Bills QB Allen has Cardinals’ full attention
Tua Tagovailoa and the streaking Miami Dolphins were just the appetizer. Now comes the main course – Josh Allen and the surging Buffalo Bills.
If the Cardinals don’t want to use a barf bag, they’re going to have to find a way to adjust, overcome and figure out how to digest an opponent that’s even tougher to handle. Otherwise, things are going to get awfully messy on Sunday at State Farm Stadium.
“I know, and our defense knows, that Josh Allen is one of the best QBs right now,” Cardinals safety Budda Baker said. “He’s playing really good football. They’re putting a lot of points
on the board. … We know that, so we’re going to be watching the film and get the game plan and hopefully, we can execute the game plan on Sunday.”
If they don’t, the Cardinals will quickly find themselves on the end of a two-game losing streak after a 5-2 start with the dangerous Russell Wilson and the Seahawks awaiting them on a short week in Seattle on Thursday Night Football.
That’s why this figures to be the most pivotal two-game stretch of the season for the Cardinals, who put 31 points on the league’s top-scoring defense in the Dolphins last Sunday yet lost 34-31 in Tagovailoa’s second NFL start.
Miami’s rookie quarterback passed for 248 yards and two touchdowns against a depleted Arizona secondary, but in Allen, the Cardinals will be facing a much bigger challenge, defensively. The third-year pro ranks third in the league in passing yards (2,587) and has 19 touchdowns to just five interceptions in helping lead the Bills to first place in the AFC East with a 7-2 record.
Allen is coming off one of his best games ever, too, having thrown for 415 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions and adding a rushing touchdown, his fifth of the season, in a 44-34 win over the Seahawks.
In that game, Seattle blitzed Allen 28 times and he still managed to complete 19 of 24 passes for 259 yards and two touchdowns in situations when he faced a five-man or more pass rush.
“It’s going to be fun to watch this one and still learn from it and try to get better from it,” Allen told reporters after the game. “We’re moving the ball around and we’ve got weapons outside that I’m not sure too many people can keep up with those guys, so I’ve got to make good decisions and put the ball in their hands and let them make some plays.”
That’s the part about Allen the Bills head coach Sean McDermott loves the most. Allen is relentless is his pursuit of becoming great.
“He’s continued to grow,” McDermott said Wednesday during a Zoom conference call. “He’s continued to put in the work, acknowledging that he’s not a finished product. I think that’s important. Even though he’s experience success prior to this season, he stays committed to working his tail off to get better and improve. That’s a humble and hungry approach and it’s also a healthy approach, quite frankly.”
The Cardinals have their own of that in second-year quarterback Kyler Murray, who did everything in his power to try and help his team defeat the Dolphins. He completed 21 of 26 passes (80.8%) for 283 yards and three touchdowns while also running for a careerhigh 106 yards and his eighth rushing touchdown of the season.
McDermott and the Bills have faced their share of dual-threat quarterbacks before, but nothing comes close to Murray’s acceleration.
“The speed and quickness element is off the charts,” McDermott said. “When you watch it on film, when you watch it on TV, quite frankly, you can see the difference. We’re talking elite athletes he’s running around. These aren’t just average athletes out there that he’s running around. We’re talking great athletes and he’s different even than those athletes.
“I’ve been able to get a great appreciation of him over the last couple of days just watching tape.”
Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury has the same amount of respect for Allen, the former first-round pick out of Wyoming who was named the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Week on Wednesday.
“Josh is as talented of a player as you’ll see when you’re talking about arm strength and athleticism and being able to escape and move and make plays,” Kingsbury said. “He was awesome last Sunday. You watch that Seattle game, the ball hardly touched the ground and he’s had a great year, so it’s going to be a heck of a challenge for us.”
Roster moves
The Cardinals made a series of roster moves on Wednesday, highlighted by the news that outside linebacker Devon Kennard and cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. have been activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list and thus making them available to play Sunday against the Bills.
Kennard and Murphy each missed last Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins after testing positive for COVID-19.
The team also announced it has formally signed 15-year veteran cornerback Jonathan Joseph, a free agent who was released by the Titans on Nov. 3. A two-time Pro Bowl selection, Joseph, 36, has started 192 games in his career and has 32 interceptions, seven of which he has returned for touchdowns, tied for the sixth-most ever.
A first-round pick by the Bengals out of South Carolina in 2006, Joseph also has recorded eight forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries (one for a touchdown) and 199 passes defensed. After five seasons with the Bengals, he signed with the Texans, with whom he would spend the next nine years until joining the Titans this year.
In other news, the Cardinals placed cornerback Kevin Peterson (concussion) on injured reserve and designated guard J.R. Sweezy and defensive lineman Rashard Lawrence to return from the injured-reserve list. Sweezy and Lawrence can begin practicing and the team can activate each of them to the 53-man roster at any time during the next 21 days.
● Guard Justin Pugh was named the team’s nominee for the USAA Salute to Service Award.