On to the next ones: A look at the Cardinals’ 2020 opponents

May 7, 2020, 5:49 PM | Updated: 5:57 pm

(Getty Images)

With the NFL schedule officially released, the Arizona Cardinals can take a look at what the season projects to be like.

With a 5-10-1 record under Kliff Kingsbury in his first year as a head coach, the Cardinals are looking to build off Year 1 improvements.

Standing in their way is the usual NFC West teams, a brutal back-half of the schedule, and a Monday Night matchup with the Dallas Cowboys.

Here’s a look at the Cardinals’ 2020 opponents:

PLAYOFFS?!

The Cardinals will play seven of their 16 games (43.75%) against 2019 playoff teams.

Five of the 12 playoffs teams are set to take on the Cardinals in 2020, two of which came out of the NFC West. The 49ers secured the No. 1 seed in the NFC, while the Seahawks earned a Wild Card berth.

With an added Wild Card seed this season, Arizona has a chance to get in.

The league apparently thinks so, too. The Cardinals have a primetime game against the Seahawks on Week 11 Thursday Night Football, and the Week 16 game against the 49ers could be flexed to Saturday.

If all goes according to how Cardinals fans dream, those two games could be telling in an NFC race.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN

There will be not one, not two, but four new coaching hires on the docket, three of which come from the same division. The Carolina Panthers, Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants all made the switch this offseason.

Of the four, only the Cowboys had a .500 record, as the group finished with a combined 20-44 record in 2019.

The Redskins and Panthers will have relatively minimal time to adjust to their new respective coaches before they meet the Cardinals, as Arizona will play Washington in Week 2 and Carolina in Week 4.

Arizona then gets the Cowboys for a Monday Night Football matchup in Week 6. The Cardinals don’t play the Giants until Week 14.

TALE OF TWO HALVES

Seven teams the Cardinals face next season finished with a .500 record or lower. Six finished above .500, including all three NFC West foes.

The schedule is largely split in half: The first half of the season is predominantly teams at .500 or lower. The second half is almost exclusively teams above.

Over the first eight games of the season, the only two teams Arizona will play against who had a record better than .500 in 2019 are the 49ers and Seahawks. The Cowboys were at .500. The others — Redskins, Lions, Panthers, Jets, Dolphins — were all below.

It will be important to play well over that half of the season, because it gets rough afterward. After Week 9 against the Dolphins, Arizona will only have one more game against a team that finished below .500 in 2019.

In order: Bills, Seahawks, Patriots, Rams, Giants, Eagles, 49ers, Rams. Of those, only the Giants won fewer than nine games.

RUN THE ROCK

While more and more teams look to the air, a gritty ground game still pays dividends in the NFL.

Seven Cardinals opponents for 2020 (SF, SEA, BUF, PHI, NYG, DAL, CAR) finished the regular season among the top 14 in the NFL for rushing with at least 1,819 yards on the ground. San Francisco led the pack of 2020 opponents, putting up 2,305 yards and 23 touchdowns. Only three teams (NYJ, DET, WSH) had less than 10 rushing touchdowns.

The Cardinals found themselves right in the mix, finishing the season with the 10th-best rushing attack in terms of yards per game.

Just five of the 13 teams (DAL, CAR, NE, LAR, DET) on the Cardinals’ schedule were in the top 10 for passing in 2019.

That could bode relatively well. The Cardinals pass defense allowed the second-most yards and second-most touchdowns last season.

The rush defense was poor too, with the ninth-most yards allowed, but — and perhaps because of the porous passing defense – allowed just nine rushing touchdowns, sixth-best in the league.

EASTBOUND AND DOWN

The Cardinals will face off against both the AFC and NFC East, with the Lions (NFC North) and Carolina (NFC South) sprinkled in the mix. As a division, the AFC East finished the season 34-30, third in the NFL, while the NFC East posted a 24-40 record.

It’s a new year of football, but the old foes remain for Arizona.

The NFC West led the NFL with a 38-25-1 record this year, as the 49ers and Seahawks finished the season at 13-3 and 11-5, respectively.

HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE

When looking at the home and away win-loss totals, the Cardinals’ 2020 opponents fared much better at home, combining for a 35-27 record. On the road, it was a different story, as the teams went 33-30-1.

Array

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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo hopes to rebound from a Super Bowl loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and faces the Cardinals in Weeks 1 and 16. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2020, file photo, Washington Redskins new head coach Ron Rivera holds up a helmet during a news conference at the team's NFL football training facility in Ashburn, Va. The NFL Draft is April 23-25. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia takes the field prior to an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2020, file photo, Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule speaks during a press conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis The 2020 NFL Draft is April 23-25.(AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2019, file photo, New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold (14) throws a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y. Darnold was mostly pleased with how he finished last year with the New York Jets. The young quarterback enters his third NFL season knowing he needs to be even better. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2020, file photo, Dallas Cowboys NFL football head coach Mike McCarthy is introduced during a press conference at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas. The NFL Draft is April 23-25. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade, File)

Quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks fell to Arizona on Dec. 22, 2019, in arguably the Cardinals' best win of 2019. Seattle can exact revenge in Weeks 7 and 11. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

The Cardinals' 2018 first-round pick, Josh Rosen, again looks to have lost a chance to start with the Dolphins, who visit Arizona in Week 9, drafting Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa this offseason. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019 file photo, Buffalo Bills cornerback Kevin Johnson (29) defends a pass to New York Jets wide receiver Robby Anderson (11) during the first half of an NFL football game in Orchard Park, N.Y. The Browns found their nickel back, agreeing to terms on a one-year contract with free agent cornerback Kevin Johnson, Thursday, March 19, 2020.(AP Photo/David Dermer, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2020, file photo, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick takes notes on the sideline in the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Tennessee Titans in Foxborough, Mass. The NFL Draft is April 23-25, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2019, file photo, Los Angeles Rams' Sean McVay looks up at the scoreboard during the first half of a preseason NFL football game against the Houston Texans in Houston. A year ago at this time, the Los Angeles Rams were fresh off a Super Bowl trip and back-to-back NFC West titles. Now they seem to be looking up at the competition in the NFL's toughest division. (AP Photo/Kevin M. Cox, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2020, file photo, Joe Judge, the new coach of the New York Giants NFL football team, speaks during a news conference in East Rutherford, N.J. The 38-year-old rose to the top quickly by being prepared. It is how he is approaching this time of isolation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It's something no other coach has gone through, so Judge does not see himself at a disadvantage in starting to rebuild a team that has won 12 games in three seasons. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2020, file photo, Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts runs a drill at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis. Hurts was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round of the NFL football draft Friday, April 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

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