Good News On Both Cardinal Fronts

Arizona came back and beat Detroit 25-21, to win their home opener. They managed it with little to no Larry Fitzgerald, who had a hamstring injury. The offensive line only let Carson Palmer get sacked once, and the Cardinals almost rushed for 90 yards. Whoo! Hey, baby steps.

The defense scuffled a bit. Calvin Johnson went over 100 yards receiving and two TDs, but he's Calvin Johnson, so that's not too bad. The defense did step up big time in the 3rd quarter, holding the Lions to 13 yards on 8 plays, which gave the Cardinals offense time to get into gear. Something not totally accomplished, since Arizona was 1 for 11 on 3rd down. Like I said, baby steps. The Cardinals did hold Detroit to less than 50 yards rushing, so the run defense was stout for two consecutive weeks. I'm less sold on the pass defense, which isn't surprising, since Arizona released three-quarters of the starting defensive backfield. If you were going to pick one aspect of defense to be good at, pass defense seems more important than run, given how much teams are throwing these days. They aren't bad on pass defense so far, but I feel less confident in them.

On the baseball front, St. Louis crushed the Mariners 12-2, taking two of three from them, after taking two of three from Milwaukee, and sweeping the Pirates before that. All of this good play has given the Cardinals exactly no lead over the Pirates, who have been playing their butts off and keeping pace with St. Louis. At this point, both team have 4 series remaining. This week, the Cardinals draw the Rockies and then the Brewers again. The Pirates get San Diego and then the first of two series with the Reds. Cincy is 3.5 games back in the Central, but pretty much has one of the two wild card spots locked up, barring a total collapse by them, or an insane hot streak by the Nationals.