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So the fifteen of the ten ber He's Gonna score touchdown.
Welcome to the Cardinals Red Sea.
Reports slam into the ground by Budda Baker like a torpedo. He came flying into the backfield Connor to the ten, to the five and end of the end zone of the touchdown.
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Here we go one hand and catch it a touchdown?
Oh baby, how's that fail?
Here's Craiggrielou, Paul Calvic and three time pro bowler Kyle Vandenbosch.
So it is.
True the biggest improvement a team makes in season is between week one and week two. Police. That was the case on Sunday for the Arizona Cardinals. As you say, Welcome to the Cardinals Red Seaperport. Following a Cardinals win over the Los Angeles Rams. And not just any win, Kyle, but a dominating performance against Sean McVeigh, something that has never happened to McVeigh at State Farms Stadium, forty one to ten, And really this game was done maybe early in the second quarter when it was twenty one to nothing, and then the Cardinals just kept poorning on.
Yeah, it was complete, as you said, domination. It was every phase of the game.
You know.
That's the most encouraging thing from this past weekend was the offense was great, the defense was great. Special teams did their part. It's it's you keep saying, Yeah, Kyler had a great game, Marvin Harrison had a great game, but what.
About what about?
What about I mean all of these other players that stepped up and had huge games and were big factors. And to your point, the Rams had momentum on the opening kickoff and then none after that. It was all Arizona Cardinals after that first kickoff, they got past the fifties. So it was such a fun game to watch. You could feel the energy in the stadium, you could feel the energy on the sidelines. This is what we were all hoping for. And I don't know that any of us fully believed that the Arizona Cardinals would look like this at any point this season. It was you know, you hope you have certain things that are expectations, and you think there's gonna be improvement in certain areas. But even from you know, the second half against Buffalo, where the team fell flat a little bit, you kind of thought that there's still gonna be some weaknesses, some areas that this team need to continue to work on. And boy did everybody step up. And again, so many players really shined in that ballgame.
You outplayed the LA Rams, and I think, the more I think about it, you out coached the LA Rams. You check so many boxes in this game. Right, you got a division win, You got a home win, You beat LA first win at home against the Rams since twenty fourteen. You beat Sean McVeigh. You got the deep passing game going, Craig Right, you got Marvin Harrison Junior going. You were able to cram a vertical forty rushing attempts, forty burger on the scoreboard. Right, tackle was not an issue. You got to the quarterback. Seemingly everything on your to do list from week one you accomplished in week two and to your point, growing from the first to the second week. You know, it's not a surprise, especially in twenty twenty four. September is in New August, and I firmly believe that Marvin Arrison Junior was that opinion after the game. Those game reps he got against Buffalo paid off. In Week two against the Rams, Sean.
McVeigh called it a humbling three hour window forty one to ten on Sunday. What did Dennis Kardek think about what happened on Sunday?
That was kind of my message throughout the week was, Hey, guys, I've been here seven years. I think we beat them at home one time. That gave me extra motivation throughout the week to you know, it's got to be dialed in, you know, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So it did mean something to play a division opponent that's that's had your number at home, so to go out and do it was It was fun.
All week long. Jonathan Gannon downplay the division aspects. Some players were kind of split whether division games meant more or not. But postgame, Dennis Gardeck, Hey, he and Buddha Baker have been here a long time and it just got to the point where I think Paul, they just went in maybe individually, maybe there are different position rooms. Enough's enough, I mean, if we want to be a team that is a playoff team. One we have to win at home, protect home nest home turf, and then start winning some division games, which did not happen at all last season.
I just think of the confidence it gives that locker room. It shows, Look, there are wins in the NFL, and then there are wins that resonate around the NFL. That was one of those wins. But I think it actually has a big impact in the locker room. Not the Buddha Bakers and Dennis Gardex of the world, but the younger guys. There were so many first and second year guys, and those guys who have been around three and four years, they haven't enjoyed a lot of success against Rams, have not enjoyed a lot of success against the forty nine ers, even the Seahawks for that matter. So I think to a large degree that it just increases the buy in in the belief of what this team is capable of. When they put in a good practice week and they don't beat themselves, right, when they get rid of the self inflicted on game day, lookout, Well.
It was tough to match what Kyler Murray did on the football field a perfect passer, writing he was seventeen of twenty one, two hundred and sixty six yards, three touchdowns, finished with a completion percentage of better than eighty percent. Yeah, it was fun to watch. Here's the head coach, Jonathan Gannon.
I thought he was outstanding yesterday. Played extremely well at complete command, played fast. I thought the decision making was really good. And there's plays that you know to the to Ori that you would say, oh, that's kind of a routine play, right, but like what's going on from before the ball snapped to when the ball is snapped. How fast he's getting that ball to that guy is pretty special. So it just tells me that he's in lockstep with Drew and is with what we're trying to get done. And he's never sped up. He's always in control and he understands what's going on. That's the cool thing for me. The mental part of the game.
