Arizona Cardinals: 3 positive takeaways from Sunday’s loss vs Rams

The Arizona Cardinals didn’t get humiliated on Sunday, but their offense looked beyond lethargic. Despite this, there were still some positives. 

Even in a game where the Arizona Cardinals failed to score an offensive touchdown, Kyler Murray and company still turned a few heads. Some may say none of that matters because the team didn’t win. But this is a banged-up Cardinals team on the mend and one without their most dynamic playmaker in DeAndre Hopkins.

Two of the three positives listed below are from the receiver position. So imagine how good the Cardinals will have it when Hopkins does return. Even if Kliff Kingsbury continues to bumble his way through porous playcalling, Hopkins at least gives the Cardinals a chance to save the situation. Anyway, enough talk. Here are three things that went right in Sunday’s loss to the Rams.

1 – The Oklahoma Sooner Connection

Targeted 17 times, with 14 catches and 140 receiving yards. Hollywood Brown is well on his way to enjoying a successful reunion with quarterback Kyler Murray. The only thing Brown didn’t accomplish? Scoring a touchdown.

So far on the season, Brown has 24 receptions for 251 yards and a score, putting him on pace for 136 receptions, 1,422 yards, and six touchdowns. Each week, Brown shows us more that his former team didn’t utilize him properly. And if he hits those projected numbers, he might just be playing flag football come February.

2 – J.J. Watt

When Watt went down with a calf injury, we immediately started having flashbacks to last season when he missed half the year with a shoulder issue. In two games this season, Watt has two sacks and two tackles for loss.

Against the Rams, he logged a sack, a quarterback, hit, and a tackle for loss. The Cardinals defense stepped it up against one of the league’s better offenses, and Watt was a big reason the Cardinals only allowed 20 points on Sunday.

3 – Dortch continues to produce for the Arizona Cardinals

Dortch caught nine out of 10 passes thrown his way on Sunday and logged 80 yards in the process. With 20 receptions on the season, Dortch is another Arizona Cardinals receiver on pace for over 100 catches, 113 to be exact.

Every time Dortch is on the field, opposing defenses need to account for him. So it is no wonder that, despite all of Kingsbury’s mishaps, he kept Dortch on the field for 81% of all offensive snaps on Sunday as opposed to 71% against Las Vegas.

(Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference)