Arizona Did WHAT?!

Beat the New England Patriots 20-18, that's what. I know, I was surprised too. Especially after Ryan Williams fumbled the ball on the Arizona 30 with a minute to go. Fortunately a TD run got called back for holding, then the Pats' kicker missed a 42 yard field goal, and there ya go. Arizona victory.

I feel bad for Gostkowski, the Pats' kicker. Part of that is selfishness, because people are using his missed kick as a way to say new England lost the game, rather than Arizona winning it. I'm sure I shouldn't care about such things, it counts as a win no matter what people say, but it does irritate me.. Even in the good Kurt Warner years, Arizona was prone to going on the road and getting their asses beat. Especially on the East Coast. The Super Bowl year of 2008, that was an running theme. Arizona travels to East Coast, gets annihilated. Didn't matter if it was the Jets, the Redskins, the Pats, the Panthers, whoever, the Cards wouldn't even be competitive. So for this group, admittedly a much different roster, to go east and beat the Patriots, that's something good.

Back to Gostkowski. The other reason I feel bad for him is people are tagging him with the "goat" label when he's the only reason New England was in that game. Of the Pats 18 points, he accounts for 12 of them, and three of those field goals were from 46, 51, and 53. Not exactly chip shots. Which says his offense wasn't doing its part, and that's why he had to keep booming it. So maybe Brady should be the "goat". Or the Pats special teams, since they let a punt get blocked and Arizona recovered at the 2.

Or maybe there is no goat, and Arizona's defense and special teams outplayed New England's offense. Yeah, Hernandez was injured, but it's not as though New England lacked for playmakers. They still had Gronk, Welker (though probably not if they keep dicking him around over his contract), Edelman, Brandon Lloyd. But Arizona mostly shut those guys down, or limited the damage. And the offense, once again, did just enough to get by.

I don't know if Arizona can keep winning like this. They haven't won a game by more than a touchdown since they pummeled the Broncos in December of 2010. I don't really care. They are winning, and if nothing else, it's an unusual experience to see them win with defense. 1994 is the closest they've ever come to pulling that off, and that team only managed 8-8. Their bottom 5 offense had a lot to do with canceling out the work of the Top 5 defense. This year's offense actually ranks even worse, which is certainly concerning, but something to worry about when they actually start losing games. Which hopefully won't be for awhile. The Eagles are coming to Arizona this weekend, so hopefully Andy Reid will forget to use Lesean McCoy again.

Actually, that's a certainty.