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Mandatory Credit: Scott Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

How Cardinals Offense Set Historic Lows in Week 9

Originally posted on FanNation All Cardinals
By Donnie Druin | Last updated 11/5/23

ARIZONA -- Sometimes you're the hammer, and other times you're the nail.

Such is life in the NFL, but especially if you're the 2023 Arizona Cardinals, who are just 1-8 after nine weeks of play under rookie head coach Jonathan Gannon.

There's been various factors working against the Cardinals all season, though the absence of Kyler Murray is undoubtedly the biggest.

After eight weeks of Joshua Dobbs at the helm, the Cardinals (knowing Murray was on the verge of being ready) dealt Dobbs at the trade deadline and anointed Clayton Tune as the guy ahead of their Week 9 road test against the Cleveland Browns.

Tune - the team's fifth-round pick out of Houston - flashed during OTA's and training camp competing alongside Colt McCoy. However, Arizona didn't love what either passer brought to the table and acquired Dobbs as a result.

It's a daunting task for anybody to play such a talented Browns defense on the road, let alone a Day 3 pick getting their first taste of NFL action.

The results proved that to be true.

Arizona was blanked in 27-0 fashion by Cleveland, marking the first time since September of 2018 where the Cardinals were shutout.

Their 58 total yards was the lowest Arizona tallied in a game since 1955, according to CBS' broadcast.

In preseason play, Tune looked everything you expect an inexperienced NFL passer to be. Though he flashed athleticism and willingness to push the ball downfield, Tune's downfalls of staring down receivers and inconsistency in the accuracy department again rang true against Cleveland.

Tune finished completing 11 of 20 passes for 58 yards and two interceptions, while also leading the team in rushing with 28 yards. He was sacked seven times on the afternoon and lost one fumble.

DENZEL WARD PICKS OFF CLAYTON TUNE pic.twitter.com/qa5Qq9iJvt
— Arye Pulli (@AryePulli) November 5, 2023

The loss doesn't fall solely on the shoulders of Tune, however. After the game, Jonathan Gannon accepted blame for the poor showing.

"Obviously, when you get beat like that, I didn’t do a good enough job of getting the team prepared for the game. That falls solely on me. We need to do a better job. Give Cleveland credit, but you lose the takeaway battle, you lose the explosive-play battle, you get outscored by however many yards we got outscored by, you’re not going to win. That’s a good football team, but we didn’t play well enough in any phase today to win that game.”

Arizona saw multiple starting offensive linemen exit with injuries in arguably two of their best pieces in LT D.J. Humphries and RG Will Hernandez. That's on top of already missing RB James Conner and WR Michael Wilson, too.

The Cardinals possessed the ball 14 times in the loss. Out of those drives, nine were punts. Only two hit six plays, and the Cardinals never crossed the CLE 40.

At halftime, Arizona had more penalty yards (35) than offensive yards (31).

"We couldn’t run it, we couldn’t protect, we couldn’t throw it. So a lot of things need to get cleaned up," said Gannon afterwards.

Tune's QBR of 1.6 was the worst of the season, according to ESPN's Seth Walder.

Arizona was quite limited in their offense today, failing to establish the run while being forced to get the ball out early in the passing game. The return of Murray next week is looming, so perhaps the Cardinals will improve, though it will be tough to see any worse performance than we saw in Cleveland.

This article first appeared on FanNation All Cardinals and was syndicated with permission.

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