You look at the possessions that Kyler was out on the field for Kyle and it was four straight scores. Seven of the eight possessions that Kyler Murray was a part of all ending with points, whether a touchdown or field goal. Just the one three and out which Murray was sacked right before the end of the first half. But that was about as I'll say perfect of a game that I've seen Kyler Murray play wearing a Cardinals uniform.
Yeah, for a number of reasons, and you know one of them was this. This offense felt way more explosive than it did Week one. Over half of his throws were going for a first down. He was completing all of his down the field throws. And I know all of this are going to talk about his throws to Marvin Harrison Junr his amazing play extending and getting the touchdowns to Higgins in the back of the end zone. But there was throw after throw after throw that was perfect, like right on the money. Michael Wilson had one where Kyle of threw a whole shot over the linebacker and underneath the safety. There was another one that to Trey McBride right on the sideline where Trey McBride climbed the ladder, went up and got it. Was a tremendous throw. There was another to me, another really impressive throw was they punt Pennis down at the one yard line. All most offenses are trying to do is run the ball a couple of times, make room for your punter so you can hopefully flip the field and give some room for the punter to punt the ball out of there. He throws a back shoulder to Marvin Harrison Junior, where only Marvin Harrison Junior can catch it, and you know, some of those throws are just next level throws. He makes it look so routine, and we all saw what he does, extending plays, making people miss and so many times there's guys on the ground diving at his ankles that came up empty in this game, and he just makes it look so easy. But his ability to you know, by time, to keep his eyes down the field, to give his receivers an opportunity to get that separation that showed up over and over. And you know, to me, that's the most exciting thing that was the promise of Marvin Harrison Junior, was the vertical threat making this offense more of a threat down the field than we saw that in this ball game.
The play extension, and you can speak to this better than anyone else as a defensive player. The frustration that you feel where it's not just one play, but it's play after play after play. You think you have him, You don't, and he just buys extra time, not looking to move out of the pocket to scramble, but buying time for his receivers to get open.
Yeah, and look, here's what happens is as a defensive lineman, you spend your whole career finding ways to win. But when you play a quarterback like Kyler Murray, winning with one person doesn't work. It honestly can hurt your defense because there were so many times where they had a free runner, had Kyler Murray in his sights, and he does a quick move and makes a miss and he's able to do some of the things that he did. I mean, you essentially have to have at least two wins, sometimes three win to try to keep him in the pocket and get more guys and get more shots at him. And and to your point, you know that touchdown at the back of the end zone to Higgins, I mean Jared Vers missed him twice, had him dead to rights the first time, and then got up off the ground in dove and missed him a second time. So you know it's you just go back to the sidelines a defensive lineman shaking your head saying, what else do I have to do, and quite frankly, there is nothing else you can dole.
Kyler Murray joined Kurt Warner, is the only Cardinals players in franchise history to finish with a perfect passer rating a minimum of twenty attempts. So, yeah, it was fun to watch. James Connor had a front row view of what he saw out of Kyler. Did anything about that performance surprise him?
Not surprised me. But it's still awesome to watch, awesome to see, you know, just being out there with him. The player is always alive. You know, I got all the nicknames for him, Houdini, Superman, all that. He just when he's rolling like that, you know, one of the best in the game.
And then you see the screenshot and something that went viral late last night. Paul and James even brought it up Monday, that throw to Elijah Higgins, he let it go, turned his back to the play before the ball reached Higgins, who slid and made the catch. And many people are comparing it to what Steph Curry does when he launches up at three, turns his back, motions of the crowd and heads back on defense.
And what Kyler say after the game, he knew it. He knew it. Well, he illustrated that he knew it. He demonstrated by turning away because he did know it, and it did happen. Here's what else happened. I think we got the answer to three different questions. One, what happens if you add a legit wide receiver one to the Cardinals offense?
Dang?
Two what happens if you give Kyler Murray a complete offense? Because the last time we saw that well tail end of last year to a certain degree, even though it was minus wide receiver one, but it was the beginning of twenty twenty one when they started seven to oho ten and two. That's what this win reminds me a lot of Week four at the Rams, when you beat down La and route to that seven and zero start Question number three, what happens when Kyler Murray can keep a defense honest with both his legs and his mind, both his athleticism and his decision making. And what we've seen in at least six quarters so far out of the eight is a complete command of this offense, him going through his reads very quickly. Jonathan Gannon to the media. Jonathan Gannon on his TV show this week raving about Kyler's decision making, finding the second and third options, finding those guys quickly, immediately discerning and diagnosing a defense, and getting rid of the ball exactly like Drew Petsing had envisioned, and that Kyler's decision making is in lockstep with what Drew Petsen is saying on the headsets. Now Kyler can't hear him because it's turned off at that point, but those two are playing as one, the OC and the quarterback.
