Cardinals
down later, Drew Butler was punting.
“We had, in the first five plays, three guys that didn’t handle it very well,” Arians said. “Whereas when we were on the road in Houston (in preseason), we handled it beautifully. Again, we’ve got some young guys that get way too hyped up for games. They have to settle down and start the games better, and we have to communicate better.”
The offense scored four touchdowns in the 40-7 victory over the Bucs, but Arians sincerely believes the Cardinals' early offensive woes could have led to a much different game.
Despite benefiting from two turnovers, the Cardinals led just 10-0 late in the first half, and the Bucs were at the Cardinals' 29-yard line with under four minutes remaining.
A field goal or touchdown there would have changed the game’s complexion, and the Buccaneers had the ball to start the second half. Tampa Bay blew it when a teammate hit quarterback Jameis Winston’s arm as he was passing. The Cardinals recovered and scored two touchdowns before the end of the half.
The Cardinals aren’t providing specific reasons about their offensive woes early in the first two games.
“Execution,” quarterback Carson Palmer said. “I don’t think, in the first two games, we’ve been unprepared for a look. It just comes down to execution and being efficient. We haven’t been efficient enough in those first couple drives of the game to go down and score.”
The mistakes have not been made by only one person. In Week 1, Palmer and receiver Michael Floyd miscommunicated on a pass that ended up on vacant ground. In the first two games, a couple of run plays failed to gain yardage. Palmer was sacked once.
“It took a little while to get into sync last week offensively,” offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin said. “A guy misses a block here. A missed communication. Not a lot of it, just simple things. I think for the most part, once we got in sync and guys understood what was going on on the grass, we were OK.
“In this game, they’ve got a couple defensive packages we’ve got to be alert for, got to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Last year, the Cardinals proved they could rebound from a slow start. Including playoffs, they went 5-3 in the eight games in which they didn’t score a touchdown in the first quarter. In those five victories, they averaged about 34 points a game.
The Cardinals, who ranked second in the NFL in scoring in 2015, scored fewer points in the first quarter (86) than any other.
Jumping on the Bills (0-2) early Sunday might be more important than in most weeks. Bills fans are disappointed, and they could turn on their team if things go awry early. Plus, the Bills have converted only 26 percent of their thirddown situations, so it would behoove the Cardinals to get a lead early and force Buffalo to get away from their strength: running the football.
“This is a really good football team, I don’t care what people say,” receiver Larry Fitzgerald said, referring to the Bills. “They’ve lost by six points in two games. That’s the NFL, you lose some close ones. We know we got to play well.”
This is the Cardinals' first road game of the year. Last season, they went 7-1 away from home because they possessed skills “that travel well,” Fitzgerald said. It was a versatile team that could run the ball efficiently as well as beat opponents through the air.
This year’s offense should be just as diverse, and it might want to show that early.
It won’t be easy, said running back Chris Johnson, who played for Bills coach Rex Ryan with the Jets in 2014.
“Any time you’re facing a team like that, that’s desperate, 0-2 and trying to get a win, they are going to going to come out with everything,” Johnson said. “I know Rex, he’s going to come out with a million new blitzes. All the blitzes we’ve been seeing on film? He’s going to have a couple blitzes we haven’t see all year.
“We have to go out there and start fast and try to silence that crowd.”