Arizona Cardinals vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Good, bad, ugly
By Scott Allen
The Good
Adrian Peterson
What can you say about Peterson? Not much other than wow! AP came in and made an immediate impact. He scored on a 27-yard run on the first drive, a drive that netted him 54-yards.
For the day he finished with 134-yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns. Granted it was only week one for Peterson in Arizona but let’s see what he can do moving forward.
Carson Palmer
The first half was something else for Palmer. He converted his first 14 passes before he threw his first incompletion, an interception. He was 18-22 for the day with three touchdown passes.
The running game took some of the pressure off of Palmer. When he was given time to throw, he looked calm and collected.
Larry Fitzgerald
Fitz had himself another day but at this point should we expect anything else? He had 10 receptions for 138-yards and a touchdown.
He did have a fumble in the fourth quarter but that looked very questionable. The play stood but he appeared to have been down on the play.
Offensive line
The offensive line was much improved on Sunday. You can thank the return of left tackle D.J. Humphries and guard Alex Boone for that.
Palmer was sacked a couple of times but really only one of them could be partly blamed on the line. The other was a coverage sack and Palmer did the right thing by hanging on to the ball.
The main thing was Palmer had more time to throw his passes. That was set up by the run, which in part succeeded by allowing Cardinals backs to run for 160-yards.