TEMPE, Ariz. -- When James Conner suffered a knee injury early in the second quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Arizona Cardinals' run game suffered, too.
It lost the centerpiece of a ground attack that has been the foundation of coordinator Drew Petzing’s offense.
With Conner going on injured reserve Tuesday, which will keep him sidelined for at least the next four games, the Cardinals lost 50.3% of their run-game production. Conner was also responsible for two of the Cardinals’ four longest plays this season.
“He's one of our leaders,” wide receiver Zach Pascal said after Week 1. “I guess you could say we go as he go."
And now, with a road trip to face the Los Angeles Rams coming up (Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox), the Cardinals are faced with figuring out what their running game will look like without Conner, who's tied for eighth in rushing with 364 yards.
“Nobody's going to fill James' shoes perfectly, right?” Petzing said.
Who’s next up on the depth chart is still to be determined.
Conner’s backup, Keaontay Ingram, missed the last two games with a neck injury. On Sunday, third-string running back Emari Demercado replaced Conner and finished with 45 yards on 10 carries.
“I thought Emari did a great job of that and I expect everybody in the room to pick up the slack and really kind of fill in when needed,” Petzing said.
Demercado was signed by the Cardinals in May as an undrafted free agent after a five-year career at TCU in which he ran for 1,615 yards and 10 touchdowns on 338 carries. He scored a touchdown to complement 150 rushing yards in last season’s CFP semifinal against Michigan at State Farm Stadium and then scored his first NFL touchdown Sunday in the same stadium.
Behind them would be Corey Clement, a practice squad running back who was elevated the past two weeks; Tony Jones Jr., whom Arizona claimed off waivers on Monday; and Damien Williams, whom the Cardinals signed to their practice squad last week.
This week will be spent figuring out the rotation and getting the newer backs up to speed on what the Cardinals’ run plan is, which Petzing stressed to his coaches in the past couple of days is their job -- to get their guys ready no matter how long they’ve been on the team.
“I think all those guys in that room are going to have some role in this football game and moving forward in this offense,” Petzing said. “Because I think they all do certain things a little better than the other guy, or they have slightly different roles or runs they like or things they see well.
“So, I think that's something we're -- as an offense and as a staff -- really going to have to work through these next couple days.”
Overall, though, Petzing doesn’t anticipate the rushing offense looking much different without Conner.
“I don't think a lot changes,” he said. “I think it's one of the things we talked about, is I trust everybody in that room.”
The next most productive running back on the roster at the moment is Demercado, who came into Sunday’s game with just 3 yards this season.
That could give quarterback Joshua Dobbs more responsibility in the running game, considering he’s the team’s second-leading rusher with 142 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries.
A lot of Dobbs’ runs are read-option runs, Petzing said, which are typically dictated by the defense and the flow of the game.
While Petzing doesn’t want Dobbs to get hurt running the ball, he’s also not opposed to his quarterback taking off.
“Every game's going to come up different,” Petzing said. “But, I think it's something he does really well. I think it's something that makes us dynamic as an offense, so I think it's certainly something we're going to continue to emphasize moving forward, scheme allowing it, defensively speaking.
“But, yeah, something he does well and I think it makes it hard on the defense.”