Mike LaFleur Calls Out Cardinals' Biggest Problem

ARIZONA — If you're an Arizona Cardinals fan watching football through the first three weeks of the season and noticed a lack of big plays, your eyes aren't deceiving you.

The Cardinals entered Week 3 ranking second-to-last in explosive play rate, which measures how often an offense generates a gain of 20 or more yards on a singular play. Sharp Stats has Arizona at an explosive play rate of just 1.7%, barely above the No. 32-ranked New York Giants at 1.6%.

That rate will drop even more after the Cardinals ran 80+ plays in San Francisco with their longest gain sitting at just 19 yards.

You often hear NFL coaches preach the importance of winning stats such as explosives and turnovers. Arizona, with Monday Night Football pending, are tied for fourth in the NFL's turnover differential at +3.

The conversation, in terms of winning stats, then turns to explosive plays — something Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur wasn't shy about addressing.

Mike LaFleur Dives Into Explosive Play Failures

Arizona Cardinals HC Mike LaFleur — Sep 13, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; Arizona Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur on the field prior to a game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

"It takes all 11. And I thought our receivers blocked really well. I thought they were getting connected, but sometimes maybe just not feet in the ground well enough at times. There's little details across the board, but again, you don't force those long runs. They just kind of naturally pop," said LaFleur on Monday.

Arizona's longest rush has been just 18 yards. LaFleur said you can't force big plays to pop in the rushing attack, though he called the Cardinals' struggles a "real thing" in the pass game:

"And then in the pass game, it's a real thing right now. We're three weeks in and we haven't been extremely explosive. I know this: when you're trying to play good offensive football in this league, and you're having to kind of do it through drives, drive in and drive out, it's tough. I actually give our guys credit for I'd say the good part of 10 out of the 12 quarters this year, they've done a pretty good job of staying efficient. But man at some point we got to get a little bit more explosive. Again, you can't force that, but I do think there's been opportunities within little details ... So a lot to clean up there, but certainly something we're searching for."

Quarterback Jacoby Brissett's average intended air yards per pass of 6.4 ranks fourth-last in the NFL according to Next Gen Stats. His average time to throw is 2.62 seconds through three weeks of football, which also ranks in the bottom ten for NFL quarterbacks.

Simply put, the Cardinals aren't pushing the ball downfield and Brissett's getting the ball out quicker than most quarterbacks. For what it's worth, the Cardinals' pass-block win rate of 22% ranks second to last in ESPN's advanced metrics.

LaFleur said Brissett isn't solely to blame for Arizona's inability to generate big plays, at least in the passing game.

"It's all encompassing. ... The explosive play is the right call at the right time with the right protection, with the receivers getting from point A to point B as fast as humanly possible. Quarterback going through his progression, reading with his feet, and if it's not there, because the defense dictated it, check it down, you know. So it's all encompassing," he said.

It's not all doom and gloom for the Cardinals, as the film (according to LaFleur) shows receivers are getting where they need to be.

"I like where our guys were getting. I like the spots they were getting [to]. When you watch the All-22, I like the distribution we were getting. It's easy just to say, 'Hey, that's not what we're doing well right now. So don't do that.' No, that's the easy way out," he continued.

"We need to be all-encompassing. We need to marry the run with the pass. We need to be under center. We need to be doing all that stuff, not just because we're hard-headed, because I do believe when we get to the spot we want to on offense, that's what's going to make us as good as we can be."

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