For Once, The Turnovers Didn't Kill Them

Chris Johnson lost two fumbles. Larry Fitzgerald lost a fumble. Carson Palmer threw an interception. Even so, Arizona beat the Browns 34-20, and that's after being down 20-7 late in the first half. Thank goodness the Browns aren't very good.

Johnson had a pretty good game other than the fumbles, going over 100 yards rushing again. At this rate, he might already have more rushing yards than anybody the Cardinals have had in the previous 3 seasons. Let me check, no, not quite. Johnson is at 676 yards, and Rashard Mendenhall ran for 687 two years ago. Of course, that was over an entire season, whereas Johnson's only played 8 games so far. So that's a signing that's worked surprisingly well.

Cleveland didn't have much luck running the ball, being held to less than 40 yards on the ground on 20 carries. So outside of Todd Gurley, Arizona's defense has mostly held up against the run this season. It did that last year, too, until the end, but hopefully this year's defense won't be completely fatigued and demoralized by a worthless offense.

Oh, and Michael Floyd went for over 100 yards receiving, including a 60-yard reception. That may have been due to John Brown's absence from the lineup, but it's nice to see Floyd can be productive when given an opportunity.

Next up is Seattle, which is currently having trouble beating a Matt Cassell-led Cowboys' team. I want to take that as a good sign for Arizona's chances, but I can't shake the concern Seattle is still trying to figure out how some of the new pieces fit, and once they do, they'll be a serious problem. Of course, this isn't the NBA, where the Spurs can spend the first few months figuring out such things. If the Seahawks dick around too long, they might miss the postseason entirely. It's still too early to predict that, considering they were still floundering a bit 10 games into last year, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Although even if they falter, there's still the Rams to contend with. Plus the Packers and the Panthers, and whoever is actually good in the NFC East this year (the Giants?).