There isn’t a significant amount of excellence among Arizona Cardinals running backs in their lengthy history, whether in Chicago, St. Louis or in Arizona where the team is in its 37th season.
It’s stunning to realize that when James Conner ran for 86 yards in Sunday’s win over the 49ers, he jumped from 14th to 11th on the franchise’s all-time rushing list, passing Edgerrin James (2,895), Elmer Angsman (2,908) and Earl Ferrell (2,950).
Totaling 2,953 yards in three-plus seasons with the Cardinals, Conner needs 47 yards to reach 3,000 and 176 yards to pass David Johnson (3,128) for 10th place.
After franchise leader Ottis Anderson (7,999) and Stump Mitchell (4,649), none of the remaining eight players in the top 10 even reached 4,000 yards during their Cardinals career.
From third to ninth, it’s Jim Otis (3,863), Johnny Roland (3,608), Charley Trippi (3,506), John David Crow (3,489), Terry Metcalf (3,375), Wayne Morris (3,375) and Ollie Matson (3,331).
All of those players are in Conner’s reach this season provided he plays all of the remaining 12 games. With 379 yards this season, he is averaging 75.8 per game. That average projects to 910 more yards and would tie Otis for third place.
As Conner goes, so go the Cardinals. In the two wins over the Rams and 49ers, he rushed for 122 and 86 yards, while the three losses totaled 171.
Trailing the 49ers 23-13 in the third quarter, he had only 14 yards on seven carries. In the final two possessions that resulted in a touchdown and field goal, Conner had 12 attempts for 72 yards and scored on a 1-yard run for a 2-point conversion.
Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing was asked Tuesday if it was intentional to start feeding Conner.
He said, “Yes and no. I think where we were in the game, time left on the clock, their timeouts, their kicker situation, certainly impacted a lot of what we did really in the entire second half. So, you always want to stick with what’s working. You feel like guys are blocking well in the run game, James is running at a high level. We still are going to mix in some passes, but certainly we’re conscious of keeping the clock running, making sure those guys are using their timeouts to put ourselves in the position we did.”
Burning San Francisco’s timeouts was surely the goal in the winning field-goal drive when he carried three times after a 10-yard run got the ball to the 23-yard line with 1:56 remaining.
However, where the ground game started to hum came in the previous possession when he carried for three yards on first down, eight on second and then after a 7-yard pass play, he went for 10 to the San Francisco 45-yard line.
Five of the next six plays were passes and Conner then gained 14 to the 2-yard line.
Asked about him getting the ball on three of the first four plays down by 10 points was because it started producing better, Petzing said, “I think so. And there are times where, hey, it goes for three, but you feel like, ‘Wow, that was close,’ or, ‘Hey, we just missed that or we had it here and it just didn’t quite hit.’
“There are other times where it goes for three and you’re like, ‘God that should have gone for negative two, like we gotta go a different direction.’ So I think it’s finding a balance there.”
Quarterback Kyler Murray acknowledged getting the feeling when Conner is also feeling it.
He said, “For me, I like to throw the ball around, so it’s a little tough (chuckled). You feel it. I’ve played with him for multiple years now, so I kind of know when it’s that time. At one point in the game, he had seven carries, and we knew we had to get him going and we stuck to it, and he ended up catching a rhythm. We kind of relied on him for the whole second half getting it going and finishing the game.
“He’s a workhorse and I think he gets stronger the more carries he gets. He’s a big dude. A big, fast physical guy (who) doesn’t really shy away from contact, and he’s very agile and can catch the ball. There’s nothing I don’t think James can do. When you get a guy like him going, it’s beneficial for the offense for sure.”
Head coach Jonathan Gannon constantly praises what Conner means to the team.
“I have full trust in James,” Gannon said Monday. “I know Drew does, the offensive staff does, and the offense does. He’s an asset that we have that not a lot of people have. He does a lot for us not just on the playing side, but the psychological, the leadership side and the lead-by-example side.
“This guy’s in there before anyone’s in there working on his legs today. That’s who he is as a person at his core. He just keeps the main thing the main thing, and he goes about his business, and he works, man. It’s comforting.”
Meanwhile, we’ll conclude this with another eye-opening number that coincides with the absence of big-time producers in the franchise’s running game:
Currently No. 15 on the all-time list and exactly 200 yards behind James is … Murray with 2,695 yards! It’s surely not a stretch to think that, with an average of 25.4 rushing yards in the final 12 games, that he, too, could reach 3,000 and possibly pass Johnson.
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