Arizona Cardinals: Lose to San Diego Chargers 22-19
By Scott Allen
The Arizona Cardinals dropped their second preseason game to the San Diego Chargers 22-19
Well, at least it was a much more interesting game on Saturday night, however it was still not enough to give the Arizona Cardinals the victory. They dropped a close one to the San Diego Chargers 22-19 on Saturday night at University of Phoenix Stadium.
There are a number of takeaways both good and bad from Saturday night. However the game left plenty of reminders that we are in the middle of August and not December.
The Arizona Cardinals looked more like a team that needed another few weeks of training camp rather than a team that was ready for the regular season in three weeks. It is a good thing it is still the preseason. After the game against the San Diego Chargers, clearly there are some good things that happened but a number of other things that need to be worked on.
Most of the starters played most of the first quarter. Quarterback Carson Palmer played the first series. He went 3-7 for 88-yards and a nice 17-yard touchdown pass to receiver John Brown. However it seemed at times people weren’t on the same page as Palmer.
Palmer had a pass that went towards the sideline and running back Andre Ellington went inside. It seems as if Ellington didn’t get get the play correct. Ellington for his part, ran twice for 12 yards, 11 of them coming on a first down run in the first quarter.
As for the first team defense, they played alright. Safety Tony Jefferson had a couple of nice hits, one for a loss. Linebacker Alex Okafor also had a nice tackle. It was a couple of backups that showed some good things though on Saturday night. Safety Harold Jones-Quartay had an interception in the third quarter. Defensive end Josh Mauro used his long arms to make a nice tackle for loss. Safety Chris Clemons had four tackles.
Third-round draft pick running back David Johnson made his NFL debut on Saturday night and he looked the best of the bunch out there. He carried the ball 13 times for 66 yards. He was running north-south at first but eventually found his way. He caught two passes for 15 yards as well.
It was a sloppy game on both sides of the football though by both the Cardinals and Chargers. The second-team and third-team defense was again not very good. They allowed the Chargers defense to march down the field on a 15-play 72-yard drive after a missed Chandler Catanzaro field goal to take a 16-9 lead.
In the fourth quarter, backup quarterback Phillip Sims made things interesting. He took the Cardinals on a 15-play 77-yard touchdown drive that culminated in a Marion Grice one-yard score. Sims then lead the Cardinals on a game-tying score at 19 with 2:56 left in the game.
In the end though the Cardinals defense could not make the necessary stop to send the game to overtime. Chargers kicker Josh Lambo hit a 47-yard field goal to win the game 22-19 as time expired.