Arizona Cardinals snap counts in playoff loss

The Arizona Cardinals are done with their season. They lost to the Panthers on Saturday. Let's look one last time at the snap counts for that game.

One thing you will note is the Cardinals only had 47 offensive snaps. That is horrible. Equally horrible are the 80 defensive snaps the Cardinals players had to be on the field for. That is a combination of playing poorly defensively and being tired because the offense was so poor.

Offense

The offensive line played all 47 snaps. Jared Veldheer, Ted Larsen, Lyle Sendlein, Paul Fanaika and Bobby Massie all played the entire game. No other lineman came in on offense.

Quarterback: Ryan Lindley, 46; Logan Thomas, 1

People wanted to see more Thomas. It woudl have been nice to see a few more plays, but the game was lost anyway. Why potentially destroy a young promising player who isn't ready?

Running back: Kerwynn Williams, 17; Robert Hughes, 16; Stepfan Taylor, 13; Marion Grice, 3

Grice managed to get a touchdown in three snaps. You can see the Cardinals decided to go with more of a passing game, as Hughes is considered to be the best pass blocker. He comes in to pass block in some one-back sets. Arizona only ran the ball 15 times.

Receivers: Michael Floyd, 43; Larry Fitzgerald, 42; John Brown 37; Ted Ginn, 4; Jaron Brown, 2

Jaron only played the two before he hurt his shoulder, but you can tell they went a lot with three receivers. That was the result of being behind in the second half.

Tight ends: John Carlson, 24; Darren Fells, 23; Rob Housler, 11

Again, based on the previous weeks' trends, you can see how the Cardinals went with a lot of three-wide formations. Carlson still is the one to play most in the three-wide passing situations.

Defense:

There were far too many defensive snaps -- 80. Larry Foote was the only player to be on the field for every single one.

Defensive backs: Rashad Johnson, 79; Antonio Cromartie, 77; Patrick Peterson, 73; Tony Jefferson, 47; Jerraud Powers, 31; Deone Bucannon, 24; Tyrann Mathieu 22; Justin Bethel, 5

It is interesting to see Peterson get a few less than all the snaps. I know there were at least a couple of plays in goalline in which they only had two DBs, one being Bucannon as a linebacker. Because of how the game went, I didn't chart the game completely for formations -- was too depressed watching the game. But you can see they ran much less nickel/dime than they do many games because Bucannon and Mathieu played much less, while Jefferson got more time.

Linebackers: Larry Foot, 80; Alex Okafor, 72; Sam Acho, 49; Matt Shaughnessy, 22; Kevin Minter, 19; Marcus Benard, 12

The biggest thing is Acho playing a lot. The defense played a lot of 4-3. Acho was the guy they used as the other 4-3 outside backer. Okafor would be on one side and Acho on the other. I would have to look back, but it might have been the most he played all season. You can see how the staff felt about Acho in coverage. It is one of his strengths.

Defensive linemen: Calais Campbell, 77; Frostee Rucker, 65; Tommy Kelly, 58; Dan Williams, 45; Josh Mauro, 23

The high snap number for all these guys again is explained by the use of the 4-3 sets. Plus, there were far too many snaps to begin with.