And then I think is a relationship that just got better this past offseason because I don't know how much they could really have talk about Kyler and Drew, how many of those conversations that they had at the end of last season, because again, middle of the season, it's about that week's opponent. But this offseason, again we talk about Kyler being healthy. Yeah, you work on the knee, but you don't have to concentrate on the knee like a year ago. But sitting down in the classroom, this is what I like, This is what we can do. Here are the pieces. Let's try to fit this together and make things like we saw on Sunday.
Yeah, and you know where that shows the most is the opening scripts right, offensive coordinators, they sit down with their quarterback and say, what plays do you like to start the game. Here's here's how we're going to move the ball. Here's things we're going to take advantage of early. See how they adjust and you look at so you know, Kyler Murray's numbers this game were off the charts, unbelievable, best of his career. You look at Kyler Murray's first quarter stats this season, He's seventeen of nineteen for two thirty nine, completing just to tick under ninety percent of his passes in the first quarter. So that shows you their preparation throughout the week. It shows you Drew Petsing understands what Kyler Murray does well. Kyler Murray understands what Drew petsy is asking him to do and has a full grasp of this offense. And you know, this is again to Paul's point. You know they're still working out some kinks, they're still figuring some things out. And if that's the case, the sky's the limit for this offense.
Think about it. The four incompletions were all very feasible. They were all to Marvin Harrison Junior. He had a perfect passer rating, and like Jonathan Gannon said, we left a lot of meat on the bone. I'll give you a quick little anecdote too. There's a run, a big chunk run from one of the first two games. Can't tell you exactly which play it was, but I can't tell you that the receivers ran the wrong route and Kyler was left out to dry and he ripped it just took off out of necessity. So just like when Carson Palmer was starting early and throwing all those interceptions and we found out later, I wasn't on Carson, that was on the receivers. There are certain things where Kyler is making up for receivers who are still learning this offense. So think about five or six games from now, when they are in sync. I want to see Kyler Murray and that offense in act. Shoun you get your chance.
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Network snapped to Murray passplay Murray with time Fyers deep middle end zone for Harrison, and Harrison made the cats man got his feet down for the touchdown. First NFL score for Marvin Harrison Junior, the first of many to come throw.
The tweaky into the toaster. Kyler Murray, Oh my goodness, right on the money to Marvin Harrison Junior.
Play action of food to the right. Murray looking downfield now loves it deep Heresidne Harrison caught it at the twenty hit the ten. Harrison dies for the end zone.
He's in touchdown, like a tear falling from your cheet baby. The ball came straight down out of the sky. Kylo again drops a dime and Marvin Harrison Junior stretches out and the pig breaks the plane. Oh that is awesome.
I'll give you something else that's awesome. The first rookie to have four or more receptions and two or more receiving touchdowns in a first quarter of a game since his dad, Marvin Harrison Senior did it in Week sixteen, nineteen ninety six. Of course that was week sixteen. Marvin Harrison Junior did it in week two. So one up the father. Yeah, hashtag mind blow on that one. I did not realize that until after we had interviewed him after the game, but we did get a little sense of you know what that had the potential to track like an an Kwon Bolden rookie performance he did in week one. Once upon a time, Marvin Harrison Junior after quarter number one was on track to do the same thing in his second game, week two of his career. And by the way, I just googled up do people actually toast twinkies? Do you ever put a Twinkie in the toaster? I mean, this is something that's plagued me for about twenty years with Wolf, and it does say yes, people do it.
End quote. It forms a crisp caramel outer shell if you toast a twinkie properly. So, whereas I thought Wolf was making that, apparently there is a lengthy track record in America of doing just that.
I have a question, like, how do you get the twinkie in the toaster? Unless it's like a fit?
All right, doesn't Here's a video, Craig, there's a walk through, there's a video what's the best way to toast a Twinkie? And there's YouTube videos so you can, on your own time you can pursue that.
It was fun watching. Hopefully there are more twinkies to toast this season. When you talk about Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Junior. By the way, that entire production from what we saw out Marvin happened in the first quarter. All four catches, one hundred and thirty yards, two touchdowns. He basically yes, he was thrown two later on, but there was no production on field production between those two the rest of the game. All right, Kyle, what from your vantage point, what was the most impressive catch that Marvin made on Sunday.
Well, that's a good question, but it's obviously the one at the back of the end zone where you know he it just showed tremendous a concentration to catch that ball, be body control, awareness to get his feet down, all of those things. I mean, it's it's what makes him special. It's his catch radius, it's his ability to catch contested balls, it's his it's his body control. All of those things were on display in one play and what an amazing play. And again, what this does is it gives him, It gives Kyler, it gives Drew Petsing this entire offense confidence down the road to just throw it to him, Just throw it up to him. He's gonna come down with it. He's gonna make amazing plays. I mean, he's that That is the type of catch that we all visioned when his name was called Draft Knight, and he is making the type of impact that we had all hoped when we picked him on Draft night. And again, as Paulie mentioned earlier, you know, it's only going to get better. The more that he works with Kyler in these live situations and the more success that they have together is just going to build their relationship. Because there was opportunities with fades in the end zone at other points in the game that they weren't able to connect, and you can expect that those will get better and better as the season goes along.
