The Arizona Cardinals team visiting the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday is lighter at wide receiver than the one Los Angeles swept last season. Arizona traded Marvin Harrison Jr. to Houston during Week 5, and rookie running back Jeremiyah Love is ruled out with an ankle injury.
What’s left is a 1-4 team sliding in the power rankings and searching for an identity. Here are four things Rams fans should know before the 4:05 p.m. ET kickoff in Inglewood.
Harrison trade puts the focus on man coverage
Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
With Harrison gone, Mike LaFleur wants his receivers hunting one-on-ones. “You dream of man coverage. You can’t wait for man coverage,” LaFleur told the Cardinals team website. “It’s me versus you, I don’t care who you are or what the name is on the back of your jersey, I am going to beat you.”
The Giants played man 56% of the time in Week 4 and the Lions 51% in Week 5, and neither Trey McBride nor Michael Wilson is averaging six yards per target, as we covered when LaFleur talked man coverage. McBride is ready for the attention. “I expect them to double me,” he said.
Arizona’s big-play drought
Arizona had five plays of 20-plus yards through four games, a number Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon called “easily the worst mark in the NFL,” which dragged LaFleur to a C+ quarter-season grade. Harrison’s exit doesn’t add speed to an offense that ranks dead last in big plays.
Love’s absence takes away another option. Tyler Allgeier starts, and LaFleur said of Love’s ankle, “When he puts his left foot in the ground, it’s just not right right now,” per the team website.
Defense giving up 30-plus every week
Arizona ranks last in the league at 32.4 points allowed per game, per Pro Football Reference, and has allowed at least 30 in four straight losses. LaFleur still kept Nick Rallis in charge of the defense after the 45-21 loss to Detroit.
Fans noticed. Some Cardinals fans have gone as far as taking their frustration to billboards, and a trip to face the league’s top-yardage offense is a rough spot to turn it around.
Budda Baker is the pass rush
Arizona’s sack leader is a safety. Budda Baker has 2.5 of the team’s 11 sacks and 36 tackles, per his Pro Football Reference page, and he’s the only Cardinal with more than one sack.
That tells you how little heat the front generates. Arizona pressures the quarterback on 30.3% of dropbacks, the second-lowest rate in the league, per Rams On SI. Matthew Stafford should have time, even with David Quessenberry filling in at left tackle.
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