bounds, but resulted in the kicker suffering a knee injury that knocked him out of the game. The absence of a kicker affected the Rams' offense during the game.
Punter Blake Gillikin continued to struggle with a 41.3-yard average including a 36-yarder, but managed a net of 40.0 with one going out of bounds and the other two resulting in only four return yards.
Big plays mostly disappeared on defense
Entering the game, the Cardinals had allowed 19 plays of 20 or more yards in their losses with six by the 49ers and five by the Giants and Lions the previous two games. The 664 yards on those plays accounted for 42.9 percent of the total.
It’s been a different story in the wins over the Chargers and Rams with only three total. The 92 yards in those games were a mere 16.6 percent of the total yards.
Sunday, the 43-yard pass play from quarterback Matthew Stafford to wide receiver Puka Nacua was the only 20-play of the game for the Rams and led to the go-ahead touchdown. Of course, had the heroics of Ryland and wide receiver Jalen Brooks not happened (plus a 15-yard Rams penalty), that play would have been accentuated in the tale of another loss.
Still, it was the overall defensive performance led by coordinator Nick Rallis that ensured this would not be another blowout against a division team.
Prior to the 91 yards gained by the Rams in that scoring drive, they had only 195 yards in the game on 48 plays (4.1 per play) and finished with 286 for the game. The other Rams touchdown drive gained 68 yards on 12 plays, so their other eight possessions totaled 127 yards on 36 plays (3.5 average).
“They're made of the right stuff,” LaFleur said of the defense. Those are the right guys in terms of mindset, in terms of play style. We challenged them all week to try to play with clear minds so they could just go for it; just hair on fire and just go for it. I thought Nick was excellent today. I thought he put them in some incredible spots. I give a lot of credit to that whole defensive staff and then the players making it come to life. It was a really, really good performance by coaches and players on the defensive side.”
From his three seasons with the Rams, LaFleur obviously knows their offense, so when asked about the game plan for defending Stafford, he said, “There were some things just in terms of thinking what they were going to do on offense and how we could do some stuff that we may not have put on tape yet. Not that we hadn't, obviously there's some of that stuff, but just different situational. I thought our guys did a great job of getting their cleats in the ground. When you play this team, they're going to jump the ball, they're going to get up, they're going to snap it. It's really what we want to become at some point.
“But I thought the defense did a great job of just being ready at all times. It's one game. It's a total reset next week. It's a 1-0 league. One week at a time league. But it's something that I truly feel like we can build on because, again, I've had to go against this defense enough over the years and it's not fun when it's clicking.”
Don’t blink, but the Rams come to Arizona in only four weeks.
Fourth-down stops; kicker loss
The Rams were 0-for-2 on fourth down and the Cardinals have stopped 7 of 12 in the first six games.
On a fourth-and-1 stuff of tight end Davis Allen in the third quarter with the Cardinals leading 12-9, if the Rams had their kicker, a 44-yard field goal likely would have been attempted. The other was a fourth-and-8 from the Cardinals 44-yard line that was originally fourth-and-3 before a false start by right tackle Warren McClendon Jr. The fourth down was a result of only a 2-yard gain by Nacua on third-and-5. The Rams were 4-for-10 on third down.
The Cardinals tackling was excellent with linebackers Mack Wilson Sr. and Josh Sweat stopping Nacua and linebacker Jordan Burch getting wide receiver Konata Mumpfield down one yard short of a first down on third-and-9 prior to the fourth-and-1.
Also, at the end of the first half after Ryland tied the game at 9-9 with a 22-yard field goal, Rams head coach Sean McVay elected not to be aggressive with 46 seconds remaining after having the ball at the 35 following the kickoff.
The Rams had used their three timeouts on the Cardinals field-goal drive, so running back Kyren Williams ran for a total of 12 yards on two plays and the half ended.
Said McVay, “Well, we're playing for a touchdown. We didn't have a field-goal operation, so the situation that we were in, that was why we approached it (that way). If we had our normal kicker, if we had a kicker healthy, then that would have changed the approach. That was kind of what led to that.”
Also not to be overlooked is the two-point conversion attempted by the Rams after the touchdown that gave them a 9-6 second-quarter lead. Stafford found no one open and was sacked by Sweat and fumbled, with L.J. Collier recovering and rumbling about 55 yards before being tackled by wide receiver Jordan Whittington.
The sack doesn’t count in the official statistics, but Sweat had another sack to go with four tackles (two solo/one for loss) and two quarterback hits.
Playing after being listed as questionable because of a groin injury, safety Budda Baker had a sack, six tackles (four solo/two for loss), two QB hits and a pass defensed.
On a third sack credited to the team, Stafford dropped the ball while rolling to his left to evade pressure and lost 11 yards. That occurred one play after a 26-yard pass-interference penalty on cornerback Kei’Trel Clark moved the ball to the 19-yard line and on the play before Rams tight end Tyler Higbee fumbled.
Higbee advanced the ball to the 22, but linebacker Cody Simon wrested the ball away and cornerback Denzel Burke recovered.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Cardinals 18, Rams 16: Observations on defense, special teams
