‘A long way to go’
Cards carry successes into home opener.
Jordan Hicks and Chandler Jones seemingly played with a vengeance on defense to help lead the Arizona Cardinals over Tennessee Titans, 38-13, in Nashville on Sunday.
Hicks was the Cardinals defensive line’s strategic leader in the box as the ‘Mike’ inside linebacker, calling the line plays to stop the Titans’ vaunted run game. Hicks’ performance enabled Jones, the NFL’s sack leader since 2012, to do what he does best.
The Cardinals held the Titans to a meager 86 rushing yards and 35.7% third down efficiency compared to the Cardinals’ 53.8% in that category.
“We all understand it’s just the first game and we got a long way to go,” Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury said to reporters on Monday. “We knew if we could stop the run, we could shut down the play-action stuff and get them in third and long and make them try to block Chandler. (Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph) had a tremendous plan
“Everyone knows that’s what (Titans) take pride in. You know they’re a downhill, gonna keep running-at-you, running-at-you, running-at-you team.”
Isaiah Simmons Cardinals linebacker who has a career-high nine tackles
and we executed it perfectly early.”
Hicks, a seventh-year ILB, tied a team-high 61 snaps with safety Budda Baker and had 4 tackles.
Jones reached his career-high and tied the franchise record with five sacks — including three in the first quarter, and his two forced fumbles which put them in scoring position — out of the six total by the Cardinals on Titans’ quarterback Ryan Tannehill (21-of-35, 212 yards, 2 TDs, 1 interception). Jones’ sacks accounted for 46 yards of his team’s offense lost. His first tackle of the game was on Titans’ two-time defending titleholder in that category, Derrick Henry, who was negative three yards.
The Cardinals plugged the gaps on Henry, who produced just 58 yards on 17 attempts.
Much of the Cardinals dominance inside came from the improved third-year ILB Isaiah Simmons. He had a gamehigh nine tackles (7 solo, 2 assisted), and the Cardinals’ only interception in the zone of the contest on third-and-5 at the 9:23 minute mark in the third quarter.
Simmons didn’t let past highlight reels of Henry’s revered stiff-arm plays out of the backfield cause him to play scared. He attacked Henry low inside of high where Henry’s upper body strength is upends his defenders.
One of the most notable tackles was stopping Henry halfway through the second quarter.
Henry was taken down by Simmons after being initially hit by Hicks on one of his two rushing attempts when the Titans got down to the Cardinals 1. Henry didn’t score, but Tannehill rushed in for his team’s first TD on third-and-goal with 6:50 left in the second quarter.
“Everyone knows that’s what (Titans) take pride in,” Simmons said. “You know they’re a downhill, gonna keep running-at-you, running-at-you, running-at-you team. So, I feel like, that’s just taking away their main thing that they do and try to make them beat us in a way that’s probably unorthodox.”
Simmons also said after the game the Titans were forced to throw the ball faster when Tannehill was pressured in the pocket and disrupted their team chemistry.
For what initially seemed to be questionable in training camp about putting Simmons, Hicks and rookie inside linebacker Zaven Collins together, their chemistry seemed to be highly effective and versatile in their youth and experience as Hicks led the call.
“Jordan has the green dot. He has the ‘Mike,’ so he gives the call,” Simmons said. “But when it comes to adjustments, like maybe slide in the front, maybe checking the call, that’s something we’re all able to do. Jordan technically calls the defense, but me and Zaven (Collins) are also finetuned in what the checks in everything are.”
Stopping the Titans’ staunch offense was more fuel added to Hicks’ and Jones’ fire. There was speculated unhappiness and trade request speculation from them to the Cardinals management at the start of training camp in July.
Both players dealt with some friction about their future with the team.
Jones is in the final year of his fiveyear contract worth $82.5 million.
Jones, who now has 102 career sacks, is coming off a torn biceps injury that forced him to miss 11 games last season.
When trade rumors about Jones popped up in late July, he said that was “news to me.” Plus, he wasn’t one of the four Cardinals in this season’s NFL Top 100-ranked players released August.
Hicks, who’s in the third year of his $34 million deal, was told in July by Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim that he wouldn’t be a starter over rookie Zaven Collins. He was granted permission to seek a trade to another team.
However, both Hicks and Jones looked like they resolved their internal conflicts, letting it all hang out on the field against Tennessee.
“They’re both tremendous human beings on and off the field. Great leaders, great people,” Kingsbury said to reporters on Monday. “They both came in with a chip on their shoulder and arguably were the two best players in camp, honestly. And it showed up on Sunday once again.”
Kingsbury hopes the Cardinals will look the same when they welcome back a full house of fans against the Minnesota Vikings at home in State Farm Stadium on Sunday at 1 p.m. It’s been two years since they’ve had a full house there because of the pandemic last season.
“We understand it’s a huge homefield advantage for us,” Kingsbury said. “The Red Sea is tremendous. So much passion. It was not the same without those guys, so we can’t wait to get back in front of them. We’ll try to make them proud on Sunday.”
Starting offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum is day-to-day after he suffered a rib injury and left the game in the third quarter against the Titans, according to Kingsbury.