Your Arizona Cardinals pulled off a massive Week 6 upset, heading into SoFi Stadium as 12.5-point underdogs only to defeat the Los Angeles Rams in stunning fashion with a final score of 18-16.
Arizona now moves to 2-4 on the season, with its two wins both coming on the road in SoFi, their prior win dating back to their Week 1 upset against the Los Angeles Chargers. With the winless Chargers continuing to struggle and the Cardinals getting annihilated by the Detroit Lions offense in Week 5, this young team appeared to be trending in the wrong direction.
This win changes things, or at least allows the Cardinals to live to see another week.
Winner: Mike LaFleur
Credit Mike LaFleur for getting this team to take that Ted Lasso goldfish mentality, putting Week 5 behind them to pull off a key upset against a divisional rival. While it likely doesn't change much in terms of the Cardinals' playoff chances, it does quiet the noise and frustration brewing from fans down in the desert.
Not only was this a much-needed victory for this Cardinals' season, but it also was a huge statement for LaFleur coming back to beat his former team. He was the Rams offensive coordinator under Sean McVay from 2023-25, and perhaps that history even worked to the Cardinals' advantage.
Loser: Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson officially became this team's WR1 following the trade that sent Marvin Harrison Jr. to the Houston Texans. Early signs aren't promising as far as Wilson truly emerging in that role. He fell behind tight end Trey McBride and even fellow wide receiver Kendrick Bourne in the pecking order, finishing with four receptions for 32 yards.
It's almost as though Harrison was the decoy for Wilson to get open in this offense, and now that teams are turning their attention more towards Wilson, it's Bourne benefiting from that secondary role.
Arizona managed to pull off the upset regardless, but they need more production from Wilson to truly feel comfortable with him as their long-term WR1 going forward.
Winner: Nick Rallis
The Cardinals snapped a four-game losing streak with this upset. It also ends the four-game stretch in which this defense has surrendered 30+ points under defensive coordinator Nick Rallis. Arizona even entered this contest leading the league in opponent points per game. It was genuinely getting so bad to the point where many wondered whether Rallis would be on the hot seat.
LaFleur was willing to look past the Lions blowout, saying that he wouldn't make such a drastic decision because this team was just yards away from defeating the New York Giants the week prior. We'll see how the rest of the season goes for this defense under Rallis, but this was finally the game where you could see the vision. The Cardinals successfully kept Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay guessing, which is easier said than done going up against two of the brightest minds in all of football.
This defense was both creative and aggressive at the perfect moments.
Loser: Red zone offense
The Cardinals had difficulty putting the Rams away and sealing the upset because they kept increasing their point total by threes. Chad Ryland had all 18 points for this offense.
They'll need to clean up that red zone execution going forward. Jeremiyah Love should help address that, with a shot at returning next week against the Denver Broncos. Still, the Cardinals need another big-bodied receiver to take some of the focus off of McBride. They clearly miss the 6-foot-3 Marvin Harrison Jr. in that regard.
Winner: Chad Ryland
Kickers are proving their value around the league, and fortunately Ryland is no exception for the Cardinals. It was a career-high six field goals for Ryland, including a game-winner from 43 yards out as time expired.
This had all the makings of a shootout, but surprisingly turned into more of a defensive battle, with Rallis and the Cardinals giving Stafford trouble. The grind-it-out nature of this game made Ryland the surprising X-factor, and he deserves a ton of credit for both his accuracy and poise to win it on the road.
Just one miss and we'd be looking at a 1-5 Cardinals team with an active five-game losing streak, with job security becoming even more in question around the organization. That all gets put on pause for another week thanks to Ryland, whose offense gave this drastically improved defense just enough to pull off what was arguably the most surprising upset of the entire season so far.
Hopefully Brissett and the Cardinals' red zone offense execute better going forward so they don't have to rely on Ryland this much. But a win's a win. And given how hard they've been to come by in The Valley these past few years, Cardinals fans will absolutely take it.
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