Did you see the NFL films put out a micd up segment from Baker Mayfield after Week one? There was a big touchdown bomb to Mike Evans and he came to the sideline he said, if they're going to single Mike, I'm gonna throw it. That's the mentality that you have with Marvin Harrison Junior right now. And sure enough they started the game single coverage. What Kyler say after the game, if they want to do that, we're going to make them pay. So you got to love that. That's what wide receiver one does for this offense. And then the moment they start with the clock coverage and the double coverage and all the extra attention, boom. That's where the other weapons come into play. And that's how you make them pay, you know, to Trey McBride and Michael Wilson and Greg Dortch and James Connor and then all of a sudden, guess what, you're gonna pull someone out of the box. We'll run it forty times for nearly six yards of carry.
Look, we were all impressed by what Marvin was able to do on Sunday. Was Marvin impressed by his performance?
It was solid. I think offense played a good game and you're definitely executing a run game in the past game as well. I'm not gonna lie to you. I think I saw Kyler stat line. He has forty completions all over to me, so I'm not very happy about that. We definitely get that fix, but we' con team to build on our chemistry and as the season.
Is on and that response. Not very happy about that. I think to me, Kyle, that says more about the person the player than anything else. Marvin Harrison Junior does on the football field, because we talked about it in segment one, Kyler Murray with that perfect pass writing. Marvin strives for perfection every single day, not just on game day, but every single day.
Yeah, so in GMS and scouts they do this whole pre draft evaluation. A large component is what drives this person, you know, what makes them take Is it money, is it fame, or do they want to be great? And every time you hear Marvin Harrison Junior talk, it's about him wanting to achieve greatness. And you know, any other rookie in the National Football League would be ecstatic with a performance like he had. And he's still hungry, he still wants to improve. And you know the things that drive him is one. You know, you get the sense hearing him talk that if he has you know, two or three catches, or he's only targeted five or six times in a ball game, but the Arizona Cardinals win, he's happy with that. He is the ultimate team player and he will do what it takes to help this team win and be He wants to be the best, not the best on this team, not the best in the National Football League. He wants to be the best to ever catch a ball in the National Football League. And I don't know that that's achievable, but that's what drives him. And the way that he's wired, the way that he thinks, and the way that he pushes himself and is critical of himself, that's what's going to get him. If not to that point, it may get him very close to being the best ever.
You know what's interesting is the best ever play the wide receiver position. Jerry Rice. You might remember this. Craig his rookie year was miserable. The first half of his rookie year. He was dropping balls, running the wrong routes, he was playing slow. Jerry Rice. I vividly remember the media coverage. Is he a bust? Is the NFL too big for a kid out of Mississippi Valley State? And well we know the rest of the story on Jerry Rice. So after week one, I think Marvin Harrison Junior had a great week of practice according to the coaches. Buckled down and I'll devote the name of another receiver. I know, don't do a CALVC, don't bring up Larry Fitzgerald. But there's two things that remind me of fits. And number one is the fact that he might have five catches and he's thinking after the game about the two that got away. That's very Larry esque. And then number two his completion to the sixty yarder, going for the goal line to find Jonathan Gannon and stretching out the ball. The second half of Larry's career, in particular, anytime he got anywhere near the goal line, he just went bismo. Did he not ask kJ Wright up in Seattle where he trucked the linebacker that one time to get to the end zone. If Larry was near the end zone, he was getting in. And that was the sort of resolve I saw Marvin Harrison Junior on that second touchdown.
And on that play, Marvin wasn't the original target. It was a play action, but Marvin saw the everone, all the defense suck up, and then all of a sudden he's wide open for that sixty yard catch and run. More for Marvin Harrison Junior, how he and Kyler Murray compliment one another.
His skill set and his ability. He can do everything on football field, obviously from in the pocket extended to play, and I think I do a good job of getting myself open when the play breaks down. Obviously as one of his best abilities obviously in the pocket, having everything on time. I thought, I'm a pretty good outrunner, so I can get open on time and on the schedule, and we kind of just do our thing from there.
And as Jonathan Ganner as mentioned, they practice that scramble drill. We have a quarterback who can extend plays. Guess what, go find the open space and the defense. Make yourself an option for Kyler when he's running for his life. And you mentioned, Paul, what does wide receiver one do for an offense? Well, Trey McBride targeted six times, six catches for sixty seven yards. Elijah Higgins gets a touchdown, James Connor over one hundred rushing yards. Yeah, Kyler Murray, he has a lot of weapons at his disposal.
