● Kingsbury still confident in kicker Gonzalez,
Just three plays into the game, Cardinals linebacker Markus Golden secured his first career interception. Teammate Jordan Hicks got a hand on the throw by Patriots quarterback Cam Newton, and Golden snatched it.
The Patriots finished with the win over the Cardinals, 20-17, in Foxborough on Sunday. But the Cardinals defense performed well throughout the game, starting with that pick by Golden.
“I gotta give credit to Jordan (Hicks),” Golden said. “Jordan, man, he made it happen. I had the easy job. Ball came right to me, and I just caught it. ... It felt good, though. It felt real good to get it.”
In all, the Cardinals held the Patriots to just 179 yards of net offense, with Newton throwing for just 84 yards and completing only nine passes. New England was just 4 of 11 on third down, and ran 51 plays on offense, as compared to Arizona’s 70.
The Cardinals intercepted Newton again in the fourth quarter with the game tied at 17, the pick this time by cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick.
“Our defense played great today,” left guard Justin Pugh said. “Their offense was struggling at times.”
However, the Cardinals offense was unable to score on that drive, and a missed field goal by Zane Gonzalez gave the Patriots one more chance. Even so, Golden didn’t harbor any hard feelings toward the Cardinals offense or special teams unit.
“It’s not
frustrating
at
all,” Golden
said. “I’m a team guy. ... Some days, the offense is gonna save the day for the defense. And we gotta keep working, no matter what.”
Kingsbury still confident in Gonzalez
Zane Gonzalez missed wide right from 45-yard out Sunday in a game that would be decided by a field goal. Still, Kingsbury said that the team is confident in the fourth-year kicker.
Gonzalez is 16 of 21 this season, with previous misses coming against the
49ers (two misses), the Seahawks in the first meeting, and in the three-point loss to the Dolphins.
“Obviously a couple kicks we would like to have back, but I think he’s kicked the ball well over the last two seasons,” Kingsbury said after the game.
Kingsbury said he was not sure if there was a common thread among the misses.
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to get with Coach (Jeff) Rodgers and kind of talk through what he saw on that and what Zane felt,” Kingsbury said.
The coach instead focused on the fact that had the Cardinals made other plays, the missed field would not have mattered. Quarterback Kyler Murray expressed a similar sentiment.
“It’s one of those positions where you don’t get that many opportunities,” Murray said.
“I know how tough it is. It’s a tough game. He made every other kick. You know, it just didn’t happen to go his way. I think we had a lot of other opportunities to make that game easier on ourselves, and we didn’t.”
Block back
A would-be 82-yard punt return touchdown for the Patriots in the third quarter was nullified by a blindside block call on New England linebacker Anfernee Jennings.
“There were actually three flags thrown on that play,” Referee Bill Vinovich told a pool reporter. “It was a block back towards his own end line, with forcible contact.”
Jennings would have needed to have used a different approach on Cardinals linebacker Ezekiel Turner to have avoided the call.
“He would either have to shield him or use his hands,” Vinovich said.
Pugh avoids injury
Left guard Justin Pugh left for a bit early in the game, only to quickly return. “I just rolled an ankle,” Pugh said. “I came off, I got taped up. I probably could have came right back in that drive, but they just wanted to check it. But I came right back in after that, no issues.”