Arizona Cardinals Are Officially the New Kings of the NFC West

Move over, Seattle. The Arizona Cardinals are quickly taking over the NFC West, and they don't look intent on handing the division back to the reigning NFC champions like they did a year ago.

The Cardinals improved to a shiny 4-1 record after dismantling another struggling team on Sunday, taking it to the Detroit Lions for four dominating quarters in a 42-17 victory. They produced their fourth blowout in as many victories in 2015.

Week	Score
1	Cardinals 31, Saints 19
2	Cardinals 48, Bears 23
3	Cardinals 47, Bears 7
4	Rams 24, Cardinals 22
5	Cardinals 42, Lions 17

After spotting Detroit an early touchdown, the Cardinals put their foot on the gas and didn't let up. They rode a 28-point second quarter to gain a huge advantage, part of 35 straight Arizona points that put the game out of reach.

On the heels of another decisive win, the Cardinals are putting up points at a rate rarely seen in the history of the NFL:

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The @AZCardinals 190 points are the 7th-most through 5 games in NFL history (@EliasSports) pic.twitter.com/kff3t4ltIv

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 11, 2015"

It's no secret that Arizona's biggest key to success is a healthy Carson Palmer. The Cardinals' 2014 season was derailed when Palmer joined a long list of injured teammates with a season-ending injury, but he was on the money on Sunday with three touchdowns on 11-for-14 passing.

Palmer has been consistently dangerous when healthy over the last two seasons, and as Cardinals vice president of media relations Mark Dalton tweeted, he has thrown more than twice as many touchdowns as interceptions in his last 20 starts:

The quarterback isn't the only 30-something veteran making a big difference, as Larry Fitzgerald is also dialing back the clock. He scored his sixth touchdown of the season on Sunday and now has 490 receiving yards on the year.

Fitzgerald and Palmer join safety Chris Clemons among veterans improving with age, as head coach Bruce Arians told Dave Birkett of Detroit Free Press:

Much of Palmer's success is due to a strong rushing attack that has produced no matter who's getting the ball. That proved itself true again on Sunday, with David Johnson scoring twice, Chris Johnson putting up a 103-yard game and Andre Ellington returning in style with a 63-yard touchdown.

Like all great teams, though, the Cardinals' biggest strength falls on the defense and its ability to simply shut down the opposing attack.

Arizona did just that on Sunday, picking off Matthew Stafford three times and forcing the Lions to insert another quarterback into a game for the first time since 2012. Backup Dan Orlovsky didn't do much better, throwing an interception of his own to give the Cardinals four on the day.

Arizona's defense is performing so well at the moment that even the sideline is making plays, as Dave Hogg of the Associated Press reported:

Cards defensive backs had so many opportunities at picks that they even tried to share them, as the team's Twitter account showed:

The Lions did put up over 400 yards of offense, but many of those came on garbage-time drives that meant nothing to the final outcome. Even so, the Cardinals remain in the top 10 in total defense, giving up all of 332.6 yards per game.

Most importantly, the Cardinals are gaining steam in the biggest statistic of all—the win column. 

Duane Burleson/Associated Press

At 4-1, Arizona looks poised to run away with arguably the NFL's most highly sought-after division. The Seahawks dropped an overtime game in Cincinnati to fall to 2-3, while the Rams also lost on the road to post an identical record. San Francisco has long been an afterthought.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals just continue to dominate anyone outside the division, per Mike Jurecki of Fox Sports 910:

The Cardinals may continue their winning ways outside the division in the coming weeks. They face a Pittsburgh Steelers team next week that's still without Ben Roethlisberger before two more games against AFC North foes (Baltimore and Cleveland) who are a combined 3-7 so far.

The Seahawks started slowly just like this a season ago only to rebound late and win the division, but it's important to note that wouldn't have happened without the Cardinals losing four of their last six to finish the season.

That was largely due to Arizona being decimated by injuries.

Arizona has known in its locker room for quite some time what the potential of this team is when the breaks don't go against them injury-wise. Instead of overreacting to last season's collapse, the Cardinals put their heads down, improved and got healthy.

So far in 2015, the results are on display. And the rest of the NFC West is getting left in the dust in the process.