I love all the options that we have out there across the board. You know, I feel like, you know, I'm very confident every guy out there, and it's a good feeling for me. Honestly, it's a great feeling. You know, every guy that we have out there can win one on one zone doesn't matter.
I love the group that we have.
Here's something to consider. Kyle through two weeks. Again small sample size, but two weeks Cardinals have scored the second most points in the league sixty nine. Only theme have scored more, and that is ninety one and the Saints, by the way, three straight games of forty or more points dating back to last season. But we got a taste of it in week one and I think we saw now again. Can you get forty each and every week? Probably not, but there is that potential of a forty burger weekend and week out.
Yeah, based on what we saw Sunday. You know you're gonna get that feeling if if Blake Gillikin, who's only punted three times this season through two games, if he comes out on the field, you feel like something went wrong, like somebody made a mistake, somebody missed a block. You just get the feeling that with this offensive line, with this array of weapons, like Kyler just talked about, this offense should be not only very productive, but should do some of the things that they did, scoring on almost every single drive every time they take the field. You know, it's again, you know, we talked about this with the forty nine ers of the last few years, and it's its defenses have to pick their poison because the Cardinals have so many different ways that they can beat you and so many different weapons that they can utilize in this offense based upon what a defense tries to take away. And you know, again, I love what Drew Petsing did and some of the creative things he did in this offense. And you just talked about that sixty play or sixty yard catch by Marvin Harrison Jr. That was thirteen personnel. When a decoordinator's trying to match up against thirteen personnel, they put their big d tackles, they put their big linebackers out there. You're expecting run because teams don't pass out of thirteen personnel. And that's exactly what they did. Is that you know, you're trying to get good matchups, and you do that by mixing up the personnel, mixing up the formations. And the Arizona Cardinals do a fantastic job with that.
Tip Briman talking about thirteen personnel played two more snaps than Elijah Higgins thirty eight versus thirty six. You can't throw the football even though you have multiple tight ends on the field, and we saw that a lot on Sunday pall.
By the way, I'm not buying the whole Saints thing, you know, with the leading the league scoring, because they got to open against Carol, So we're throwing that out. That's you know, that's not a sound stat I said. It was a small sample size. Cardinal's thirty one point win, by the way, the largest in the Kyler Murray era. And then the other number was the largest margin of victory by the Cardinals period since Week seventeen, twenty sixteen, when they jack stopped the Rams forty four to six, otherwise known as the final Rams game before the arrival of Sean McVay.
Overshadowed on Sunday. The defense, we'll touch on that side of the ball next here on the Arizona Cardinals Radio Network.
Straight dropback for Stafford steps up head and sacked. Had the twenty eight by Gardack.
The barbarian What is good guardack.
In trouble headed sack that dad Dennis Bardak with his second sack, dropping Stafford back near the twenty five yard line and.
A little bit of a stroke ass rush is lynch Stafford in trouble and sacked and the ball comes out and it's recovered.
By Collier, Dennis Gardak got the sack.
Pop out the Barbarian. Dennis Gardak with his third sack off the day and on the third sack, third times a charm, the pig is out.
Dennis Gardak a career high three sacks.
And not just a career high in sacks, but a career high in total tackles, solo tackles, tackles for loss, while also tying his career high for quarterback hits and forced fumbles all in a day's work. As the Cardinals, led by Dennis Gardak, on that defense shut down Matthew Stafford and the Rams on Sunday, final score forty one to ten. As we say welcome back, it is the Cardinals Red sewer Port Craig Reya Lupul Calvic and Kyle Vinenbosch. And I mentioned going into this segment Kyle that yeah, the offense certainly overshadowed what the defense was doing consistently all game one, but specifically to what Gardick was capable of doing on Sunday, what he actually did do on Sunday you were telling us before we actually hit the airwaves here as far as the ways that Dennis rushed the quarterback and was able to get past multiple blockers as far as to get to Matthew Stafford.
Yeah, to me, that was the impressive thing was we all knew that they had injuries across their offensive line. They were gonna probably struggle if they had to drop back and throw a bunch of times, which they did, but they had a plan. And you know, the first sack by Dennis Gardak, who was a blistering get off, amazing body, lean ankle flexibility, He turned and beat the tackle real quick. But then he had a running back there waiting to chip him, actually knocked him off of his feet down to a knee. And this is what I love, because not all sacks are pretty. They're not clean winds, they're not you know, just making an offensive tackle looks silly. Sometimes you've got a claw and scratch and fight. And he got up off the ground and got the sack. And then his second sack they decided to chip him at It's not a chip, but they block him at the line scrimmage with the tight end before he gets into his route. It slows down the rusher. Well, you know, you're taught as a pass rusher if anybody does that, You're you're out of time, so you've got to you have no option but to bul rush the tackle. And that's exactly what he did. Bull rush the tackle back into the quarterback, got a sax trip, you know, so he is going through multiple obstacles. It's not like in practice where you do one on ones and you line up and you just it's man versus man and if you win, you know, that is a positive rep. In practice, it's it is cloudy out there on the football field and there is multiple people at times that you have to beat, and it takes, you know, it takes a certain mentality, It takes a certain level of relentlessness to fight through all those obstacles, never give up and just keep fighting to get back into that pocket and get hits, get sacks, find ways to affect the quarterback. And that's exactly what we saw from Dennis Kardek in this ballgame. It's remarkable.
