HC Steve Wilks: Arizona Cardinals “Need To Correct” Offense
Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks is not pleased with how the offense is performing.
Fresh off their first win of the season in Week 5, the Arizona Cardinals dropped to 1-5 in Week 6 after losing to the Minnesota Vikings. On its face, the loss isn’t that discouraging since the Vikings entered as double-digit favorites, yet head coach Steve Wilks sounded off after the game when talking to reporters. The main target? Arizona’s stagnant offensive unit.
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“We need to correct it,” he told ESPN after the game. “We need to find ways to get into the end zone and we need to get it corrected soon.”
While the score was respectable (27-17), one touchdown from Arizona came from their defense — Budda Baker picked up and returned a fumble to the house in the second quarter to tie the game at 10-10. From there, Josh Rosen and company didn’t find the end zone until midway through the fourth quarter when David Johnson scored from one yard out.
In total, the team put up just 269 yards on offense. After six games, they’ve yet to get over the 300-yard mark. And as I wrote about following their win last week, the team is just awful on third down. Against Minnesota, they went 0-for-10 on third down, and 0-for-2 on fourth down.
Additionally, David Johnson has yet to really get going. Some of it could be due to their offensive line but he was held under 100 yards again. That gives him zero 100-yard games on the season, and zero since November 20th, 2016, when he last eclipsed the number.
ESPN laid out Arizona’s offensive struggles with some not-so-shocking season stats:
"The Cardinals are ranked last in the league in yards, first downs, third-down conversions, third-down conversion percentage and time of possession, among other categories, while sitting second-to-last in points scored."
Unfortunately, there isn’t a switch that can be flipped or a gang of talented reserves ready to take over. They’ll need to figure this out on their own. A logical idea, which has worked for teams in the past, is a change in the play-calling department. Not necessarily taking the job away from Mike McCoy, but switching up their style.
When asked about going with more no-huddle, a package that actually resulted in their lone touchdown, Wilks didn’t shoot it down, per ESPN.
“Right now, we need to look at all options,” he told them. “We need to do to get this offense moving efficiently.”
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On the bright side, the Josh Rosen-to-Christian Kirk connection keeps growing. In Week 6, they were able to hook up on six times on seven targets for 77 yards.