The Arizona Cardinals had a chance to become the new darlings of the NFL, if only for a week, on Sunday. They were going up against a very formidable opponent in the visiting Detroit Lions, and a win over a team widely considered a Super Bowl contender would have gone a long, long way.
Instead, the Cardinals took a step backward at State Farm Stadium. Despite having a shot to mount a comeback rally, they fell short in a 20-13 loss and dropped to 1-2 after three weeks.
Here are some rapid reactions.
Kyler is clicking in the first quarter of games
It’s only been three weeks, but quarterback Kyler Murray and the offense have outscored their opponents 28-7 in the first quarter of play.
Murray has been specifically efficient in the opening 15 minutes. After completing all four of his pass attempts for 38 yards and a touchdown against the Lions, he is now a combined 21 of 23 for 272 yards and four touchdowns.
All of this, mind you, without committing a single turnover. If Murray and the Cardinals can continue that sort of production to start games, they’re going to keep putting themselves in good positions to win games.
It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish. But getting off to quick starts can only help.
Third-stringer Jackson Barton shined
After losing starting right tackle Jonah Williams to a knee injury in Week 1 and then ruling veteran backup right tackle Kelvin Beachum out for Sunday’s game against Detroit, the Cardinals were in a dire situation.
Lions edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson has been tearing up the right side of offensive lines with a league-high 5½ sacks entering the game. What were the Cardinals going to do to keep him from teeing off against Murray?
Never fear, Jackson Barton is here. Barton, a journeyman with only 13 career NFL snaps under his belt, was elevated from the practice squad and tasked with the enormous responsibility of fending off the 6-foot-7 dominating Hutchinson. Much to Barton’s credit, he didn’t disappoint.
Hutchinson lined up across from him nearly the entire game but didn’t register a single sack against Barton. Barton, however, left the game with nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter with a toe injury and did not return. He deserved a game ball regardless of the final score.
Charlie Heck, another practice squad elevation, finished the game at right tackle for the Cardinals. Hutchinson got his first sack of the game with 4:50 left to play.
The pick-six that wasn’t
The Lions were nursing a 13-7 lead with the clock winding down to the two-minute warning in the first half. The Cardinals had dialed up a blitz and safety Jalen Thompson and linebacker Owen Pappoe forced a hurried Jared Goff to throw a weak pass off his back foot.
The pass bounced off someone’s helmet and right in the hands of Arizona linebacker Mack Wilson Sr., who ran down the sideline and all the way into the end zone for what appeared like a certain Cardinals’ touchdown and a chance to take the lead.
Nobody seemed to hear it, but the referee blew his whistle just before the snap, calling the play dead before it ever started because the clock hit 2:00.
It was a huge momentum killer, especially when the Lions went down the field and scored a touchdown on a 1-yard pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown, who smartly lateralled the ball to running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who took it the remaining 20 yards for the score and a 20-7 lead.
The run defense fell back to Earth
A week after holding the Los Angeles Rams to just 53 total rushing yards on 20 carries, it was a much different story against the Lions.
Detroit ran the ball 42 times for a staggering 189 yards, stirring up ugly memories from last season when the Cardinals allowed the most rushing yards (2,434) and most rushing yards per game (143.2) in the league.
David Montgomery led the way with 23 carries for a game-high 106 yards and a touchdown. Gibbs added 16 carries for 83 yards. Goff had three runs for six yards.
The offense failed to deliver
It wasn’t just one series here or one series there. It was a continuous stall from the moment Arizona tied the game at 7 on its opening possession of the ballgame.
On their next nine possessions, the Cardinals punted five times, turned the ball over on downs twice, were intercepted once, and had to settle for a Matt Prater field goal. That’s not going to get it done against a team like the Lions — or almost anybody in this league.
The most disturbing failure was Murray’s interception when he underthrew rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. in the end zone early in the third quarter. Never mind that Harrison was double-teamed on the play in question and the pass was picked off by safety Kerby Joseph. It was a bad throw, and it came at a bad time.
The two turnovers on downs when coach Jonathan Gannon elected to go for it twice on fourth downs weren’t very pretty, either. The first came when Murray tried scampering for a first down but wound up sliding out of bounds just short. The second was an incomplete pass over the middle to tight end Trey McBride. It was a decent throw, but Joseph broke up the play with another heads-up move.
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Publish date : 2024-09-22 12:58:00
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