Mike LaFleur remembers what it was like to go up against Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Nick Rallis when Rallis’ unit was operating at its best. Sunday’s shocking 18-16 victory over the Los Angeles Rams reminded LaFleur of those days, during which he was Los Angeles’ offensive coordinator.
“I know there were times in 2024 that it was not fun having to go against this squad, and that’s what it looked like to me [on Sunday],” LaFleur said.
It didn’t look fun for the Rams. The Cardinals, fresh off four-straight 30-plus-point games allowed by their defense, limited Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford to just 16 points, 286 yards of offense and only three scoring drives.
It was the defensive effort the Cardinals had desperately needed since that very stretch of 2024.
Nick Rallis, Cardinals defense suffocate Rams offense
It’s no secret Rallis has been under scrutiny for some time. His defense has simply not performed. Despite that, the “changes” that were expected to be made to Arizona’s defense this week were more internal. LaFleur made it clear there would be no shift in playcalling duties; the personnel remained largely the same, as well.
But there was something different about Sunday. There was a sharper edge to the Cardinals’ defensive effort. Rallis took more risks — blitzing a season-high 13 times from a handful of more variant front-seven looks. That worked.
The Cardinals sacked Stafford three times for a combined loss of 28 yards, hitting him seven times in total. 10 different Cardinals had at least one pressure and four had multiple, per PFF.
Arizona forced two fumbles (three, counting a two-point conversion attempt) and lived in the Los Angeles backfield. The Rams ran for just 92 yards and did not have a 100-yard receiver.
Clearly, there were some schematic differences. But the Cardinals’ playmakers also did what they’ve struggled to do lately — make plays.
Josh Sweat had four tackles and a sack. Darius Robinson had two hits on Stafford. Budda Baker was an all-field menace, with six tackles, three pressures, a sack, two tackles for loss and a pass defended. Rallis used Baker as a pass rusher seven times.
In other words, it was a high-energy showing by Arizona’s players, throughout an improved plan of attack from the coaching staff.
“I thought their play style was awesome,” LaFleur said of the defense. “It looked to me like they had clear minds. … I saw 11 as one, I saw cleats in the ground, and I thought they were just working together in unison. It was really cool, it was reminiscent of what I felt like I saw in ’24.”
“The guys should be proud of that performance they put out there. It was real. … You could see that play style yesterday.”
Baker, meanwhile, gave equal credit to Rallis’ gameplan and the improved execution.
“Kudos to the game plan,” Baker said. “Had an opportunity for guys to just play fast and that’s what the guys did. So, definitely was a good day.
“Just the ability for guys to just execute and do our job, whatever the play call is called. And when your number’s called, just make the play and do your job. That was a full team win, but also just a great defensive job by the plan, but also just guys executing all the calls.”
That type of complementary football has been lacking from both sides of the ball for Arizona. It’s not the first time. But in a week-to-week league, sometimes all it takes is one strong performance.
That was, to a lesser extent, the case in 2024; Rallis’ defense had given up 30-plus points three times in their first six games. And then, a quality defensive effort against the Los Angeles Chargers in week seven kicked off a streak of three straight home games without an opposing touchdown allowed.
Perhaps that type of consistency is coming. The talent appears to be burgeoning into what it can be and tweaks to Rallis’ approach paid dividends, for a week.
Baker said the noise surrounding Rallis’ job security has not been nonexistent, of course. But he has faith in his coordinator.
“You hear the outside noise, but you ignore the outside noise, and that’s the biggest thing for us,” Baker said. “[Rallis is] just focused on putting the game plan for us to be able to execute and play fast. … I think he has been doing that, and I think we just need to execute better, and we will.”
“He’s continuing to grow within his scheme each and every week. So, that’s what you want as a player. You want your coach to work hard for you. And, of course, we’re all working hard for him. Just honing in on the game plan and being able to execute our calls is something that I think we did pretty good this past week.”
It might just be an anomaly. There may be blowouts still to come — that is inevitable in the NFL — but LaFleur has full faith in Rallis moving forward. There’s a reason the head coach refused to yank him from his position.
“I trust the human. I trust the worker. I know what the players think of him,” LaFleur said. “I just knew our defense had more than what we’d been putting out there, and we just had to unlock it some way, somehow, and again, this was just one week, but it was a step in the right direction, and I do believe we can grow from this one.
“I do believe we can start to build an identity off of this one. … I got a lot of faith in Nick. I got a lot of faith in the rest of the defensive staff.”