LOL everyone talks about how good their Offense is and the Rams outscored them? 20.2 to 19.4 I know they had some backups but the Rams had backups all season long.
Yep, that number is right. The Rams managed to score more points despite having backup QB's in there for a full season.
Being local i see most of the Cardinals games and when i say their defense often carried them to 11 wins i'm not bullshitting. They were ranked 4th best in Net team giveaway points off turnovers(behind Seattle, Green Bay and New England). That's outstanding. Their offense didn't turn it over much(17 times...4th best) and when they did make mistakes, their defense didn't allow it to turn into points very often. I don't know the numbers but Bowles' red zone defense was particularly good. He should be missed as DC in AZ.
But...despite Todd Bowles excellent schemes and being short-handed personnel-wise...I said all year last season that i don't think teams game planned very well offensively vs AZ all season, but that's just my opinion. I think teams gave up on the run too often vs AZ. I saw that almost every week, and they could be run on. The numbers sort of bear that out too.
AZ ranked 8th fewest in terms of opponents rushing attempts(24.8 attempts/gm) and among those other seven teams who faced even fewer rushing attempts....the Cardinals gave up 4.4 yards/carry. The most among those teams.
Them there was this bizarre habit of teams apparently not scouting Bowles' weekly 3rd down bring 8 and 9 guys on the blitz(I think it's called a Cover zero blitz). Lol teams just couldn't hit the hot read against it all year. It was pathetic. Lol.