Arizona Cardinals rebound with dominating performance
By Jim Koch
After an uninspired loss on opening night the Arizona Cardinals came up with an almost perfect effort in their week two victory
All throughout the offseason the Arizona Cardinals were being talked about. Being talked about in glowing terms. The roster was being mentioned as maybe the best the organization has ever had.
But then some inevitable doubts began to creep in. Although preseason games are meaningless in the grand scope of things, fans still want to see glimpses of greatness. The four “practice” games came and went with not a lot to cheer about in any of them.
It didn’t get much better in the season opener. The Cardinals lost to an undermanned New England Patriots squad, a team playing without Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.
The team Arizona fans were itching to see finally surfaced in a week two blowout of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In an almost perfect performance the offense moved the ball and scored at will, while the defense was suffocating.
Quarterback Carson Palmer led a balanced offensive attack. Running back David Johnson showed star qualities once again, running with the rock and catching it equally well. Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald was tremendous again, scoring yet another touchdown and being stopped just short of a second one.
On defense, safety Tony Jefferson once again was a tackling machine. Pass rushing linebackers Chandler Jones and Markus Golden each recorded a sack for the second game in a row. The real star though was cornerback Marcus Cooper, who recorded two interceptions, one of which he took to the house.
Right guard Evan Mathis is proving himself a valuable commodity. Initially scheduled to miss one to four weeks with a foot injury, Mathis proved his toughness by gutting it out . He was seen limping to the bench late in the game though, hopefully he didn’t aggravate it severest.
It’s now time for the team to start stacking wins. Every contending team has a bad loss or two, hopefully they got their’s out of the way against the Pats. If the Bucs game is any indication, there shouldn’t
be many more losses to come.