The Cardinals were midway through the fourth quarter on Sunday when QB Jacoby Brissett hurled a pass to Marvin Harrison Jr. down the field, Harrison pulling in the ball and trying to take a step or two before he was hauled down by a 49ers defender.
One more step, and Harrison would've had a 20-yard completion. Instead, it was 19, the closest near-miss of an explosive play for an offense that still managed to generate 30 points.
It takes 20 yards on a pass play to be considered an explosive, 10 on a rushing play. Jeremiyah Love couldn't get an explosive run play Sunday, although to be as efficient as he was to get 90 yards on 21 carries when the longest was only 8 yards was impressive. And coach Mike LaFleur sees explosive run plays differently, the need of a crease and a burst that essentially happens organically.
Through the air, though, LaFleur clearly has frustration.
"In the pass game, it's a real thing right now," LaFleur said. "We're three weeks in and we haven't been extremely explosive. I know this, when you're trying to play good offensive football in this league and you're having to do it through (long) drives, drive in and drive out, it's tough. I actually give our guys credit in terms of — for I'd say the good part of 10 out of the 12 quarters this year they've done a pretty good job of staying efficient, but man, at some point we've got to get a little bit more explosive."
The Cardinals have two passes of at least 20 yards in 2026: the first attempt of the season, a 27-yarder to Trey McBride against the Chargers, and a 33-yarder to Harrison later that same game.
They have four rushing plays of at least 10 yards, and one was an 11-yard Brissett scramble. Tyler Allgeier had an 11-yard run, Love an 18-yard run, and Bam Knight an 18-yard run at the end of the Seahawks game.
By comparison, Cardinals opponents have nine passes of at least 20 yards and 11 runs of at least 10 yards.
Defenses gearing to prevent big plays is "the landscape of the league right now," LaFleur said. That doesn't mean the Cardinals shouldn't find more.
LaFleur noted that yards after the catch can turn a shorter pass into an explosive, that it doesn't always need to be about air yards on the pass. There were downfield shots to both Harrison and Michael Wilson in San Francisco that just didn't connect.
"We need to be all-encompassing," LaFleur said. "We need to marry the run with the pass. We need to be under center. We need to be doing all that stuff. Not just because we're hardheaded, because I do believe when we get to the spot we want to on offense, that's what's going to make us as good as we can be."
