Lions 35, Cardinals 23
First Quarter Ari—Bethel 82 interception return (Dawson kick), 11:14. Arizona 7, Detroit 0. Ari—FG Dawson 24, 2:40. Drive: 7 plays, 7 yards, 3:32. Key Play: A.Zettel 6-yard leaping penalty on 4th-and-8. Arizona 10, Detroit 0.
Second Quarter Det—M.Jones 6 pass from Stafford (run failed), 4:22. Drive: 11 plays, 42 yards, 6:16. Key Plays: Quin 25 interception return to Arizona 42; Stafford 15 run; Stafford 5 pass to Ebron on 3rd-and-5; D.Washington 6 run on 3rd-and-1. Arizona 10, Detroit 6. Det—FG Prater 58, :00. Drive: 8 plays, 38 yards, 00:39. Key Plays: Stafford 13 pass to Riddick; Stafford 19 pass to Tate on 3rd-and-10; Stafford 6 pass to Abdullah on 3rd-and-10. Arizona 10, Detroit 9.
Third Quarter Ari—K.Williams 3 run (Dawson kick), 5:37. Drive: 12 plays, 94 yards, 5:49. Key Plays: Palmer 16 pass to Johnson; T.Wilson 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty; Jo.Brown 10 run; Palmer 14 pass to Nelson; Palmer 7 pass to Fitzgerald on 3rd-and-2; J.Gresham 10-yard offensive holding penalty; Palmer 17 pass to Gresham; Palmer 24 pass to Johnson. Arizona 17, Detroit 9. Det—Riddick 7 pass from Stafford (pass failed), 3:07. Drive: 2 plays, 10 yards, 00:45. Arizona 17, Detroit 15.
Fourth Quarter Det—Golladay 10 pass from Stafford (pass failed), 9:27. Drive: 10 plays, 67 yards, 4:49. Key Plays: T.Lang 10-yard illegal block above the waist penalty; Stafford 16 pass to T.Jones on 3rd-and-10; Stafford 17 pass to Tate; Stafford 16 pass to T.Jones. Detroit 21, Arizona 17. Det—Golladay 45 pass from Stafford (Prater kick), 4:13. Drive: 5 plays, 72 yards, 2:55. Key Play: Stafford 14 pass to Tate. Detroit 28, Arizona 17. Det—Killebrew 35 interception return (Prater kick), 4:03. Detroit 35, Arizona 17. Ari—Nelson 1 pass from Palmer (pass failed), 1:33. Drive: 10 plays, 75 yards, 2:30. Key Plays: J.Davis 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty; Palmer 11 pass to Gresham; Palmer 11 pass to Ellington; M.Iupati 10-yard offensive holding penalty on 3rd-and-3; Palmer 11 pass to Jo.Brown on 3rd-and-3; Palmer 11 pass to Nelson; Palmer 2 run on 4th-and-2; Palmer 5 pass to Fitzgerald on 3rd-and-1; J.Davis 13-yard defensive pass interference penalty. Detroit 35, Arizona 23. A—60,957.
Ari FIRST DOWNS 24 Rushing 4 Passing 15 Penalty 5 THIRD DOWN EFF 6-15 FOURTH DOWN EFF 1-1 TOTAL NET YARDS 309 Total Plays 67 Avg Gain 4.6 NET YARDS RUSHING 45 Rushes 18 Avg per rush 2.5 NET YARDS PASSING 264 Sacked-Yds lost 1-5 Gross-Yds passing 269 Completed-Att. 27-48 Had Intercepted 3 Yards-Pass Play 5.4 KICKOFFS-EndZone-TB 5-4-1 PUNTS-Avg. 4-46.0 Punts blocked. 0 FGs-PATs blocked 0-0 TOTAL RETURN YARDAGE 128 Punt Returns 1-0 Kickoff Returns 2-46 Interceptions 1-82 PENALTIES-Yds 6-55 FUMBLES-Lost 2-1 TIME OF POSSESSION 26:40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING—Arizona, Johnson 11-23, Brown 1-10, Williams 5-10, Palmer 1-2. Detroit, Abdullah 15-30, Washington 6-22, Stafford 2-14, Redfern 1-10, Tate 2-7, Riddick 1-(minus 1). PASSING—Arizona, Palmer 27-48-3-269. Detroit, Stafford 29-41-1292. RECEIVING—Arizona, Fitzgerald 6-74, Johnson 6-68, Nelson 5-43, Brown 4-32, Gresham 3-15, Ellington 2-35, Williams 1-2. Detroit, Tate 10-107, Riddick 6-27, Golladay 4-69, Abdullah 3-11, Jones 2-37, Jones 2-32, Ebron 2-9. PUNT RETURNS—Arizona, Williams 1-0. Detroit, Agnew 3-48. KICKOFF RETURNS—Arizona, Williams 2-46. Detroit, Washington 2-31, Agnew 1-18. TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS—Arizona, Branch 9-1-0, Reddick 6-2-0, Dansby 5-2-0, Bethea 4-1-0, Bynes 4-0-0, Bethel 3-1-0, Jones 3-0-1, Mauro 3-0-0, Rucker 2-1-0, Mathieu 2-1-0, Peters 2-0-0, Golden 10-0, Momah 1-0-0, Williams 1-0-0, Peterson 0-1-0. Detroit, Davis 90-0, Quin 4-1-0, Zettel 3-0-1, Wilson 3-0-0, Robinson 3-0-0, Lawson 3-0-0, Hayden 3-0-0, Diggs 3-0-0, Whitehead 2-3-0, Killebrew 2-0-0, Spence 1-1-0, Slay 1-0-0, Agnew 1-0-0, Ansah 1-0-0, Ledbetter 0-2-0, Valoaga 0-1-0, Washington 0-1-0. INTERCEPTIONS—Arizona, Bethel 1-82. Detroit, Killebrew 1-35, Quin 1-25, Wilson 1-23. MISSED FGS—Arizona, Dawson 32. Det 19 3 15 1 8-16 0-1 367 69 5.3 82 27 3.0 285 1-7 292 29-41 1 6.8 6-6-4 5-37.8 0 0-0 180 3-48 3-49 3-83 10-100 1-0 33:20
This would have been a higher grade had Phil Dawson not clanged a 32-yard field-goal attempt off the left upright late in the first half. Then again, this unit overall looked pretty decent because of how bad the Lions’ special teams played, especially in the first half. Detroit struggled a ton, be it on punts, punt returns, and point-after attempts. Arizona’s new punter, Andy Lee, was impressive and Kerwynn Williams averaged 23 yards on kickoff returns, but the coverage teams weren’t very good other that Ifeanyi Momah blowing up Casey Redfern and knocking Detroit’s punter out of the game after a botched snap forced him to try and run the ball out of the end zone.
Coaching: C
The Cardinals couldn’t or wouldn’t harass Stafford enough in obvious passing situations, and it took too long for the offense to re-establish any footing when it became painfully clear they couldn’t run the ball between the tackles. Play calling helped Palmer to finally begin utilizing his open underneath targets, but only after the Lions had surged ahead. Bottom line, the Cardinals had a 17-9 lead late in the third quarter and looked helpless in watching the Lions scores 26 unanswered points. LT D.J. Humphries suffered an injury to his right knee on the second possession of the game. He was replaced by John Wetzel and did not return. RB David Johnson suffered a wrist injury and left in the third quarter. He did not return.
Up next
Sunday at Indianapolis, 10 a.m.