Out of those sacks, I think four to the five sacks came on third down, so they saved their best for when they needed the most, but they also got them into third nobviust passing situations, and so it was a totally different rush attack plan than the week before. You're going after Matthew Stafford A, you had the lead. B you can go after a guy who's more of a pocket quarterback, pin your ears back where you couldn't do that against Josh Allen. It was too risky that you'd create a running lane and then he would make you pay. So Cardinals came with abandon and they were also challenged. Nick Rolis told the whole defensive front, I need guys to win more one on ones, told the media as much. Jonathan Gannon I found out later said the same to the defensive front. You guys have to be better at the point of attack, and you just saw an ultra motivated front to me. And then when it came to those sack dances, it's the most entertaining part of being on the sideline because it's sort of like being at a wedding and you get one of the line dances. It's like the electric slide, Like everyone's out on the dance floor. So there's Dennis Gardak and he's looking at the sideline and he's going into this strobe and and he did the Marcus Golden shot out and the whole sideline is emulating Zavin Collins as well when he's hitting the last so the whole sideline's doing it. It's great stuff. We need like a drone wide shot of everybody interacting together.
See KVB. You missed that. When you had a sack, you just said okay, on to the next play. There was no dancing. There was no prancing or anything like that.
I wasn't out there trying to impress Paul KELVC. I was just out there doing his job.
What was impressive, though, is what the Cardinals did to the Rams, making them one dimensional. They stopped the run. Dennis Gardak said, that was key.
We knew that was what we had to do to win the game. So to go out there and execute something that we know we have to do to win the game was cool to see. We take it play by play though, you got to stop the run each time they run the ball.
Fifty three rushing yards, the lowest amount allowed since Jonathan Gannon has taken over this Arizona Cardinals team. Obviously a defensive minded head coach Nick Ralis, but considering it was the Rams and Karen Williams a year ago, better than eight yards of carry, and then he is held to just over two yards a carry on Sunday.
So when I said earlier, not only did the Cardinals outplay the Rams, they out coached him. I think the run defense deploying Buddha Baker shooting the gaps, whether it was Buddha and his instincts, whether it's Buddha by design, Nick Rolis and jg just the way they knew exactly what the Rams were about to run before they snapped the ball, and they sniffed it out. It was reminiscent of Todd Bowles back in the day where the opponent would break the huddle and Todd Bowles would be in the headset calling out the play just based on the personnel. And you have a Rams team that has lived in eleven personnel and I'm guessing the Cardinals coaches really studied Sean McVeigh in that scheme in the off season, and they came out and they fit everything. Not much, if anything, surprised the Cardinals on Sunday.
That defensive line, the first line of defense, I thought, whether it was them making the tackles or tackles behind the line and Scrimmage are taking on blockers to allow that second and third level to get that running back down to the ground to where Paul was saying earlier, Okay, now you're a third and management. Now we pin our ears back and rush the quarterback.
Yeah.
I mean, you can't overemphasize how impressive it was. Twelve tackles for a loss. They ran fifty two plays. That's almost a quarter of their plays were for negative yardage. So you're constantly behind the sticks. If you're the Rams. You look at their drives. Five of their ten drives were for less than nine yards. And I mean in a large to a large degree, it's because of those tackles for a loss. You factor in Stafford's eight incompletions, like that offense was going nowhere and it was just play after play. And again to Pauli's point, I don't know that they got to the second or third level very often because your second level, Buddha Baker was in the backfield in the blink of an eye, I mean your third level. I mean you've got to me. I mean, look, since I've been doing this, I've been a huge Buddha Baker fan. I love the way he played, I love his speed, he plays with the reckless abandon He's always just flashed at a different speed than anybody else on the field. But I don't know that I've noticed it, you know, consistently throughout a ball game as much as I have in this ballgame. For him, sometimes, you know, twelve fifteen yards off the ball, when he pulls the trigger, he's making tackles at the line of scrimmage. And he did that multiple times in that game on Sunday, and he I mean that to me. He as good as Dennis Gardat played and as big of a factor as he was. I think Buddha Baker was the MVP of the defense on Sunday.
It was.
It was really impressive seeing him on that football field.
Well, speaking of Buddha Baker, Paul you gotre able to catch up with Buddha postgame and talked about not just the defense in the first half, but making sure they followed that first half with a solid effort in the second half.
We game in the halftime, and you know, I talked to the defense and I just said, you know, we're down.
