Arizona Cardinals defense leads the NFL in this special category
By Sion Fawkes
The Arizona Cardinals defense leads the NFL in defensive touchdowns with five so far on the season and no one else comes close.
Let’s face it: The Arizona Cardinals have been a complete and utter disappointment. The franchise has nearly always been in disarray under the Bidwills, regardless of whether which Bidwill is currently in charge of what is, to date, the least successful franchise in professional sports over the past 75 seasons.
That’s definitely an honor you don’t want to have. But luckily, the Cardinals, despite their meager 3-6 record and consistent regression, are #1 in the NFL in one particular category, and believe it or not, it’s something good! That category is defensive touchdowns from both fumble recoveries and interceptions.
Arizona Cardinals defense capitalizing on takeaways
In their Week 7 win over the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football, cornerback Marco Wilson and linebacker Isaiah Simmons scored on back-to-back pick sixes. Wilson had been coming along all season to that point, while Simmons was known for making splash plays and showed off his sheer athleticism when taking it to the house.
Earlier this season, Simmons also contributed to Byron Murphy Jr’s walk-off touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders by forcing the fumble that led to the game-winning score. And just last Sunday, Zaven Collins joined the club with his own defensive touchdown off of a pick six.
Having played just nine games so far in 2022, the Arizona Cardinals are logging over half of a defensive touchdown per game, putting them on pace to score between nine and 10 this season. So if the offense remains the stagnant quagmire they have been all season long, you can always count on the defense to provide some much-needed help for a team whose playoff hopes are fading fast.
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It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals can keep up their high-scoring ways on defense. And just as a side note, they have six scores if you count defense and special teams, which would give them, at the moment, 0.66 defense/special teams scores per game. If nothing else goes right for the Cardinals this year, that number is one impressive feat.
(Statistics provided by NFL.com)
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