Anatomy of Chase Edmond’s Three TD Runs

First TD: 20 Yards to the Left:

(1) Cards are in Shotgun with just Edmunds in backfield to the right of Kyler Murray
(2) TE in-line on left; 2 WRs split out right
(3) Looks like Giants are in “standard” 3-4 with Oshane Ximines on the strong side with his hand in the dirt
(4) Cardinals WR Damiere Byrd comes in motion left to right and at the snap Murray gives Edmunds the ball on an inside hand-off to the left;
(5) Both Guards and Center pull left;
(6) I suppose the “good news” is that neither DeAndre Baker nor Grant Haley were fooled on the play and moved up toward the LOS on the left;
(7) The “bad news” is that both of our CBs went too wide and thus DeAndre Baker was easily washed out toward the sideline by the pulling guard Justin Pugh and Grant Haley by the pulling Center A.Q. Shipley.
(8) Of the two, maybe Grant Haley gets a little more blame because maybe he should have spaced himself a little more to the inside from Baker
(9) Oshane Ximnes did not help matters as he attacked the TE’s inside shoulder thus ceiling himself inside and allowing Edmunds a soft corner
(10) But from what I can tell the ugliest Giant on this play was #72 Olsen Pierre who was lined up in a 3-point stance inside the X-man and between the left tackle (D.J. Humphries) and the left guard (Pugh);
(11) At the snap, Humphries blocked down on Pierre, sealing him to the inside and shoving him 2 / 3 yards downfield;
(12) And that was the coup de grace since a backward skating Pierre shielded off Jabril Peppers to the inside as well. Only Peppers had a legitimate shot IMO of stopping that run.
(13) But ya gotta tip your hat to the Cards… they created the same tremendous slot that the Giants executed for Tiki Barber dozens of times way back when.

Second TD: 20 Yards up the Middle

(1) Cards have 5-man line with their TE #85 Charles Clay lined up in the backfield to the right (and in front) of Kyler Murray, who’s in a shotgun with Edmunds directly behind him
(2) Cards have two receivers to the right and one to the left
(3) Giants have two down linemen and two outside LBs standing up at the LOS; in all 8 defenders in the box
(4) The first devastating move is when their Center A.Q. Shipley side-steps to the left and squeezes past Dexter Lawrence in order to get to the second level
(5) Also, the TE out of the backfield gets to the second level where he obliterates #47 Alec Ogletree while Shipley screens then pushes to the ground Jabril Peppers
(6) And then the coup de grace as #41 Antoine Bethea falls off a leg tackle opening the field for a walk-in TD;
(7) I suppose credit is due to Kyler Murray who may have freezed the defense by standing completely still with the ball before a reverse pivot hand-off draw
(8) Not sure but maybe the Giants were in the perfect defense for the Cards to run this play since the entire right middle of the Giants LOS opened up like the red sea, allowing first Shipley and Clay to run unimpeded to the second level and then for Edmunds to simply follow them
(9) Dexter Lawrence certainly didn’t help matters by charging to his right thus creating a HUMONGOUS hole between him and Lorenzo Carter who looked like he had outside contain;


Third TD: 22 Yards to the Left

(1) Has a lot of similarities to the first TD run
(2) Like the first TD, Cards are in Shotgun with just Edmunds in backfield to the right of Kyler Murray
(3) And like the first TD, Cards TE in-line on left with 2 WRs split out right
(4) Giants have Dalvin Tomlinson lined up between the Right Guard and the Center; and Dexter Lawrence between the Center and Left Guard
(5) Markus Golden is in a 3-point stance directly over the Right Tackle and Lorenzo Carter (on the other end) is standing up on the outside left shoulder of the TE;
(6) In other words, there is a huge gap (two full holes) between Lorenzo Carter and Dexter Lawrence which is exactly where Edmunds ran the ball
(7) At the snap Center Shipley and Left Guard Pugh pulled left
(8) Pugh obliterated Lorenzo Carter knocking him on his ass to the outside
(9) It looks to me as though Dexter Lawrence recognized the play and slanted to his right but he got sealed off to the inside by a down block from the Left Tackle #74 D.J. Humphries
(10) Jabril Peppers was playing LBer on the inside of Lorenzo Carter, so he is standing exactly in the slot where Edmunds is headed
(11) Unfortunately, Peppers ran his ass right out of the play swinging way too far to the outside, allowing the TE #87 Maxx Williams to easily seal him off. But the truth is that Jabrill Peppers sealed himself off
(12) So that left #55 ILB David Mayo with the only reasonable chance of stopping this run before it got going
(13) At the snap, Mayo was just to the inside of Peppers and Mayo properly diagnosed the play, but just as he was about to nail Edmunds, Shipley came around and just barely screened him off to the inside
(14) Edmunds just barely squeezed through a paper thin crack; but once he was through it was clear sailing with only Antoine Bethea having a prayer of stopping him. Bethea never touched him
(15) Once again, gotta tip your hat to a beautifully executed blocking scheme to the left that the Giants helped by being a little too over-loaded to the other side
(16) Can’t really blame just one player, but IMO Peppers really did not look good running himself out of the play.