The Arizona Cardinals open up the regular season in just under two weeks against the Detroit Lions. They want their quarterbacks to be able to use hand claps at the line of scrimmage to initiate a play. However, that desire has continued to cause problems for the team this preseason with the team still trying to figure out how to run their offense within the rules.
According to David Brandt of the Associated Press, the Cardinals’ quarterbacks are still confused by what exactly is and isn’t allowed and why flags keep flying.
“I have no idea right now,” backup quarterback Brett Hundley said after the Vikings game. “Everyone wants some clarification on the rule.”
Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury has said he doesn’t believe the issue to be a problem for the team moving forward. But it will continue to be an issue until the team can prove it isn’t. Hundley was penalized twice last week with starting quarterback Kyler Murray getting dinged twice in a game against the Oakland Raiders two weeks ago.
“What we always look for are motions or actions that simulate the start of the play and I just felt like those two actions by the quarterback did just that — they simulated the start of the play and the ball wasn’t snapped so we had a false start,” official Walt Anderson said of Hundley’s penalties following the Vikings game.
The comments would pretty accurate summarize the penalties Murray incurred against the Raiders as well.
The Cardinals have another 13 days to get on the same page with league officials about how they will snap the football. We’ll see if Kingsbury will be correct in his assertion it won’t be a problem for the team then.