The shoe plan: Arizona Cardinals' defense keeps it together despite injuries

Nick Rallis has a plan. The defensive coordinator for the Cardinals knows his players can find sustainable success like they did during Sunday’s 28-16 beatdown of the Dallas Cowboys even when their starters keep dropping like flies.

It’s all about the shoes, Rallis said.

We should let him explain:

“Yeah, if you have something built very specifically for your personnel you better have a backup plan going into the game,” Rallis said on Tuesday. “That’s always discussed. I always use the term, ‘If this guy’s shoe comes off’ because you don’t want to talk about injuries, but that happens.

“But it’s like, ‘What’s our plan if this guy’s shoe comes off?’ And so, you have a shoe plan. I’m going to start calling it ‘the shoe plan.’ You’ve got to have a shoe plan and sometimes it’s significant and sometimes it’s, ‘OK, here we go. Next guy’s in. These are the calls we want in this situation. Feel great. Let’s go. Let’s go execute with who’s in the game.’ ”

The Cowboys reached the red zone on five of their final six possessions on Sunday, but the Cardinals limited them to just one touchdown and 13 total points. One drive ended with a turnover on downs at the Arizona 4-yard line. Dallas’ last possession ended with an interception in the end zone by inside linebacker Kyzir White.

The defense did without All-Pro safety Budda Baker, who missed his second straight game while on injured reserve with a hamstring issue. The Cardinals would also go on to lose three more key players during the second half — outside linebacker Zaven Collins, inside linebacker Krys Barnes and safety Jalen Thompson.

Arizona was already playing without two of its better defensive linemen in L.J. Collier and Carlos Watkins, who are on IR with biceps injuries. The status of Collins, Barnes and Thompson will become clearer when the injury report comes out on Wednesday, but the net wave of the Cardinals’ “shoe plan” is in effect once again.

The team made a handful of roster moves on Tuesday that included signing defensive tackle Roy Lopez, a Valley native, to the active roster from the practice squad. The Cardinals also signed linebacker Davion Taylor, formerly of the Eagles, and defensive lineman Jacob Slade to the practice squad.

“The key is you do have a plan when the shoe comes off,” Rallis said, adding of his new shoe collection overall, “I feel good with the guys we have ready to go. I talk about this a lot. There’s good depth on this defense and I feel very comfortable with a lot of people stepping in to play. I’m confident.”

Despite the slew of injuries, the defensive numbers for the Cardinals (1-2) look good. Through three games, they’ve accumulated 11 sacks, tied for third-most in the league, have three interceptions, two fumble recoveries, one of which was returned for a touchdown, along with 16 tackles for loss and 23 pass breakups, which ranks second.

They figure to have their hands full this Sunday, however, when they play at the 49ers (3-0), who rank fourth in total offense (399.0 yards per game), third in rushing (162.7) and third in scoring (30.0 points per game).

Do-it-all running back Christian McCaffrey, meanwhile, happens to lead the NFL in rushing yards with 353 on 60 carries — an average of 117.7 yards per game. Rallis can load the box at times and scheme ways to try and contain McCaffrey from being a game wrecker, but that’s no easy task and neither is stopping the rest of the 49ers’ offense.

“They do a really good job overall at using their personal in multiple ways,” Rallis said. “The offense allows different guys to get touches from different spots. They did a good job of getting the guys who can really make it go their touches, but you see other guys getting touches as well. They present issues structurally because you don’t know where guys are going to be.

“You’ve got to be able to adapt at how they’re deploying it differently and you definitely got to try to not let those playmakers get going. They’ve got a lot of them.”

Considering the string of defensive injuries, Rallis has had to become adaptable as well and that means relying on new and old faces alike for some position flexibility here and there. It’s a concept Jonathan Gannon brought with him to Arizona as head coach. And it’s one of the reasons why he was so coy when asked about starting jobs on either side of the ball since Day 1.

Roles can change. Especially when injuries, err, a player goes out and loses his shoe.

Rallis mentioned that when asked about his rotation of six outside linebackers and how they, specifically, have been asked to move around and play different roles with different snap counts from week to week.

“I think we talk about being versatile, being adaptable. Personnel is a part of that.,” he said. “Now, do you structure it week to week if you need to, depending on what your shoe collection looks like? … Credit to JG, he’s changed my mind to think this way. But you need to have a structure where you can change pieces around and it doesn’t feel to the players like, ‘Man, what is this brand new defense?’ … It’s, ‘OK, it’s being pitched to me like this but conceptually I knew exactly what I’m supposed to do in my job.’ ”

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Take defensive lineman Ben Stille, who’s been elevated twice since being signed to the practice squad and has fit in neatly up front, according to Rallis.

“He is one of the smartest players I’ve ever been with,” he said. “When he’s in there, he has a great sense of what plays are coming, and when he comes off, ‘Hey, this happened. This is an issue.’ He’s very good with his communication with the coaches, what we need to do to adapt in the run game, in the pass rush, and to me he is a strong run defender.”

There’s a growing sense of pride emanating throughout the defense, even when the shoe falls off a foot.

“Execution. We’re locked in. Everybody played together,” White said after the victory over Dallas. “That is how it happens. It just gives us validation of what we already know about ourselves. In the NFL, you can lose closely, and you can win closely. We know that we are a team that can win in this league.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: It's more than 'next man up' when Cardinals' defense suffers an injury