ARIZONA — With the game on the line, the Arizona Cardinals‘ heftiest offseason investment was nowhere to be found.
The Cardinals’ 36-24 loss to the New York Giants came down to the wire, with Jacoby Brissett and the team’s offense being stonewalled near the goal line in the final moments of Week 4 action at MetLife Stadium.
The Cardinals, down 30-24, had first-and-goal at the Giants’ four-yard line with 22 seconds left and one timeout. Rookie running back Jeremiyah Love — previously rushing for 63 yards on 14 carries (4.5 YPC) — was on the sidelines as Arizona opted for veteran running back Tyler Allgeier, who was on the field while Brissett threw three consecutive incompletions before a game-sealing pick-six.
There’ve been several talks of the town, but Love’s absence on the biggest string of plays dominated social media following the game. Perhaps rightly so, as one of the Cardinals’ more dynamic players was sidelined in crunch time.
This is what LaFleur had to say postgame:
“Well, we’re just in our two-minute situation right there, so in our pass emphasis, it’s obviously Tyler (Allgeier) being kind of that ‘third-down back,’ if you will. So they’re heating us up pretty good. From that standpoint, it’s more his role. Jeremiyah can obviously be out there and do it, but you want to segment, I guess you could say, a little bit. It wasn’t like we were going to be using our back in the pass game, if you will. So it’s more of a protection emphasis.”
Arizona’s first play was a play-action pass that fell incomplete to Michael Wilson. LaFleur says the Cardinals’ second play was initially a run before it was checked to a pass, which also fell incomplete to Wilson.
“Yeah, the second-down one was a run play. We just had a run alert with it because they went all out. So we could have ran it, but literally they would have gone all out, so it would have been a situation where you’d be praying that it worked, not just running it to run it,” LaFleur said.
“That was the thought process on the second down. Again, you thought they probably would all out it, so we had the kind of the out route to Mike (wide receiver Michael Wilson) there that we feel good about.”
A third-down incompletion to Trey McBride was followed by Brissett’s third interception of the day, which was returned for a touchdown as time expired.
Arizona’s performance in the red zone had been an underlying narrative around the Cardinals to start the season, as the offense has settled for field goals too much for their liking as opposed to punching it in for six.
Most believe Love’s ability as a pass-catcher would have been beneficial to have on Arizona’s final drive, as he’s a better route-runner than Allgeier and could get open easier if the Giants indeed were wanting to send pressure like they were.
Was Love hurt?
The rookie running back was spotted getting his ankle worked on during the game. It’s noteworthy Love missed multiple weeks of the preseason with a high ankle sprain while he went down during the open portion of practice last week.
“I’ll have to see. I haven’t talked to him yet in terms of that, but I know that they just kept saying he’ll be up. So, we’ll look at it a little bit more tomorrow, obviously,” LaFleur said.
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