MetLife Stadium—I’m sure Arizona Cardinals linebacker Markus Golden had this game circled on his calendar. Golden played for the Giants in 2019.
Arizona set the tone early in the game when Daniel Jones got hit from Markus Golden and Golden recovered the fumble returned it 30 yards down the field. The Giants kept them out the end zone from the five, but got the ball right back.
Jones and the Giants never looked the same after their initial possession.
Haason Reddick had a franchise-record five sacks and three forced fumbles as Arizona ended the Giants’ four game winning streak with a 26-7 win on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.
With the win, Arizona record is now 7-6 and back into the third wild card spot in the NFC playoff scenario, as the Minnesota Vikings lost in Tampa Bay.
The offensive line couldn’t protect their quarterbacks in today’s game. Jones was dropped six times (Colt McCoy twice) and NY turned the ball over twice in the first half. The Giants played sloppy in the first half and couldn’t get out their own way.
Jones appeared to be hampered by the injury he suffered in Cincy, he held onto the ball too long, he couldn’t drive the ball down the field with velocity, and he did not attempt to run the ball when he had the chance to make plays for his team. His ability to extend plays with his legs has been Daniels’ trademark the last few games.
“I think I wasn’t able to run like I normally do, but I felt good during the game,” Jones said. “I was able to move around the pocket and do what I needed to do throwing the ball. I think I got to do better with that still.”
NY got to 20-7 on Dion Lewis’ touchdown run half-way through the third quarter, but the decision on a third-and-1 late in the period to go for a long pass to Sterling Shepard that was incomplete and the Giants had to punt the ball as well as the game away.
Daniel Jones was 11 for 21 for 127 yards.
Two turnovers by the G-Men turned into 10 points for Arizona in the first half, and the Cardinals ramped up their defense in the second half. Jones fumbled the ball three times in the game — although he lost just one — and looked shaky throughout, to the point backup Colt McCoy replaced him when the game well out of hand in the waning moments. The Giants couldn’t throw the ball at all except for a 39-yard reception by Golden Tate that set up the team’s only touchdown.
Mike Nugent had a busy day kicked two early field goals for the Cardinals before they’d got their first touchdown of the game on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Kyler Murray to Dan Arnold.
“I don’t think we had any kind of a hangover from going out to Seattle last week,” coach Joe Judge said. “I don’t think that’s the cause of it. Again, this game is completely independent of anything that has happened before. We simply didn’t come out today and we didn’t coach well enough and we didn’t play well enough. That’s the hard truth of it. We have to do a much better job.”
After taking a 13-0 lead into the half, the Cardinals extended that lead in the third quarter with a 1-yard rushing touchdown by Kenyan Drake on fourth and goal.
Kenyan Drake had 80 rushing yards on 20 carries and DeAndre Hopkins had 136 yards on nine catches.
“I think it just came down to they performed better than us,” cornerback James Bradberry said. “We didn’t execute when we needed to and that’s usually the name of the game. You’ve got to execute and make plays, and we didn’t do enough today.”
