NFL Sunday takeaways Cardinals might be best team in the league
Overpowering win over previously undefeated Rams lifts Arizona to 4-0
Author of the article:
John KrykPublishing date:
Oct 03, 2021 • 26 minutes ago • 7 minute read • Join the conversation
Oct 3, 2021; Inglewood, California, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) runs the ball against Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Leonard Floyd (54) during the second half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports Article content The best team in the loaded NFC West right now? No question, it’s the Arizona Cardinals.
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Article contentBest team in the NFL too?
Well let’s put it this way. After their start-to-finish domination on Sunday of the previously undefeated Los Angeles Rams, 37-20 at SoFi Stadium, the Cardinals are 4-0.
And after Denver lost at home to Baltimore, 23-7, the only other undefeated NFL team is the Las Vegas Raiders (3-0), who play at the Los Angeles Chargers (2-1) on Monday night.
So who’s better right now?
There had been so much cynicism, even ridicule, when the Cardinals hired failed college head coach Kliff Kingsbury as its new head coach two years ago, to partner him up as a revered offensive strategist with then-rookie No. 1 overall draft pick Kyler Murray.
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Year 3 of their collaboration could not have begun more impressively â€" four wins in four games, with three coming on the road, and successive point totals of 38, 34, 31 and 37.
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Article contentKingsbury is legit. So is Murray.
The diminutive QB is a legit league MVP candidate four weeks into the season. He has completed 76% of his throws (on pace for an NFL season record), is throwing for an average of 318 yards per game, and has personally produced 12 touchdowns already â€" nine off his right arm, three off his legs.
It was Arizona’s first win over the Rams since New Year’s Day 2017, to snap an eight-game skid. And, to repeat, the margin of victory was emblematic of the Cards’ on-field domination. Physically, too, against one of the league’s top defences. Arizona amassed 465 total yards before taking the foot off the gas in the fourth. Impressive.
“We just wanted to get a week better,†Kingsbury said, in downplaying the idea that his team was obsessed with ending the losing streak to L.A.
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Article contentBRONCOS NO LONGER UNDEFEATED EITHER
Baltimore handed Denver its first loss, and it too was decisive.
It helped the Ravens that Broncos QB Teddy Bridgewater left the game by halftime with a concussion. But the Ravens had bottled up Bridgewater and the Broncos offence to that point, with Bridgewater completing just 7-of-16 for 65 yards. His replacement Drew Lock fared no better.
The Broncos’ stout defence mostly put a lid on the vaunted Ravens rushing attack, nearly holding it to under 100 yards for the first time in forever, but it came at the expense of pass defence. And Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson made Denver pay by throwing for 316 yards and a touchdown.
Whatever it takes, right?
Denver had defeated three tomato cans to open the season. No one thought they were as good as all that, and the Ravens underscored that assessment.
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Article contentALLEN AND THE BILLS RIGHT AS RAIN AGAIN
Pouring rain made for a miserable start in Buffalo between the Bills and Houston Texans. Each quarterback was intercepted, and the Texans turned it over on downs, before either passer completed a single pass.
But while Josh Allen of the Bills cranked it up (he completed 20 of his last 28 passes for 248 yards and two TDs), rookie Davis Mills â€" in his first road start for the Texans â€" fared little better than you or me.
In Buffalo’s emphatic 40-0 victory, the Texans scrounged only eight yards of total offence by halftime, on 1-of-7 passing by Mills for three yards and two interceptions. It was bad, too, in the run game: Veteran Houston running backs Rex Burkhead and Philip Lindsay combined to gain minus-four yards on four carries.
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Article contentAnd it got no better after halftime.
Buffalo has won three games by blowout (a combined score of 118-21) and two by shutout since dropping its opener against Pittsburgh. The formidable Bills defence has allowed its past three foes to convert only 13-of-46 third- or fourth-down conversions (28%).
According to BillsDaily.com, Buffalo is only the third team since 1990 to record two shutouts through Week 4, after Washington in 1991 and Baltimore in 2000.
Also, it reportedly was Buffalo’s largest single-game margin of yardage differential (plus-341) since the club’s 1964 AFL championship season; the Bills finished with 450, the Texans 109.
Buffalo head coach and chief defensive strategist Sean McDermott said his defence still “has work to do.â€
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Article contentNext week’s game likely won’t yield so impressive a defensive performance: at Kansas City on Sunday night.
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FIRST WINS FOR TWO ROOKIE QUARTERBACKS
While Mills, a third-round draft pick, still yearns for his first victory as NFL QB starter, two others notched theirs on Sunday: No. 2 overall draft pick Zach Wilson and No. 11 overall pick Justin Fields.
Wilson led the New York Jets from a 9-0 deficit to a 27-24 overtime victory over the defensively disappearing Tennessee Titans.
Fields led the Chicago Bears to a 24-14 win over the visiting ever-vexed Detroit Lions.
