Arizona Cardinals take care of business in the Motor City on Sunday afternoon against the Detroit Lions
What started early as a game that could end up being a tight one ended up being over by halftime. The Arizona Cardinals were down 7-0 after the first quarter despite grabbing two turnovers on defense. The Lions were able to hold a normally smooth-flowing Cardinals offense to -1 yards after one quarter. It was all Cardinals after that.
The Cardinals, who possessed the ball for less than 10 minutes in the first half didn’t need much time to grab their lead. Four first-half Lions turnovers and a quick-strike offense was enough to send out the boo-birds in Detroit. The Cardinals rolled to victory 42-17.
The Cardinals scored 28 points in the second quarter on two David Johnson touchdown runs and receiving touchdowns by Darren Fells and John Brown. One of David Johnson’s touchdowns was part of a 99-yard drive that took place thanks to a 49-yard reception by John Brown and a 40-yard run by Chris Johnson. Johnson had runs of 40-yards and 25-yards in the first half. He finished the day with 11 carries for 103 yards.
Also getting into the fun in the second half was receiver Larry Fitzgerald. He made a beautiful catch for 26 yards on second and 23. He was finally brought down at the two-yard line. He was rewarded by quarterback Carson Palmer with a two-yard reception for touchdown on the very next play. It was his sixth touchdown of the season, leading the NFL.
Also, let’s all welcome back running back Andre Ellington. He had a huge 63-yard run in the fourth quarter for a touchdown to give the Cardinals their third 40-plus point game of the young season. It’s all coming together. After the early struggle Sunday the Cardinals running game really took off and was quite impressive.
I spent the week defending the Lions 0-4 record but after Sunday’s performance that should be re-evaluated. Things got so bad for the Lions, they replaced starting quarterback Matthew Stafford in the third quarter after three interceptions on the day. Backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky finished off the game.
The Cardinals came up with six turnovers on the day. They had to be hungry after not forcing a single turnover in the loss to the St. Louis Rams last week at home. They gave up a lot of yards underneath but all that matters is the scoreboard. The scoreboard was helped by getting those turnovers.
If the Cardinals can fix slow starts at the beginning of the game and start of third quarter then this team can go a long way. Oh, and let’s drop the arguments that the Cardinals are only 4-1 because of who they’ve played. Hey, you can only beat who the NFL schedules for you. The Cardinals are a very good team and now are off to face the Pittsburgh Steelers next week. The team will not come home Sunday evening and instead stay back east and practice in West Virginia this week.