Bold Prediction: Arizona Cardinals will dominate season’s second half

Yes, you read that right: Your Arizona Cardinals can dominate in the second half of the 2022 season. No lie, no joke. Here’s why. 

You don’t count moral victories in the NFL. But the fact that the battered Arizona Cardinals, despite yet another home loss, took the Philadelphia Eagles down to the wire shows that this is a team capable of dominating the NFL come the second half of the season.

Yes, this Kliff Kingsbury-coached Cardinals team that loves to collapse in a season’s second half could end up becoming the class of the NFL. Regardless of whether Kingsbury ever figures out how to call plays in this league. Okay, so maybe this prediction is a little bolder than bold. But let’s talk about it anyway.

Think about this: We know how lethal quarterback Kyler Murray and receiver Marquise Brown are as a quarterback-receiver duo. We know Zach Ertz is going to produce week after week (28 receptions in five games). We also know what DeAndre Hopkins can do to opposing defenses, and when he returns, it will add another dimension to the Arizona Cardinals offense.

The Arizona Cardinals could surprise a lot of critics in season’s second half

Sure, 17 points scored tells us this offense remains rather inept without Hopkins. But minus the Week 1 blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Cardinals have allowed just 79 points on defense. Break that down, and you get 19.75 points allowed per game. Take away the 64 points allowed in the season’s first six quarters, and you get 16.85 points per the last 3.5 games.

The Cardinals defense has been impressive, allowing no more than 23 points in a single game between Weeks 2 and 5. And this is an Eagles offense that everyone except myself claimed was supposedly unstoppable. Well, the Cardinals stopped them plenty of times in this one; the offense just couldn’t capitalize or manage the clock well. What else is new?

But imagine a time in the not-so-distant future where Hopkins will line up across from Marquise Brown, with Zach Ertz at tight end. Even Rondale Moore, despite a disastrous first few quarters since his season debut last week, showed up for this one and if he keeps producing, the Cardinals have yet another reliable target. And we haven’t even talked about Greg Dortch yet.

Yeah, the Cardinals are currently 2-3. And yes, they are averaging just 21 points per game. It doesn’t matter. This is a banged up Arizona Cardinals team that played one of the NFL’s best better than anyone would have thought. So well, they took it down to the final drive. It may have been a loss, but today, the Cardinals proved they could hang with anyone.

Wait until this team gets healthy, and wait until DeAndre Hopkins returns. Bad playcalling and clock management or not, the Cardinals have a legit chance this season.

(Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference and ESPN.com)