Cardinals’ Drew Petzing on late 3rd-down call vs. Titans: ‘I put our guys in a tough spot’

TEMPE — Emari Demercado’s fumble before crossing the goal line and the aftermath that followed headlined the Arizona Cardinals’ Week 5 collapse to the Titans.

The head-shaking plays didn’t stop there, though. Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing’s decision to run the ball on third-and-8 late in the fourth quarter instead of giving quarterback Kyler Murray an opportunity to put things away rounded out three big whiffs for Arizona.

The question posed to Petzing on Tuesday was simple: Why not give the franchise quarterback a chance?

“I didn’t love the call. Felt like I put our guys in a tough spot and not happy with that.”

Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing dives into the late third and eight and explains why he opted to run the ball with Michael Carter ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/9HDsNK4Aic

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“At the end of the day, any time I make a call I’m trying to go win the game, whether I’m putting the ball in Kyler’s hands or I’m putting the ball in the back’s hands and trusting the O-line,” Petzing said. “I think just based on the situation where we were in, the down and distance, I didn’t love the call. Felt like I put our guys in a tough spot and not happy with that.”

“Looking at kind of where we hit the first drive, felt like we hit that obviously on the third down on the big run earlier in the quarter and some of the things that they were doing to sell out to stop the run, felt like we could try to split one there for a big one and catch them off guard a little bit and it didn’t work,” the coordinator added.

As for Murray’s ability to check out of that play Petzing and head coach Jonathan Gannon didn’t love?

Nonexistent and not by the quarterback’s doing.

“Certain plays we only like in certain looks or certain fronts or certain coverages, so we want to give him an out because we know that there are some tougher looks,” Petzing said.

“Other plays we feel like have answers to more looks. Other times there’s motions and shifts on it where you know you don’t have as much time to operate and can’t get into different things. So, I say there’s a lot of different things that play into whether a play has a check or not.”

The root of the issue stems from not giving the seventh-year franchise QB a shot at ending things, and not having a backup plan Murray could audible into just seems lackadaisical for one of the biggest moments of the game.

Murray’s foot injury suffered midgame did put some plays on the back burner. But if he’s willing to stay in the game, Petzing needs to utilize him.

“We certainly threw the ball a number of times on third down and critical situations in the red zone but want him to be able to affect the game at every opportunity,” Petzing said. “That’s always at the forefront of my mind.

“But at the same point, I don’t want to become super predictable and every time we’re always going to drop back or do this or do that.”

Drew Petzing’s other offensive head-scratcher vs. Titans

A lack of late Murray touches weren’t the only big issue with Arizona’s offensive operation on Sunday.

After Marvin Harrison Jr. went off in the first quarter behind a season high 79 yards on three catches, the wideout went silent for the majority of the loss.

He saw just two more targets after Arizona’s first two possessions, catching one for 19 yards early in the third quarter.

For yet another game, Harrison’s biggest impact was limited to a quarter or so of action. Through five weeks, he’s seeing an 18.8% target rate (104th among qualifying pass catchers) and averaging 1.8 yards per route run (53rd).

That cannot continue to happen if the Cardinals want to turn things around before the wheels fall completely off this season.

“(There’s) a number of different things. Certain things they did in coverage, certain ways the game came up from a scheme standpoint, but I got to get him the ball,” Petzing said. “That’s certainly on my mind.”

“I think there’s maybe a couple things I could have done differently here and there and you’re always going to feel that way when you come out of a game,” he added. “I feel like he had an impact on the game. Wanted to get him the ball more there towards the end and needed to.”

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