Starters, rookies stand out in victory
Bradford, Rosen lead TD drives
NEW ORLEANS – By the time the regular season rolls around in a few weeks, nobody will remember the final score of Friday night’s preseason game between the Cardinals and Saints. The Cardinals’ 20-15 victory will get lost in the memory like a bad hangover after a long night of frolicking on Bourbon Street.
Cardinals coach Steve Wilks won’t forget what he saw out of his starters, however. He’ll probably never forget it.
Except for a handful of penalties, namely false starts he can excuse because of the crowd noise from a full house of 73,063 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the Cardinals’ regulars were Saint-sational on Friday.
Wilks probably couldn’t wait to get back to the team’s Tempe training facil-
ity to watch the tape. It was that good.
“I think we’re on the right track,” Wilks said. “We’re a long way away from where we need to be, but I’ve seen progress each and every week . ... I was very pleased with the (first-teamers) and what we were able to do.”
Wilks said he could have given out game balls across the board.
Start with starting quarterback Sam Bradford. He was a perfect 6 for 6 for 61 yards, completing his six passes to six different receivers. The veteran also showed some mobility in avoiding any real hits, another positive for him and his rehabilitated left knee.
“We did some good things tonight,” Bradford said. “Early, some of the presnap penalties hurt us. It got us behind the chains, down and distance-wise. But other than that, I thought it was pretty sharp tonight. I’m sure we’ll look at the tape and there will be things we need to improve and things that we need to do better. But I think there were a lot of good things that were done tonight and things that we can really build on.”
Starting running back David Johnson, meanwhile, ran six times for 22 yards, including a bullish nine-yard run for a touchdown in which it seemed as if the entire offensive line ran right with him and helped push him over the goal line. It was reminiscent of last week’s extra-effort plunge into the end zone by rookie Chase Edmonds, only longer and with a lot more thumping.
The offensive line was solid, even though there were false starts by right tackle Andre Smith, left tackle D.J, Humphries and tight ends Ricky SealsJones and Gabe Holmes. Rookie center Mason Cole didn’t seem to miss a beat and chipped in with some key blocks to buy time for Bradford and the running backs.
The first-teamers were also joined by young wide receivers Chad Williams and Christian Kirk, who made plays whether it was Bradford throwing to them or rookie Josh Rosen, who entered the game early in the second quarter and led the Cardinals on two scoring drives.
The first was a seven-play, 87-yard foray that included a 10-yard completion from Rosen to Williams and, on third and goal from the 13 after a false start and delay of game penalty, a 13yard strike from Rosen to Kirk for a touchdown.
Rosen showed good patience on the touchdown, moving just enough in the pocket to buy himself an extra second or two to scan his receivers and then throwing a pass right on the mark for Kirk to bring down at the goal line. Rosen finished the game 10 of 16 for 107 yards with the touchdown and no interceptions.
“It was a great throw by Josh, putting it right where it needed to be,” said Kirk, who led the team with four catches for 49 yards. “It was the only place where I could go get it and it was on me to go make a play.”
Working with the first-team offensive line was clearly a helpful opportunity for Rosen, who never could get anything going last week with the secondstring unit. But they redeemed themselves, too, showing a much better performance as they finished out the first half with Rosen.
Two players who stood out were Evan Boehm and Daniel Munyer. They switched positions this week as Boehm played center for the first time since OTAs and Munyer played left guard. Boehm’s snaps in shotgun situations were flawless. Munyer, who had trouble with the long snaps, more than held his own at guard.
With most of the starters gone on offense, Rosen helped engineer an 11play drive that was capped by a 41-yard field goal by Phil Dawson. It gave the Cardinals a 17-3 lead, and they should have ended the half with a 20-3 lead, except Dawson missed wide right on a 46-yarder.
As good as he looked, Rosen said he could have been better, pointing out he badly overthrew one pass, held onto the ball too long and was responsible for the delay-of-game call.
“Absolutely, I could have been more pleased,” he said.
As good as all of that was on Friday night, the Cardinals’ defense might have been better.
The defense forced four more turnovers, all in the first half. That matches the four turnovers it generated last week against the Chargers and gives the Cardinals eight overall in just two games.
“Man, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like that,” Bradford said. “But Coach Wilks, it’s something he’s preached all offseason. We hear him talking about it to the defense in our team meetings and the practice field. And to see those guys go out and play the way they have the past two weeks, it’s really encouraging as an offense when you know what’s going on on the other side of the football.”
The turnovers came fast and furious on Friday. Linebacker Haason Reddick got the first one with an interception of Saints quarterback Taysom Hill, who got the start in place of veteran Drew Brees.