Poor coaching has held Josh Rosen and Arizona Cardinals offence back

Jay Asser 00:15 20/10/2018
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  • Josh Rosen hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in his rookie season, but he and the Arizona Cardinals offence as a whole have been let down by uninspired coaching.

    Arizona’s offensive struggles continued in the 45-10 shellacking at the hands of the Denver Broncos on Thursday, in which the Cardinals became the first team since the 2005 Houston Texans to fail to top 270 total yards in seven straight games.

    Rosen also became the first rookie quarterback in NFL history to throw two pick-sixes in the first quarter, while finishing with five turnovers in total (three interceptions and two fumbles).

    Needless to say, Arizona are in desperate need of a change, which is why Mike McCoy was fired as the offensive coordinator on Friday.

    While it’s fair lay some of the blame on the Cardinals players for failing to execute on the field, the coaching staff deserves much of the criticism for not putting them in much of a position to succeed.

    For one, Arizona were fine with Rosen taking a beating by asking him to drop back over and over again despite trailing by 35 points near the end.

    He’s also being asked to direct a passing game that isn’t taking advantage of one of its best weapons, with running back David Johnson almost strictly being used as a between-the-tackles runner.

    Johnson, who had 80 receptions on 120 targets for 879 yards in 2016, has been thrown to just 30 times through seven games and has barely been lined up outside of the backfield.

    Using Johnson more creatively could open up the rest of the offence and allow them to move the ball better, while taking pressure off Rosen.

    That should be the focus of new offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, who has been promoted from quarterbacks coach after playing nine seasons in the NFL as a quarterback himself.

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