What looked like a game the Arizona Cardinals were going to find themselves in a long afternoon against the Cleveland Browns thanks to four turnovers turned into a 34-20 victory on Sunday afternoon at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland. The Cardinals are now 6-2 on the season.
The Cardinals outscored the Browns 24-0 in the second half. They scored the last 27 points of the game.
In the first half, the Cardinals got on the board first taking a 7-0 lead on a quarterback Carson Palmer to tight end Troy Niklas touchdown pass. So, things started off well. After that point though, the Browns were able to dominate the scoreboard in the first half thanks to fumbles by running back Chris Johnson and receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
The Cardinals were down 20-7 when they were fighting to get back into the game when Fitz fumbled the ball trying to get extra yards after a reception. The fumble wiped out a 10-play 77-yard drive at that point and the Browns took over at their own 8-yard line.
The Cardinals did manage to kick a field goal right before halftime though to reduce the Browns lead to 20-10. However the Cardinals had a chance to reduce it even further with a great catch by receiver Michael Floyd for an apparent touchdown. The Cardinals shot themselves in the foot again though with an illegal shift penalty. So instead of a 20-14 halftime deficit, they stood at 20-10.
The second half was a completely different game. The Cardinals still turned the ball over twice, another Chris Johnson fumble and a Palmer interception. On the interception though it appeared that Fitz may have been held on the play. Regardless, it was probably a ball Palmer should not have thrown.
As for Palmer, he finished the day 23-38 374 yards, four touchdowns, and the one interception. The four touchdowns on Sunday give Palmer 20 touchdowns on the season now. That leads the NFC.
The running game has a hard time getting going early on but at the end of the day, despite the two fumbles by Johnson, he still finished with 109 yards on 30 carries. The Cardinals rushed for a total of 119 yards on the day.
The turnovers, the penalties, the mental mistakes, they all need to be corrected no doubt. However the Cardinals now have two weeks to prepare for their next game on November 15th against the Seattle Seahawks. The Cardinals are on the bye next week. It couldn’t have come at a better time. So far, the schedule has worked in the Cardinals favor as I predicted it would when it was released back in April.