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.
Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo:
There are a few basic truths here:
– 2-0 is 2-0 and with the schedule being what it is, a start like this was a necessity not a luxury. The basic need of winning a football game was accomplished on Sunday. Take it.
– They just make it so hard, don’t they? An offense that lost its rhythm as quickly as it found it didn’t help. The tone setting defense from the first half was either on the field too much in the second half, the victim of unfortunate injuries, the victim of some bad calls or the perpetrators of those calls. Ultimately, they applied just enough pressure at just the right time to preserve the win. Their inability to finish these games will be a problem if not corrected soon. It’s not an “if” it’s a “when.”
– Mostly, it’s concern about the injuries. The status of Max Melton and Garrett Williams (and Will Johnson who couldn’t finish the game with a groin) is of vital importance in the hours and days moving forward. Those injuries punched a hole in the already thin secondary depth of the Cards.
– Kyler Murray did some amazing things (I joked on X his crazy scramble was “peak” Kyler absurdity). He did some not so amazing things (after the pick our colleague Jarrett Carlin tweeted that it was “base camp” Kyler absurdity). It felt to me that the interception was the pivot point of the game; the moment where it all started to get loose on them. He was rightfully praised for not giving the ball away last week. This week is a reminder that he will still make them. But the offense was absolutely humming at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, maybe better than it has all season up to this point. As usual, Kyler is a complicated recipe of good and bad.
Tyler Drake, Arizona Sports Cardinals beat writer and Cardinals Corner co-host:
Three things stuck out to me in the Cardinals’ win over the Panthers. None of them are in the “good” category:
Offensive inconsistencies
Injuries
Penalties
Despite all of those non-winning stats, Arizona still managed to squeak one out against a Carolina team that should have never been in the game to begin with.
The defense started off nuclear only to give up scores late. It’s yet another week of Arizona failing to firmly close out games. Against New Orleans and Carolina, it can get away with it. Up against some of the other opponents coming up? Different outcomes would be expected.
And the sloppiness on the penalties front has got to get cleaned up. Across two games, Arizona has been flagged 21 times for 150 yards. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot.
But that’s not even the worst of it. Not one, not two, but all three of the Cardinals’ starting cornerbacks (Will Johnson, Garrett Williams and Max Melton) exited Sunday’s game at different stages and did not return. For Williams and Melton, they needed to be helped off the field by trainers due to their respective knee issues. Johnson had a groin injury.
If anyone misses time, Arizona’s cornerbacks situation gets that much thinner, with rookie Denzel Burke and Kei’Trel Clark the next men up. The losses of Starling Thomas V and Sean Murphy-Bunting ahead of the season seem much more prevalent at this point.
A win is a win. 2-0 is nothing to scoff at. But holy cow, there are some things to clean up in a hurry.
Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf & Luke:
This is why you put teams away when you have the chance. Especially in the NFL. The Cardinals had this game totally under control, then got really conservative and almost took an inconceivably bad loss at home.
They held on, and that’s what matters most. There are a lot of teams around the league who would love to be 2-0 right now. But it’s not the only thing that matters. They really hung their defense out to dry in the second half — especially the now depleted secondary. That’s not a recipe for long-term success.
Ultimately they got it done, but there are lessons to be learned from this one. The Cardinals have legitimate playoff expectations and it’s always better to clean up mistakes after a victory but, if I’m being honest, I felt a lot better about the win in New Orleans than this one.
Still, you have to appreciate a 2-0 start — particularly when it comes with a win over a Carolina team that has caused all kinds of problems for Arizona over the last decade. Plus Calais Campbell ending the game with his second sack and walking off the field like the big brother who’s had enough of his siblings messing around and just wants to go home was one of the best things to happen in the NFL on Sunday.