We're down. You know, no matter what the score is, we're down.
We got to come back.
We got to get the ball back to our offense.
And that was a mentality a whole.
Say, you have two of the eight tackles that Buddha had. One that opening possession, on fourth down he stops Cooper Cup short of the line of the game, and then on third and goal right before the end of the first half, he shoots the middle and gets Kyen Williams for a loss. They end up turning over on down to talking about the rams. So again you talk about tone setter. That was Buddha Baker from the onset and then the entire first half in.
Tone setter, leader, heartbeat of the defense. He saw some of the postgame pictures from the locker room. Who was leading the huddle in the locker room, It's Budda Baker. Who's talking to the guys at halftime. It's Buddha Baker. But when I look at this defense, is this defense at its best when they allow Buddha Baker to roam free to a certain degree, I don't know if that's feasible. Kyle, you in your experience, can you take a guy like Buddha Baker in year eight, six time Pro bowler, has all that football knowledge and instinct, the football iq he's played this team twice a year for how many years, Sean McVeigh, and just to have him and say, okay, Buddha, you know what, we're sound enough on all three levels of this defense. We can be an X factor. Now he factors into the scheme and he has his coverage assignments bought on those third and obvious pass situations and or short situation where you think they're gonna run the ball and they come out in a formation and a personnel group. You just allow him to go ahead, take it from there and do what he thinks. That's that to me, is where this defense takes that next step.
Yeah, it's it's absolutely feasible. I mean you look at what Troy Paul Mahlho used to do. He studied as much film as the coaches, so he was able to read routes, jump routes, play, let him play with his instincts, and they just tasked everybody else with, hey, if he jumps a route, your job is to cover him up. Like know what he's gonna do, See where he is, and your job is cover him up. And with Buddha Baker, with how smart he is, with how long he's played, with the plays he's made with particularly in these division games, and just how instinctive he is and with when he pulls the trigger, how quickly he's able to make plays. I think that's absolutely feasible.
And what is Nick rollis and Jonathan Gannon said recently that on a Monday Tuesday, they're formulating the game play and they're like, hey, Booda, what do you think about this? Booda, what do you think about that? They run a lot of the strategy through Buddha Baker to get his sense and his reaction from the player's perspective.
Buda was board last season, there was not a lot of action his way. I think whether him or the coaching staff, they've unlocked him and said, all right, to your point, using that word freedom, don't do your job, but make sure you stay within the parameters that we've set. Make a play when you think you can make a play. And I think we saw that on Sunday.
And when a quarterback breaks a huddle and he's looking for where is number three? Advantage Cardinals because now you have them thinking, you know, there's there an extra element he has to consider before the snap.
What do the Cardinals now do for an encore? Another home game coming up on Sunday, the Detroit Lions up next. We'll touch on that next here on the Arizona Cardinals radio network.
Hands it off to.
Connor running right inside the twenty five twenty far side fifteen ten and Connor finally taken down at the five.
You pull out, yelled the fro hold. He gets a kickout. Paris Johnson Junior through the whole All that is wickedy jingle good.
They go two backs with Benson and Connor.
Murray takes the shotgun snap hand off Connor running to the left, He gets the edge and he's into the end zone for the touchdowns. The Cardinals score again, thirty to three with ten.
Thirty three to go in the third.
Well, that's a little dust in the wind. You go ahead and run another gap scheme down blocks, playside kickouts. Well executed by the Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals are gashing them.
As exciting and fun as it was to watch kyle Er Murray and Marvin Harrison Junior in action on Sunday, I think Ron Wolfley was more impressed by what the Cardinals were able to do on the ground. Forty rushing attempts for two hundred and thirty one yards. That, by the way, is the fourth time of the last six games dating back to last season, that the Cardinals have rushed for better than two hundred yards in sixty minutes.
Yeah.
Let that hang in the air for a minute. Wolf likes his classic rock. I didn't realize he went dust in the wind in Kansas from the seventies. I didn't quite realize that until just hearing that again with a great Dave pass right there. You know what's interesting is Dan Campbell yesterday said to the media in Detroit about the Cardinals quote, Yeah, that ended up being a lopsided score, talking about forty one to ten taking down the Rams. But that's the nature of the way that team plays. They are tricky on both sides of the ball. They do a lot of things that are not orthodox. Can I get a reaction to that because the Cardinals just lined up and ran it forty times? Was there anything unorthodox about kram at vertical?
I mean, I think what he means is it again, it's the personnel packages, it's the blocking schemes. You're pulling guards, you're pulling centers, you're pulling tackles. I think you know, again, when you sit in a defensive room at the beginning of the week, you're like, you break it down, here's their top runs, here's their top runs in this formation. And I don't know that you know, they have similar type runs, but they're all run differently out of different formations with different motions, with different players doing different things. And I think it's just this coaching staff does a fantastic job of self scouting and breaking their own tendencies.
