KC Chiefs vs Cardinals: Analyzing Arizona's Football Tendencies

By Bewsaf Updated Nov 18, 2010, 10:15am CST

The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Arizona Cardinals at Arrowhead this Sunday. Both teams have a losing streak they would like to end: A 2 game losing streak for KC and a 4 game down turn for Arizona.

Charlie Weis is now on the clock to try and get the Chiefs back on track after seeing lower rushing outputs in the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos games.

Every team in the NFL has strengths and weaknesses, tendencies, and go-to guys. They have plays they like to call during tight situations or directions they like to run when in the middle of the football field.

Let's check out those tendencies.

Please refer to the Bewsaf Past Posts bar at the bottom of this article for any inquiries into other articles written this week.

Cardinals Rushing Offense

Left End

Left Tackle

Left Guard

Up the Middle

Right Guard

Right Tackle

Right End

Plays: 23

Plays: 37

Plays: 8

Plays: 50

Plays: 6

Plays: 33

Plays: 19

NFL Rank: 24

NFL Rank: 10

NFL Rank: 31

NFL Rank: 21

NFL Rank: 32

NFL Rank: 13

NFL Rank: 23

Avg Gain: 5.30

Avg Gain: 2.27

Avg Gain: 5.63

Avg Gain: 2.20

Avg Gain: 4.67

Avg Gain: 4.24

Avg Gain: 8.21

NFL Rank: 12

NFL Rank: 31

NFL Rank: 5

NFL Rank: 32

NFL Rank: 8

NFL Rank: 14

NFL Rank: 2

Cardinals Rushing Notes:

The Arizona Cardinals are dead last in number of rushing attempts (not shown in graph). That means the Chiefs will be looking to stop the Cardinal passing game first. Last week, against the Broncos, the Chiefs had a hard time stopping Denver's running game despite any previous problems the Broncos had. Look for the Chiefs to solve the running problem.
Being last in the NFL in rushing attempts means you don't run the ball to well. If Arizona has any running tendencies it would be off the left and right tackle: They rank 10th and 13th in attempts, respectively.
As a relative tendency, the Cardinals have rushed at the center 50 times. Since opponents have rushed at KC 147 times...expect the Cardinals to test the middle.

Cardinals Rushing Yards Per Team vs Defensive Rushing Rank

Week	Team	D.Rank	yds
1	Saint Louis	6th	112
2.	Atlanta	7th	118
3.	Oakland	24th	119
4	San Diego	4th	47
5.	Bye	---	---
6	New Orleans	17th	41
7.	Seattle	14th	113
8.	Tampa Bay	31st	100
9.	Minnesota	9th	53
10.	Seattle	14th	41

The last time the Cardinals passed for 100 yards is two games ago against Tampa Bay.
To give a comparison between the Cardinal rushing attack and the Chiefs. KC rushed for 112 yards against Oakland and 109 yards against San Diego.

Cardinals Passing Offense

LEFT DEEP	MIDDLE DEEP	RIGHT DEEP
Plays: 32 Avg Gain: 7.8 NFL Rank: 2nd	Plays: 10 Avg Gain: 13.3 NFL Rank: 29th	Plays: 27 Avg Gain: 11.7 NFL Rank: 7th
LEFT SHORT	MIDDLE SHORT	RIGHT SHORT
Plays: 88 Avg Gain: 4.9 NFL Rank: 14th	Plays: 36 Avg Gain: 5.6 NFL Rank: 30th	Plays: 110 Avg Gain: 5.2 NFL Rank: 11th
	Cardinals Passing Zone Frequency Chart

Cardinals Passing Notes:

Arizona likes to throw the ball to the left and right, not much down the middle. That tells me they don't have a top flight tight end.
When they throw it short left and right...they appear to not get a lot of catch-and-run. The Cardinals average 4.9 and 5.2 going short left and short right, that's ranked 31st and 25th in the NFL, respectively. That means they either like a lot of comeback or short out routes or their slants and drag routes aren't getting much production.
The Cardinals do like to throw the ball deep. They are ranked 2nd when throwing deep left and 7th when throwing deep right.

Above is the new passing game comparison chart. The top chart is where the offense likes to go with the ball (by attempts) and the bottom chart is the Chiefs defensive rank in how many yards per catch are surrendered. Let me know if this new chart is useful.
According to the chart, looks like the big match-up is going to be the Cardinals tendency to want to pass deep right (ranked 7th in attempts) and the Chiefs stingy defense when teams go deep right (ranked 6th in average yards per reception).
The Cardinals haven't like throwing the ball down the deep middle of the field. But after watching the Broncos game against the Chiefs...they might reconsider. Hear is hoping that KC gets at least one of the two safeties back from injury.

Other Interesting Stats:

	Efficiency
Red	10%	20%	30%	40%	50%	60%	70%	80%	90%	00%
Zone					55%

	Efficiency
Goal	10%	20%	30%	40%	50%	60%	70%	80%	90%	00%
to G							75%

	Efficiency
3rd	10%	20%	30%	40%	50%	60%	70%	80%	90%	00%
Down		29%

Stats Observations:

Arizona is around the NFL average in red zone scoring (average 51%).
When it comes to scoring when it is goal-to-go, look for the Cardinals to get the score. They get the ball into the end zone 75% of the time. The NFL average is 68% so far this year.
Currently the Cardinals are below the NFL average (NFL 38%) in 3rd down conversions.

			No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
RECEIVING	1.	Fitzgerald, Larry	49	601	12.3	33	4
	2.	Breaston, Steve	29	456	15.7	37	1
	3.	Doucet, Early	15	182	12.1	36	1
	4.	Patrick, Ben	12	99	8.3	21	0
	5.	Roberts, Andre	6	96	16.0	30	1
	6.	Hightower, Tim	11	87	7.9	20	0
	7.	Stephens-Howling, LaRod	11	85	7.7	13	0
	8.	Williams, Stephen	7	75	10.7	17	0
	9.	Komar, Max	6	60	10.0	20	0
	10.	Dray, Jim	2	41	20.5	24	0
	11.	Wright, Jason	4	27	6.8	9	0
	12.	Wells, Chris	3	25	8.3	14	0
	13.	Spach, Stephen	5	24	4.8	14	0
	14.	Johnson, Jerome	0	0	0.0	0	0
	14.	Maui'a, Reagan	0	0	0.0	0	0
		Total	160	1858	11.6	37	7
		Opponents	210	2563	12.2	70	14