The Buffalo Bills looked prophetic in their 33-18 home victory over the Arizona Cardinals. This wasn’t the same Bills team who had lost 37-31 to the New York Jets in Week two, and on film, looked to be a beatable opponent. Buffalo was 0-2 and reeling. Wide receiver Sammy Watkins was ruled out. Bills head coach Rex Ryan was about to lose his job. But the Bills went out and won and now the 1-2 Cardinals have a lot to think about.
Arizona Cardinals Week Three Takeaways
Tale of Two Quarterbacks and Offenses
Quarterback Carson Palmer and the Cards offense couldn’t get anything going from the start. The Cardinals only had two yards of net offense and no first downs on their first five possessions. The running game was ineffective, and there were too many dropped balls and overthrown passes and way too many missed opportunities.
Tyrod Taylor moved his team freely up and down the field and threw the ball to any receiver not named Watkins . Running back “Shady” LeSean McCoy was unstoppable as he ran through the Cards porous defense and scored two touchdowns in the first half of the game. The Bills running game was able to record 206 yards of offense on the ground. Taylor alone had 76 yards rushing ards, including a 49-yard scant, which is the longest for a quarterback in team history.
“Can’t happen,” said coach Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, after the game. “Can’t give up 50 yard runs on an option play that you worked on all week.”
Palmer rallied in the second quarter with a 17 play drive. Running back David Johnson ran four yards to pay dirt and the Cardinals closed the gap. At halftime, the Cardinals went into the locker room trailing the Bills 17-7.
Cardinals fans didn’t fret. Arizona had been down before and fans knew that last season’s NFC West Champions from the year before would come out storming in the third quarter to start the second half.
Cardinals Couldn’t Do Enough in The Second Half
Maybe the Cardinals just tried too hard, but the second half offered only a few golden opportunities and Arizona just couldn’t capitalize on them.
Safety Tyrann Mathieu batted down a pass from Taylor intended for Bills receiver Robert Woods, which would’ve resulted in a fumble recovery, but the ball was never fully recovered and it bounced out of bounds.
Palmer was finally able to get the offense going in the second half and should’ve been able to close the gap, but sometimes it just isn’t meant to be. Palmer, who had no interceptions through the first two games of the season, finished Sunday’s game 26 out of 50 for 287 yards, with no touchdowns and four interceptions.
David Johnson had 19 carries for 83 yards and two touchdowns for the game.
“People always want to put teams down early in the season,” Arians also said of the Bills. “That’s a good football team. It’s tough to win on the road in all the noise, but those are all excuses.”
Hopefully the now 1-2 Cardinals learn from their Week three debacle and right the ship for their Week four matchup at home against the Los Angeles Rams.
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