The dust had barely settled on the Bills’ first win of the season, when coach Rex Ryan turned his attention to Buffalo’s next opponent. The defense, which needed improvement, got it done. Colton Schmidt’s punt went only 26 yards and the Cardinals have good field position at the Bills 446 yard line to start the drive. “As I mentioned it wasn’t time to feel pressure, it was time to apply pressure and that’s what I told our team before the game because that was exactly what we needed to do”.
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Taylor’s 49-yard run was the longest by a quarterback in team history and he also scored on a 20-yard run.
He then shanked his next punt early in the third quarter.
Taylor completed 14-of-25 passes for only 119 yards but the fast start allowed the offense to remain ground-oriented. Besides him, LeSean McCoy ended the afternoon with 110 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries.
On offense, Buffalo shuffled between no-huddle, wildcat and pistol formations that kept Arizona’s defense unable to adjust easily.
On the drive starting at midfield, McCoy had an 18-yard carry into Arizona territory.
Down big, Arizona finally answered with a long 17-play drive for 84 yards which took up most of the remainder of the half. Long snapper Kameron Canaday misfired on a field goal to set up a touchdown.
Arizona running back David Johnson had 83 yards rushing and scored on 4- and 22-yard runs. That late touchdown could provide the Cardinals with some momentum to start the second half. He finished with seven catches for 60 yards. Dan Carpenter missed the extra point but the Bills go 47 yards in 6 plays and score.
But it wouldn’t matter moments later. Trailing 23-7 in the third quarter, Arizona kicker Chandler Catanzaro lined up to attempt a 32-yard field goal.
“Just a bad snap, and I just, who wants it more”.
Since that loss to the Jets, the Buffalo Bills fired offensive coordinator Greg Roman, and head coach Rex Ryan, after cutting ties with Roman, said the blame for the Bills’ 0-2 start lay exclusively with him, and that the Arizona Cardinals were “the exact team we needed to play”. Aaron Williams scooped it up and took it to the house, giving the Bills a 30-7 lead. On a first-down play in the fourth quarter, with the Cardinals in Buffalo territory, Graham blitzed and sacked Palmer. If you told me the score would be 33-18, I would have told you to bet the house that it went in Arizona’s favor.
The Kansas City Chiefs returned two turnovers for touchdowns, intercepted three passes in the end zone and forced eight turnovers total in a 24-3 victory over the hapless New York Jets.
“We showed a couple of different things up front and tried to change their protection-manipulate their protection- and let our DBs do their thing on the back end”, Williams said. New England, which defeated the Houston Texans 27-0 on Thursday to improve to 3-0, does not have any other quarterbacks on its roster as it continues to ride out Tom Brady’s four-game suspension.
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Whatever sense that the Cardinals could brush off the Patriots loss in Week 1, after blowing out the Buccaneers in Week 2, disappeared when they fell apart in every phase of the game in Buffalo.
