The Cardinals hit the trifecta with a 34-31 victory over the Bengals during their second consecutive appearance on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”, as Palmer overcame two first-quarter interceptions to throw for four touchdowns. With another 3.5-yard effort on the ground and only two sacks of Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, they still nearly beat one of the best teams in the game.
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This game looks to be a matchup of two playoff bound teams, and both coaches know that this game can be used as a measuring stick to see where they are against the NFL’s best competition.
Peko said the only call he made was to “get set!” We saw the Cardinals jump, but we’ll just have to trust the referees’ word that it was actually Peko’s disconcerting signals that caused that jump.
-QB Andy Dalton, despite struggling during a pivotal stretch early in the second half, clearly played well enough to lead the Bengals to a come-from-behind victory.
Arizona answered with a 10-play, 80-yard drive to tie the game midway through the second quarter. We’ll see. However the Cardinals are third in yardage defense and have given up just 92.8 rushing yards per game so far.
First, he hit rookie wide receiver JJ Nelson with a touchdown pass that covered 64 yards and after forcing a quick three-and-out, Palmer did it again, driving the Cardinals down the field before finding wide receiver John Brown for an 18-yard score. Two of his throws landed in the arms of Cincinnati defenders without an Arizona teammate in sight.
On the other side, Dalton played well with 315 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Bengals running back Giovani Bernard caught eight passes for 128 yards. Directing the NFL’s No.1-ranked offense in a season, Palmer is second to Tom Brady in touchdown passes (23) and quarterback rating (108).
The Cardinals extended their lead to 31-21, when Catanzaro executed an easy 24 yard field goal. Palmer said. “That’s shunned in this league, and people don’t like it – and the NFL definitely doesn’t like it. That’s hurt me a lot, and I’ve been bounced around pretty good since it happened”.
“We’ve got to clean it up”, Lewis said. “We caught fire in the second half”.
Palmer completed all three passes on the game-winning drive, the 28th of his career.
Palmer threw three third-quarter touchdown passes to rally the Cardinals (8-2) from a 14-7 halftime deficit to an eventual 28-14 lead.
Dalton entered the game 13-3-1 all-time against NFC teams and had a passer rating of 92.7 or higher in 11 of the last 14 games against the NFC. Palmer had 317 yards and four touchdowns. “They’ve got good players all over the field”.
Dalton had his heroics, too. A 10-yard toss to Marvin Jones and an illegal hands to the face on Arizona gave Cincinnati a first down from their own 37-yard line at the two minute warning (1:58). On fourth-and-4 from the 16, Dalton threw 10 yards to Mohammed Sanu, and Hill’s 1-yard run cut it to 28-21 with 11:26 still remaining. Arizona defensive tackle Frostee Rucker left early in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury….
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“Nondescript” seems about the right word to describe Arizona’s running backs on Sunday night. It speaks to the faith that Bruce Arians and rookie defensive coordinator James Bettcher have in their players that they were willing to leave their backup cornerback on an island against one of the best wideouts in football with the game on the line. The Cardinals scored 34, 10 more than the worst Cincinnati defensive performance previous this season.
