❚ Patrick Peterson shines vs. Beckham, says he’ll be back.

It’s been a rough season in many ways for Patrick Peterson, the Cardinals’ eight-time Pro Bowl cornerback. The year started out with a six-game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and it got worse with some shaky play in the secondary when he returned.

On Sunday, however, Peterson looked – and sounded – like a different player as he came up with what will likely go down as his best performance of the year. And it was paired with a 38-24 win for the Cardinals.

Peterson intercepted Baker Mayfield once, almost picked him off three more times, and finished with seven tackles and three passes defensed while keeping his primary receiver, Odell Beckham Jr., out of the end zone.

“It’s my first time ever going up against Odell. It was a pleasure,” Peterson said. “One fellow (LSU) Tiger against another. It was a fun matchup; it was a fun game. I knew I was going to have a couple opportunities with Baker (Mayfield) being the gunslinger that he is, and I just wanted to make the best of the opportunities when they came toward me.”

Coach Kliff Kingsbury even said he saw a different Peterson against the Browns.

“I did. I did,” he said. “He had a different look in his eye in practice. He wanted to cover their top receiver, he asked for it, and I think he competed his tail off. It was good to see.”

Safety Budda Baker said he saw a different Peterson, too.

“Oh man. I seen P2 today,” Baker said. “It was great to see and great to see him live and being very vocal with us. He’s one of the leaders on the team, he was very excited, and he had a great game today.”

Peterson’s first-quarter interception was the 25th of his career, which vaulted him into sixth place on the franchise’s all-time list. Larry Wilson has the most picks (51) in club history.

He will look to keep building on to that total, and he says he’ll do that in Arizona. Peterson was direct when asked if this was his last home game with the Cardinals.

“No. This won’t be my last home game here. I’ll be back,” he said.

Byrd leads receivers

Wide receiver Damiere Byrd thought that perhaps at some point during the play, he would fall down.

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,’ he said. “Usually someone like me doesn’t stay up for that one, but I did.”

Byrd, who’s listed as 5-9, 180, stayed up long enough to make a 51-yard pickup, the longest play of the day. He led all Cardinals receivers with 86 receiving yards and six catches on six targets.

Byrd was inactive for five games this season. A strong showing can boost his role for next year, but that’s not something he was thinking about on Sunday. Plus, Kingsbury has wanted to get him more involved.

“He played well,” he said. “He’s been open a lot. We haven’t found him as much as I’d like, but he’s another guy that takes the coaching, and every week, he’s doing it exactly how we ask, and it shows up on film. Even when we haven’t gotten him the ball, he’s been open a lot. It was good to see him get some touches today.”

Byrd didn’t feel his role would necessarily be bigger this week. For him, it’s just about confidence in capitalizing on those targets.

“I come into every week knowing that if the plays come to me, I can make them,” he said. “I thought for sure that we were going to be able to make plays and stay on top of things, and not get behind the sticks.”

Arnold logs first touchdown with Arizona

Sunday’s game marked 10 days since the Cardinals claimed tight end Dan Arnold off waivers, but the former Saint is making some quick impressions.

He was active for the first time with Arizona Sunday, and the first time quarterback Kyler Murray turned his way, he snagged a touchdown. Arnold hauled it in right in the back right corner, just barely staying in. The 6-yard touchdown was his lone target of the game.

“I knew the sideline was pretty close,” Arnold said. “They didn’t give me a signal, so I was like ‘OK, I don’t know about this,’ so I didn’t want to celebrate too early. Then, they gave me a touchdown signal, so it was good. It was close. I didn’t realize it was that close.”

Cardinals fans may still be getting to know him, but Murray is quickly getting comfortable.

“This past week, if you were at practice, he made a couple of freakish catches,” Murray said. “He didn’t take the team by surprise, but everybody was kind of on notice of what he was doing at practice. Running scout team last week and getting more plays this week, it was kind of fitting that he came in the game and got his opportunity and made a play.”

Murray said Arnold was not his first read on the touchdown throw, but his skill set made him a viable option.

“I’ve never had a guy that big that can do what he can do,” he said. “It’s pretty nice.”