The Arizona Cardinals blew a 21-point second-half lead on Sunday, falling to 0-2 with a 31-28 defeat to the New York Giants. They now enter an extremely tough stretch of their season winless and appearing not to have a chance at winning a game for a while.
As for the game on Sunday, what can we take away from the loss?
Buy Cardinals TicketsWe discuss it below.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
They have potential on offense
After looking absolutely incompetent offensively in Week 1, the Cardinals built a 20-point lead in the first half and moved the ball well. They ran the ball well. Joshua Dobbs was competent.
The defense stepped up early
Even missing four defensive starters (Budda Baker, Josh Woods, L.J. Collier and Leki Fotu), the defense picked up where it left off last week against the Commanders. They had three first-half sacks and a takeaway. They held the Giants to only 81 first-half yards.
They couldn't sustain the effort
Partially, the Giants woke up and began to make plays. But the Cardinals just could not sustain what they were doing. All they needed was one side of the ball to step up and make plays on one more series. Neither did.
Dobbs wasn't awful
Dobbs followed his abysmal play with a very solid performance. He was 21-for-31 for 228 yards and a touchdown. He was not sacked and did not turn the ball over. He missed a couple of throws, but maybe he isn’t as bad as some of us thought.
Dennis Gardeck contineus his great start
Gardeck, who had two sacks in Week 1. added another in Week 2.
He added two tackles for loss as well.