The Arizona Cardinals dominated the “middle eight” on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, taking a 27-3 lead on a James Conner touchdown coming out of halftime.
The rest of the game did not go so smoothly, but the Cardinals held on for a 27-22 victory.
Carolina outscored Arizona 13-0 in the fourth quarter and secured an onside kick that gave the visitors a chance to steal a win at State Farm Stadium.
Calais Campbell sacked Panthers quarterback Bryce Young to turn Carolina over on downs and end the threat. The Cardinals are 2-0 with a couple tight wins that came down to the final minutes.
Arizona Sports hosts gave their biggest takeaways from the Cardinals’ win:
Rapid Reactions: Cardinals beat Panthers in Week 2
Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta Mornings:
Should’ve been a rout — and for most of the game it was. But instead it turned into another “a win is a win” type of day for the Cardinals.
Yes, they moved to 2-0 on the season with a 27-22 win over the Carolina Panthers. Up 27-9 and driving deep into Carolina territory for what should have been the door-slamming touchdown or field goal, Kyler Murray threw another bad interception — and this one opened up the floodgates.
Carolina scored touchdowns on its next two possessions and had a chance to win it after recovering an onside kick. The Panthers drove all the way to the Cardinals’ 33-yard line, but the Arizona defense stiffened and Calais Campbell’s sack of Bryce Young on 4th down with 0:26 left sealed the deal.
Sunday was another very Murray performance. He completed 17-of-25 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown and had a vintage 30-yard escape/scramble just three plays before the pick.
There’s plenty to be concerned about on the Cardinals’ side of things. Their offensive line again struggled to create running lanes. The James Conner-Trey Benson combo gained just 46 yards on 14 carries. And the Cardinals suffered two injuries in the secondary which could be season-altering if they’re serious. Cornerback Max Melton left the game early with a leg injury and late in the contest, Garrett Williams had to be helped off the field (and right into the locker room) after what looked like a knee injury on Carolina’s last touchdown.
Kudos to Denzel Burke and Kei’trel Clark for stepping up and making plays on the final Carolina possession.
Again, a win is a win, but there’s no way this game should have been close.
Kellan Olson, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night:
Well, intricacies are only relevant when you do not look like you are playing against a peer for half of the time you play against the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers. Arizona has most importantly done enough in the middle quarters of these outings to win, but major problems at the close continue to tempt fate. To repeat a theme from last week, good teams do not do that. They put away bad teams. While there is much more to get to, anything else does not deserve mention compared to the severity of that issue.
John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo:
Have to start with 2-0 because in the end that is what they are. It may not be who they are, but it is what they are. This one looked like it was in the bag — up 27-3 in the third quarter after an impressive touchdown drive to open the second half.
How Carolina had the ball in Cardinals territory with a chance to win the game in the final minutes is mind boggling. Yes, there were some awful calls that went against Arizona, nonetheless the offense failed to score after the first drive of the second half and the defense gave up three touchdowns — one off of a poor interception by Kyler Murray in the red zone.
On the first one Arizona gave up a fourth-and-one and a third-and-three. On the second one they gave up a touchdown on fourth down. And the final one included a fourth-and-16 conversion for 26 yards and a third-and-10 for 10 yards. Arizona almost gave the game away on the Panthers’ final possession with three defensive penalties, but old man Calais Campbell came up with a sack to thwart the drive and save the Cardinals from a major embarrassment. Thank goodness the Cardinals stopped two separate 2-point conversions or Carolina could have sent that game to OT with a field goal after recovering the onside kick.
The Rams, 49ers and Seahawks all won so this was important even this early in the season. But Jonathon Gannon and the coaching staff have some work to do to clean up a lot of went wrong in that second half.
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