Cardinals' Offensive Line Rated Among Best In The League

Numbers of note following the Week 6 win over the Cowboys

Oct 21, 2020 at 09:39 AM

azcardinals.com

G Justin Pugh (left) and LT D.J. Humphries have spearheaded an impressive season by the offensive line.

The Cardinals' offensive line put on a clinic against the Cowboys, keeping Kyler Murray clean and paving big holes in the running game.

That performance was far from unique, as the position group has been arguably the most pleasant surprise on the team in 2020.

The Cardinals are third in both of ESPN’s pass-block and run-block win rates this season, the only team in the NFL top-3 in each category.

Center Mason Cole is sixth in run-block win rate among centers, and fourth in pass-block win rate. Justin Pugh is rated ninth in pass-block win rate among guards. Left tackle D.J. Humphries, meanwhile, has been the Cardinals’ top-graded player on offense each of the past two weeks, per Pro Football Focus.

Before the season began, Humphries spoke of setting a franchise-record in yards per carry for the second straight year, and the Cardinals are indeed on pace to do so, currently averaging 5.3 yards per tote.

Murray has been sacked only nine times on the year – including four in the past four games -- and his sack percentage of 4.2 is ninth-lowest in the NFL. Last season, Murray was sacked 8.1 percent of the time, which was seventh-highest in the league.

Other numbers of note following the Week 6 win over the Cowboys:

Murray had a weird statistical day against Dallas, completing only 37.5 percent of his passes while still averaging a solid 7.83 yards per attempt because of the 80- and 60-yard connections to Christian Kirk and DeAndre Hopkins. Murray actually had more passing yards on those two completions than he did on 24 completions against the Panthers in Week 4. Add in his rushing exploits, and Murray had the 10th-best QBR of the week despite the inaccuracy. He is No. 10 overall in Total QBR this season, right behind reigning MVP Lamar Jackson.

Kirk had the fastest clocked speed of any Cardinals player this season when he hit 21.21 miles per hour on his long touchdown. That lasted for all of two quarters, as running back Kenyan Drake hit 22.11 miles per hour on his 69-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth. Drake now has the third-fastest speed of any ballcarrier this season.

The Cardinals continued to excel with Budda Baker on the field. In the five games with him this year, they are allowing 16.2 points and 326.6 yards per game. In the game he missed against the Panthers, the defense gave up 31 points and 444 total yards.