Arizona Cardinals: Game balls vs New Orleans Saints

The Arizona Cardinals defeated the New Orleans Saints 31-19 on Sunday afternoon

The Arizona Cardinals had several good performances against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon in their 31-19 victory at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. The Cardinals had positive performances on both offense and defense.

It was a touch call but these three players here were a cut above the rest.  Of course the offense which put up 31 points is represented well amongst the three game balls given out.

QB Carson Palmer

Welcome back Carson Palmer!  His return to regular season action was about as good as you could have expected.  He went 19-32 for 307 yards and three touchdowns.  His overall quarterback rating for the game was 122.8.  Not too bad huh?  He wasn’t perfect and had a couple of close calls with interceptions but overall he got the job done.

The thing about Palmer is he doesn’t focus on one player during the game.  He spreads the wealth.  He spread the ball to eight different players on Sunday afternoon.  The top four receivres all caught at least one pass, including Michael Floyd who caught one pass for 18 yards.  He was coming off a preseason injury.

WR Larry Fitzgerald The brightest spot in the receiving game though went to the superstar himself Larry Fitzgerald.  He had six catches for 87 yards.  He didn’t have a touchdown but he was a main focus of the offense on Sunday.  He had a huge 29 yard catch in the second half on Sunday.  I’d say he earned his paycheck on Sunday afternoon.

LB Alex Okafor

The man admitted after the game in a post-game interview that he messed up in coverage a few times but the stat sheet would indicate otherwise.  He finished with five tackles including two sacks. Those were the only two official sacks on the afternoon for the Cardinals, although the Cardinals did manage five tackles for a loss.

The kinks will be worked out.  No one was perfect but certainly a few other guys had decent enough days to be considered for game balls as well.  I will pick three each week.  Don’t be surprised if you see these names pop up often this season.