Arizona Cardinals: Several observations from victory over Chargers

The Arizona Cardinals defeated the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night by a collective effort and here are several observations from the preseason win.

The Steve Wilks era of Arizona Cardinals football opened on Saturday in Week 1 of the 2018 preseason. Arizona defeated the Los Angeles Chargers 24-17 in their first preseason game. Most of all, it was a complete team effort in the victory.

Arizona scored three touchdowns and kicked a field goal. The offense scored two touchdowns and the defense scooped a fumble for the other six points. Matt McCrane’s 28-yard field goal sealed the scoring by the offense, defense and special teams.

David Johnson had two carries on the night. He ran 14 yards on both carries. Johnson is back and ready for the season after missing much of 2017. The starting offense looked good and crisp.

Arizona’s defense played well by forcing four turnovers and getting four sacks. Jeremy Cash returned a fumble 12 yards for the score. Cap Capi recorded three sacks. However, the defense committed seven penalties, which gave the Chargers fresh sets of downs.

Two of those seven penalties are puzzling. The first, hitting a defenseless receiver, was called after a hit on a receiver running with the ball after the catch. The second, lowering the helmet, is more unclear because the runner actually lowers his helmet first.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk addressed the situation by saying the following:

"… called an illegal hit on a defenseless receiver, … had the ball long enough to no longer be defenseless … more likely reality is that Howard was flagged for lowering his helmet to initiate contact, … But here’s the problem: What else could he have done?"

There are a couple of other areas that the Cardinals need to clean up. First, Arizona was flagged for 11 penalties in all, totaling 110 yards.

Second, the Cardinals offense went 0-for-11 on third downs. Even Sam Bradford and the starters could not convert on third-and-goal. Wilks decided to gamble and won on the fourth-and-goal touchdown run by Chase Edmonds. What did you see on the replay? Was his knee down or not?

Remember, there were more positives to glean from the game but there are concerns. Wilks and the coaching staff will address those areas.