Arizona Cardinals' three-man running back attack could continue without James Conner
One of the things to watch this week with the Arizona Cardinals will be if they continue the running back-by-committee approach they used Sunday in their 26-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Much like the way the game went, the Cardinals' ground game grounded to a near halt in the second half. After quarterback Josh Dobbs, running backs Keaontay Ingram, Emari Demercado and Damien Williams and wide receiver Rondale Moore combined for 103 yards and a 4.3 yards-per-carry average in the first half, the Cardinals rushed for only 27 yards as a team in the second half.
Some of that had to do with the Rams seizing control of the game after the Cardinals led 9-6 at halftime, forcing the Cardinals to throw the ball to try to get back into it.
In the end, Dobbs gained the most yards with 47, Ingram had the most carries with 10, Williams averaged 4.5 yards per carry on eight attempts and Demercado led the running backs in snaps with 33, but only had two carries for 11 yards.
That said something about his ability in pass protection.
"I thought they did a good job. I thought all three of them made some plays in there. They ran hard. They were good in pass pro," Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said. "What we're asking them to do was a little bit different this week. I thought they did well."
With top running back James Conner on injured reserve for at least a few more weeks, one of the storylines of Sunday was who would step in for Conner. Gannon never made it clear if there was any one person, and that was exactly how it played out with the many different ball carriers.
Ingram had a 12-yard run that had to feel good given the several negative-yardage losses he's had this season. Williams, up from the practice squad, looked confident and has the experience in the NFL to help him, and Demercado, who scored his first NFL touchdown while taking over for Conner in Week 5, has shown he can play well.
"We had a plan with number of snaps and certain plays and certain personnel groupings and down and distance predicated into that," Gannon said. "I don't know what the exact numbers were, but I liked how (Cardinals running backs coach) Autry (Denson) rotated them in there. Kind of what we said we wanted to do we got done, especially in the flow of the game, how the game went."
Read more: Cardinals can't move ball vs. Rams without James Conner
Ingram started the Rams game and got the most touches with 12. The Cardinals also have Tony Jones Jr. at running back, who is on the active roster but was inactive for Sunday's game.
Now to see how the three, four, or any combination thereof are used going forward, going up against the Seattle Seahawks and the NFL's fifth-best defense against the run at only 79.2 yards per game allowed.
"Emari played a lot, I liked where the snap counts were. He didn't get quite as many touches as I thought coming out of the game," Gannon told Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Monday. "I liked what all three of those guys did. When we put the plan together against Seattle it'll be a little bit different I'm sure, but I like where all those guys' roles are and what they did in the game. It was good to see 'D-Will (Williams) and Keaontay run it a little bit and I feel good about all three of those guys."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will the Arizona Cardinals continue how they are using running backs?
