How the 49ers stop the Cardinals’ Kyler Murray

Kyler murray and the Cardinals offense had an up and down performance in week 9 against the 49ers. In a must win game for the 49ers the defense will have to do a better job of stopping the Cardinals screens and draws.

Kyler Murray was last season’s Heisman winner and was subsequently drafted first overall by the Arizona Cardinals. Kyler dominated almost every opponent he faced in college football. However, a lot of this was due to a great coach in Lincoln Riley, great supporting cast, and facing terrible defenses. So, far in the NFL he has been challenged significantly and even though he hasn’t torched defenses with his arm and legs like he did in college he has still played solid. Kyler had the longest active streak of passes without an INT until he threw one late on against the Bucs last week.
Even though Kyler is only 5 foot 9 he has a cannon of an arm and his deep ball accuracy is amazing, which is mostly because of his great throwing mechanics. So far in the NFL Kyler hasn’t ran as much as expected but is certainly a threat whenever left unaccounted for. Unlike Lamar Jackson he the Ravens use on a lot of designed runs, most of Kyler’s rushes have come off script. So far he has averaged 5.9 attempts a game while coincidentally averaging 5.9 yards a carry.
To slow down Kyler you must force him to stay in the pocket and rely on his O-line to give him time. The best way to do this is for your defensive ends to set a hard edge, which is essentially using outside leverage to make it harder for Kyler to escape to the outside. The 49ers are arguably the best team suited for this as they use what’s called a wide-9 technique on the edge, which has the edge defenders aligning a lot wider than usual. Another thing in the 49ers favor is the speed of Nick Bosa and Dee Ford, who will shoulder most of the responsibility for chasing Kyler down if he escapes the pocket.
Something that I noticed while reviewing some his performances this season was that he very rarely stepped up in the pocket. Thus, the 49ers’ interior linemen, mainly Buckner and Armstead, should look to beat their blockers to the outside as there isn’t much worry of Kyler stepping up in the pocket. Another thing that I picked up while watching him was that he sometimes overreacts to pressure- I.e he sees ghosts. This is something Baker Mayfield also struggles with and the 49ers exploited to great effect. The best way to take advantage of this weakness is to use what our called phantom blitzes. Blitzes are defined as rushing 5 or more rushers, so technically a phantom blitz isn’t a blitz as you only send 4, but what differentiates a phantom blitz from a traditional 4 man rush is that one of the D-linemen drops back in coverage while a LB or DB blitzes. This gives the effect of a blitz as when a LB or DB rushes it’s usually a blitz. The 49ers line Fred Warner near or at the line of scrimmage regularly so he could be the one used to rush while Dee Ford or Nick Bosa drop back into coverage. Thus, I think the 49ers should use five man fronts, which I know some teams call ‘diamond fronts’, and drop one guy back in coverage. This will help confuse Kyler and his O-line and will make it easier to get one-on-ones across the board. If every one of the 49ers’ D-linemen are left one-on-one they will get home very quickly against the Cardinals weak O-line.
Something that the Cardinals have been doing this year is using a lot of quick passes from shotgun, something that isn’t a part of the Air Raid. This has been the biggest adaption Kliff Kingsbury has made from the Air Raid system that he used while coach at Texas Tech. Tom Clements, the Cardinals’ passing game coordinator, QB coach, and de facto offensive coordinator, was likely primarily brought in to initiate this change as he was the offensive coordinator for the Packers who used a lot of quick passed from shotgun as well.
A big part of Kliff’s offense at Texas Tech was screen passes, particularly tunnel screens. Tunnel screens are when the wide receiver that is split out wide breaks back toward the QB after the snap and usually a couple WR’s and/or O-linemen help to block for the WR he caught the ball. Tunnel screens are pretty much just an extension of the run game and are a good way to get the ball in your playmakers’ hands. Screens and draws are a good way to take advantage of a aggressive defensive lines, which the 49ers have. In their game a two weeks ago the Cardinals had multiple succesful draws and screens and I think stopping them holds the key for the 49ers defense.
Stopping draws and screens is a cohesive effort and the 49ers front seven will have to communicate well.