The Cardinal Countdown: 73 Days Until Kickoff

73 Days

When the Cards don’t have a player wearing the jersey number of the corresponding day in the countdown I’ll hit you with something interesting, noteworthy, or at minimum slightly entertaining related to that number. Let’s get nuts.

When the dust settled on the 2021 football season the Cards finished 73rd nationally in rushing defense, giving up 156.69yds/game. You may be asking why I’m touting a ranking like that on this very countdown, but you have to view this with some context. The Cards are progressively improving year over year on stopping the ground game since the Satterfield hire. And when I say progressing I mean they are dropping their average by over 20yds/g each season. Take a look at where they’ve been in years past….2020 (179.91yd/g) 2019 (205.77yd/g), and 2018 (277.25yd/g). If you want a bold take for 2022, I think this run defense can get close to another 20 yard drop on average and be around 135-140yd/g for the season. Using 2021 as reference that’s a borderline Top 25 rushing defense nationally.

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