3 major disadvantages the Arizona Cardinals have heading into Week 2 vs. the Giants

The Arizona Cardinals head into Week 2 with a slew of competitive advantages over the New York Giants. Given how badly the G-Men played offensively last week juxtaposed with the Cardinals solid defensive play, the Redbirds have a chance to easily contain what was supposed to be one of the NFL’s fastest-rising teams. 

However, there are also some competitive disadvantages, including one that has plagued the Cardinals since the first year of the Kliff Kingsbury era. This team continues to commit far too many penalties, and it doesn’t help that their passing offense is worse than pedestrian. 

Further, they are also playing against a team that is looking to avenge what was an embarrassing loss on Sunday night. It should go without saying that the Giants motivation level will be somewhere in the stratosphere this weekend. 

3 disadvantages the Arizona Cardinals have heading into Week 2

1 - Penalties

One of our three major takeaways following last week’s game, the Cardinals will be at a perpetual disadvantage all season in this category if they keep up what they did last week. Although I’d like to say there will be an end in sight to what has become a year-after-year issue, they proved otherwise in Week 1. 

If there is any upside, it’s that 67 of their 122 penalty yards all occurred on one drive. But then again, that’s like saying your defense played an opposing running back well because they averaged 2.5 yards per carry on 20 of their rushing attempts, but they had 50 combined yards and two touchdowns on their other three. And if you do the math, that’s 4.34 yards per carry in such a hypothetical situation. 

As the Cardinals found out yet again last week, penalties will factor in as a major contributor to a loss. If they want to make life simpler for them this Sunday, then they need to dramatically reduce the number of flags thrown their way.