Two hundred and sixty six passing yards for Kyleer Murray, one hundred and twenty two rushing yards for James Connor, and yeah, special teams was a factor as well. Matt Prater another fifty yard er plus, fifty five yard plus and then yeah, the defense. Everything was working for the Cardinals on Sunday and that forty one to ten win. Speaking of James Connor, what he saw on Sunday afternoon.
It's fun. You know, that's the type of team we want to be. And you know, when we all three phases are clicking, and you know, the stadium's loud, stay farmed, you know, it's it's awesome to be part of. It's an awesome atmosphere and it's just feel good. It's let you know all the work that we put in. You know, we work. This team really works hard to everybody in that locker room that come to practice, they come to lift, they you know, they come to meetings, they do it all. So we just enjoyed the benefits of it and having fun out there.
The fun, though, didn't last much longer after Sunday night. When Jonathan Gannon walked into his Monday press conference, you couldn't tell whether the Cardinals had won by thirty one or lost by thirty one. He is so processed, driven on to the next. Here's head coach Jonathan Gannon about the next.
It doesn't matter who's coming in here. I mean, you know, Brophy could be coming in here and they're going to approach it the same way. It's that's what I mean about. We've got to be processed driven. It doesn't matter if you win or lose. What do you do today to get yourself better? And then that goes out the way out of your brain here in a couple hours, because we're still trying to improve from this game. But you know, come dinner time, you're resetting yourself for the next opponent. So I know, the coaches have already, but the players will get onto Detroit here pretty soon.
Now.
Listen, JG.
Brophy is phenomenal and we have one of the big reasons why they are so stout here in the state of Arizona. Special teams coordinator tight ends coach Kyle Vannenbosh. Yeah, you got a shout out indirectly, of course, from the head coach.
I don't know how to read that. I don't know if that was a compliment or an insult, but I guess I mentioned is always good.
I know you guys have had a tough schedule. You're three and oh despite I don't but I didn't realize you had an NFL team coming up anytime soon.
So, by the way, one other Brochy note, congratulations to your son Bastian, the reigning Arizona Cardinals High School Player of the Week, for his efforts not this pass Friday, but two Fridays ago. Five tackles, three and a half tackles for lost, three sacks, two quarterback hits, one fumble recovery. That's pretty impressive.
Yeah, I'm proud of both my boys. They're doing really well. I'm actually proud of the team. So I appreciate that shout out, thank you.
Can I get a word on Aiden Hutchinson, by the way, before we get out of here, can I please get a word on a guy who had four and a half sacks and also rang up a bunch of I mean, Todd Bowle said after the game, we tried everything, we tried to chip him that he made our day miserable. End quote Todd Bowles.
He is on a whole other level and as impressive as that game was. Watching his game against the Rams, I mean, Matthew Stafford had to get rid of that ball in less than two seconds every single time. His pass rush win rate week one was forty seven percent. The next closest was I think about twenty percent less than that. So he is pass rushing and winning at a clip like I don't know that the NFL has seen in a long time.
Eight Baker Mayfield after the game, right, and Tampa won. They went into Motown and they beat the Lions. Baker Mayfield quote, Aiden Hutchinson has no off switch? End quote. Can you compare him a little bit to maybe a Max Crosby. Is that the sort of challenge that the Cardinals are in for? It is and you know for two reasons. One it's unconventional. Like you, he goes with spins and you know, just crazy things and throws his body all over the place. He's he's difficult to block offensive lineman like to figure your out your steps and time it right time they're punch.
I don't.
You can't do that with Aiden Hutchinson. He's he's just so dynamic. And again he's like Max Crosby just because of his relentlessness. And I think that becomes pretty apparent when you watch him play.
Leads the league in sacks and quarterback hits five and a half sacks, nine quarterback hits for a Lions team that is one in one coming off a loss that you mentioned, Paul to the Buccaneers, a home loss to the Buccaneers. But you look at the numbers as far as that Detroit offense, I mean they dominated the game eighty three plays to forty seven, twenty six first downs to fourteen, four hundred and sixty three yards to two hundred and sixteen, but they were one of seven in the red zone.
Yeah, and here's the key. Jared Goff under pressure was miserable. His passer rating was thirty five point three. He threw two picks, easily could have thrown two others maybe three. Cardinals gotta get pressure on Jared Goff, just like they did on Matthew Stafford.
One twenty five is the kickoff on Sunday. That means pregame covers begins at eight thirty Here on the Arizona Cardinals Radio Network special Thanks everyone. Behind the scenes are executive producer Jim on one Hundre, associate Cody Fincher, Technical director Matt Lazareth from Kylie Vandenbosch, Paul Calvic.
I'm Craig real Lou.
We'll talk to you in one week's time, hopefully talking about another Cardinals home win, this time against the Detroit Lions. It's Cardinals Red Sea Report on the Arizona Cardinals Radio Network.
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