The Arizona Cardinals have surprisingly struggled this season, but an MVP candidate emerged from the wreckage, and no it wasn’t Carson Palmer. Running back David Johnson has been unreal this year, gaining over 2,000 total yards and reaching at least 100 total yards in all 15 games. On Saturday, the Seattle Seahawks held him to just 3.4 yards per carry, but they also allowed three rushing touchdowns from inside the two-yard line and he finished with 136 total yards.
A large portion of the Cardinals running game is based on gap-style runs out of Singleback. In my tracking, 23 of the Arizona’s run plays involved him lining up seven yards behind the line of scrimmage where they either used 11 personnel with one running back, one tight end, and three wide receivers or by using 12 personnel where the they substituted tight end (85) Darren Fells in for one of the receivers.