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Arizona Cardinals: Poor Defensive Play Leads to Week 2 Loss
September 19, 2011
The Arizona Cardinals entered Week 2 of the NFL season with a chance to improve their record to 2-0 and prove that last week’s defensive ineptitude was an anomaly.
They played poorly in Week 1 and were lucky to escape with a victory.
As it turns out, Week 1 may have been more reality than anomaly, as the defense played just as badly in Week 2.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they were not as lucky, and left Washington a loser.
Through the first two weeks of the season, the Cardinals’ defense has given up the fourth-most yards in the NFL.
They have looked completely helpless against what should have been two average offenses.
They’ve been torched in the air and had the ball run down their throats.
On Sunday, after three quarters of under-performing, the Cardinals’ defense had a chance to make amends by stopping the Redskins in the fourth quarter on two separate drives to preserve an eight-point Cardinal lead.
Instead, they allowed the Redskins to move the ball effortlessly, giving up a 73-yard drive that resulted in a Redskins touchdown, and followed it up by allowing a 48-yard drive that resulted in what would be the game-winning field goal.
They let the opposition have their way, incapable of stopping anything their opponent threw at them, especially when it mattered the most.
They finished Week 2 with more questions than answers and showed fans that they could just not be a good football team, and any hopes of contending for the NFC West title should be flushed immediately.
If defense wins championships, then that is certainly the case.
The Cardinals will again face a subpar offense in Week 3 against the Seattle Seahawks.
The Seahawks were shut out yesterday when they faced the Steelers and have fewer total offensive yards through two games than any other team in the NFL.
If the Cardinals defense allows Tarvaris Jackson and company to run over them, it will remove all doubts that the Cardinals' defense is one of the worst in football, and that the Cardinals will again be picking in the top 10 in the NFL draft next spring.
After a miserable 2010 season, that would be a devastating blow to Cardinals fans and a disappointing way to usher in the Kevin Kolb era.