Defense Rules, Arizona Cardinals Beat Detroit Lions 14-6

Two first-quarter touchdowns are all the Arizona Cardinals needed on Sunday to beat the Detroit Lions

The way this one started it looked like the Arizona Cardinals would blow the Detroit Lions right out of the building.  Two touchdowns in the first six minutes made it look like this one would be over early.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.

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Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton threw two touchdown passes to Michael Floyd, one for 42-yards and another for 12-yards on the way to a early 14-0 lead.  However the Lions defense started to catch on and they clamped up in a hurry.

Lions linebacker Josh Bynes intercepted Stanton inside the red zone as  appeared the Cardinals were poised to take a 21-3 lead early in the second quarter.  Unfortunately Stanton threw another pick in the second quarter and the they started to become more conservative on offense at that point.

The Lions offense has a few nice plays but after the second quarter quarterback Matthew Stafford ignored receiver Golden Tate and receiver Calvin Johnson was basically a non-factor, although there were a couple of times after big first down catches by Megatron that they would get things going but time after time they stalled.

The Cardinals defense was the story though.  They held a good offense to six points.  Lions running back Joique Bell managed to get 85-yards on 14 carries but he got them in huge chunks.  He had one run for 33-yards and another for 21-yards.  His other 12 carries went for 31 carries.

The Cardinals lost the turnover battle but did get one interception from safety Rashad Johnson.  Then big plays from Tyrann Mathieu and Larry Foote in the second-half left the Lions scoreless after halftime.  Linebacker Alex Okafor also had a huge sack of Stafford.  They had a total of four sacks on Stafford on the afternoon.

Now the Cardinals head to play the Seattle Seahawks, who lost 24-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.  The Cardinals now have a three-game lead on the Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers.  They have a little room for error but this is no time to take the foot off the pedal.

Sometimes you’re going to have games like this but a win is a win and this one was big against one of the better NFC teams.  Now it’s time to think about the Seahawks.