Although Wilson tossed another ugly interception early, he grew up and finally consistently played like an effective pro QB with exciting upside. In the decisive second half Wilson completed 64% of his throws for 232 yards, two TDs and no interceptions.
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Article content“It started on a third-and-10 conversion in the first half,†said Robert Saleh, who notched his first win as NFL head coach. “You get a little confidence going and it starting to snowball … The kid was outstanding … he’s a playmaker.â€
Fields, meantime, didn’t have to pass much for the Bears, as Chicago’s defence, Chicago’s rushing attack (188 yards) and Detroit’s decades-refined acumen for being their own worst enemy were more responsible for the victory.
Still, Fields completed 11-of-17 for 209 yards, was sacked only once, and his only interception was a fluke off a tip.
“Us winning the toss and scoring on the first drive definitely set the tone for the game … We all executed today at a high level,†Fields said.
LANCE REPLACES INJURED GAROPPOLO IN 49ERS LOSS
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Article contentJimmy Garoppolo got injured again. Calf this time. Couldn’t play past halftime for the San Francisco 49ers in a big division game at home, against the Seattle Seahawks.
Garoppolo helped lead the Niners out to a 7-0 lead by late in the first half. Then everything changed when Russell Wilson hit D.K. Metcalf for a 12-yard TD connection to tie it 1:54 before halftime.
With Garoppolo out, it was all Seattle in the second half, other than a nice out-and-up TD throw from Garoppolo’s replacement, No. 3 overall draft pick Trey Lance, to acres-open Deebo Samuel.
Seattle won 28-21.
Other than perhaps the ever-victimized Ravens, the 49ers have to be the most injury-vexed team in the league. At least in the NFC. Before kickoff Sunday, Niners placekicker Robbie Gould was scratched because of a groin injury he suffered in warm-ups.
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Article contentIn the second half, star 49ers left tackle Trent Williams left with an elbow injury. Key players, it seems, are always just a quarter-step ahead of the injury gremlins.
The Seahawks, meantime, had to win this game to keep realistic division hopes alive by not falling to 1-3. Desperation is one mother of a motivator at this time of year.
The Seahawks now are 2-2, same with the 49ers, and they’re within range still of the Cardinals (4-0) and Rams (3-1).
HARSH TAKE â€" BAKER MAYFIELD
Cleveland won 14-7 at Minnesota not because of, but rather in spite of, QB Baker Mayfield, who seems to be slipping into yet another mid-season funk.
With a defence that ferocious (Vikings QB Kirk Cousins was under pressure throughout) and a rush-game that productive (184 yards), Mayfield should have shone.
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Article contentInstead, he could hardly have performed worse. On the day he hit on 43% of his 35 throws. After halftime? Wow, only 4-of-13 (31%) for 57 yards and he was sacked twice.
With a chance to seal the deal with his last throw to a ridiculously open Odell Beckham Jr. â€" who freed himself nicely up the right sideline on an out-and-up route â€" Mayfield fired a pass way too hard, too low, too short and too far to the right of Beckham. Incomplete.
All Mayfield had to do was put a bit of air under the ball and Cleveland would have scored to go up by two TDs, and ball game.
Instead, Browns coaches and fans had to bite their nails until Cousins’ Hail Mary fell incomplete at 0:00.
If Mayfield isn’t hurt, what’s up?
HARSH TAKE â€" FALCONS DO WHAT THEY DO
Only two things prevent the Atlanta Falcons from winning almost any close game: They cannot, for the life of them, under whichever coaching staff, play any offence or any defence in the last five minutes.
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Article contentBut that’s it.
The Falcons blew yet another fourth-quarter lead, their gazillionth of the Matt Ryan era, in losing 34-30 at home against the Washington Football Team.
Why go into the details? If you follow the NFL closely you’ve seen this unravelling so many times before. The defence disappears. Ryan’s passing effectiveness disappears. And Atlanta coughs up a likely victory far, far too easily.
Taylor Heinicke, Washington’s plucky quarterback, proved again he can be barely good enough as long as the defence he’s facing is downright bad. Otherwise, like last week at Buffalo, forget it.
HARSH TAKE â€" DOLPHINS WERE WAY OVER-RATED
We read all off-season that the Miami Dolphins, behind their retooled, talented defence, maybe were ready to challenge the Bills for the AFC East title. In any event, they’d be much improved.
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Article contentIn fact, the Dolphins have regressed everywhere. And don’t point to second-year QB Tua Tagovailoa missing most of the last three games (all losses) with a ribs injury.
The defence has been a massive disappointment, as proved again Sunday in another hope-crushing, early-season, home-field defeat â€" 27-17 to the previously winless Indianapolis Colts.
The Dolphins can’t run it, can’t stop the run, can’t do much of anything right. Jeez.
At least third-year head coach Brian Flores isn’t trying to hide it.
“We played bad across the board,†he said. “Offensively, defensively, in the kicking game, drops, penalties, turnovers. I mean, we played poorly, really, across the board. So we’ve got a lot to fix.â€
JoKryk@postmedia.com
@JohnKryk
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