Defense contributes heavily to Arizona Cardinals fine win
By Jim Koch
The defensive unit of the Arizona Cardinals posted it’s most impressive performance of the season during their latest victory
For the better part of 2019, the defensive unit of the Arizona Cardinals has been utterly awful. Heading into their week 16 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks, coordinator Vance Joseph‘s unit ranked dead-last in the NFL. The Cards defense had consistently struggled to get off of the field, and had given up a ton of yardage and points as well.
Taking all of that into account, there were many who believed that Joseph’s crew would struggle against the highly-rated Seahawks offense. Their division rival’s quarterback, Russell Wilson, was enjoying another spectacular campaign. Surely, Seattle’s scoring attack would have their way with a group of Arizona defenders who were playing only for pride.
To the surprise of many, the Cardinals came up with their best defensive effort of the season in the Pacific Northwest. The Seahawks put a mere 13 points on the board, and accumulated just 224 yards of offense. The Cards limited Wilson and company to 13 first downs, and held them to an unimpressive 4.0 yards per play.
Chandler Jones, who leads the league in sacks through 16 weeks, was virtually unblockable. The three-time Pro Bowler took Wilson to the ground four times, and also racked up six quarterback hits.
Pro Bowl safety Budda Baker registered nine tackles, and now has 134 this fall. Linebackers Jordan Hicks and Joe Walker were each credited with six stops. Patrick Peterson held Seattle rookie wideout D.K. Metcalf to zero receptions, the cornerback’s second dominant outing in a row.
Cardinals 3 game balls vs Seahawks. dark. Next
Fans of the organization had been been waiting for this kind of showing by the Arizona defensive unit for quite some time. The team may have actually been contending for a playoff spot if they had performed at this level earlier on in ’19. It will be interesting to see if the defense’s late-season improvement will be enough to allow Joseph to keep his job with the Cardinals.