Throw in a touchdown run by Tevin Coleman in his return from a hamstring strain and the Falcons’ offense was clicking all around.
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This marks the seventh time in the past 11 years that the teams met, with each splitting the previous six meetings.
– series of plays before halftime was a well-executed as anything the Cardinals have done this season.
The Cardinals are 0-4 ATS in their last 4 November contests, are 0-4 ATS in their last 4 overall, lack the offense to cover against conference foes as they are 0-4 ATS in their last 4 against National Football Conference teams and the home team in this series is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 meetings.
The Cardinals weren’t offensive slouches by any stretch but still couldn’t turn their yards into enough points. He leads all receivers with 1,105 receiving yards, yards per game at 110.5, and he’s fourth with 18.1 average yards per reception. In 2015, the Cardinals’ defense was ranked second in takeaways (33), sixth in completion percentage (59.9), sixth in rushing defense (91.3), eighth in passing yards per game (230.4), and only gave up 19.3 points per game, good for seventh in the league.
But Arizona had trouble staying on the field after striking first on a 1-yard pass from Carson Palmer to Jermain Greshman. Palmer was hit 15 times against the Vikings, four of them resulting in sacks. The only touchdowns of the game came courtesy of Breshad Perriman and Tyler Eifert.
Maybe the most dominant all around player in the National Football League, despite what seems like an effort to not use the running game in the second half of games when Arizona is down.
The Arizona Cardinals are second in the NFC West despite having a losing record so far this season.
The Falcons finished with 360 yards, the most given up by the Cardinals since Week 1. Jones beat Patrick Peterson on the in-route but Jones was staring straight at Swearinger as Jones made his way across the middle.
The Falcons burned the Cardinals twice on quick screen passes to the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Gabriel, who had scoring plays of 35 and 25 yards. Jones countered that his teams beat Peterson three out of four times.
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Johnson caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Palmer with four minutes left to cap a 75-yard drive, but the two-point conversion attempt failed and the Falcons covered the onside kick. Unofficially, eight of those catches for 165 yards came with Peterson in coverage. It could be argued Jones should have been flagged at least once for offensive pass interference. By the way, Golden’s sack total is the second-most on the team. Right tackle Ryan Schraeder will have Golden. That’s a major problem when they already have to account for Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu and Devonta Freeman on every snap. The Falcons are now 7-4 and still in the hunt for the No. 2 seed in the NFC. Falcons DE Dwight Freeney is impressed, saying, “Vic is balling”. “You’re going to see a show”. Quarterback Matt Ryan was 26-of-34 for 269 yards with two touchdowns and an interception while Freeman added 16 carries for 60 yards and two scores. In 2016, Fitzgerald is once again playing at a high level, as he leads Arizona’s offense in catches (74), receiving yards (749) and touchdowns (five). David Johnson had 103 of those yards, along with 58 on the ground, and he’s the kind of player who will put up big numbers against nearly any defense. The Falcons had to settle for a field goal, but tied the game up 10-10. While Carson Palmer and Matt Ryan threw almost identical yardage and matching touchdown for touchdown with one interception each, Ryan had a higher completion ratio.
