Arizona Cardinals Win Opener Against San Diego 18-17

By Francisco Romero.-

It was not pretty, but a win it was.  The Arizona Cardinals started the 2014 football season with an 18-17 victory over the San Diego Chargers.

The Cardinals led 6-3 at the half.  San Diego took charge in the third quarter by scoring 14 unanswered points to take a 17-6 lead, then the improbable happened. 

Picture Courtesy of azcardinals.com

Arizona shut down the Chargers in the fourth quarter and sealed the game with a 91 yard scoring drive.  With 2:25 remaining in the game, John Brown caught a 13-yard pass from Carson Palmer to take the one point lead.  The two-point conversion failed for Arizona a second time and had to settle for the one-point lead.

The defense stopped the Chargers on four plays on the following drive. 

“It was a dog fight,” said Arizona’s quarterback Carson Palmer after the game.  “It was a great team win, offensively and defensively and special teams-wise,” Palmer added.

“We did good enough to win and build from it,” mentioned Arizona’s head coach Bruce Arians during a post game conference.  “That last drive is something that we are very capable of doing.”

Overall Arians was pleased with the effort, but mentioned that improvement has to be made in some areas,  “We missed some things down in the red zone.”

Palmer finished the game with 304 passing yards on 24-37.  Surprisingly Larry Fitzgerald only caught one pass for 22 yards.  Michael Floyd caught five passes for 119 yards.

“We didn’t play well enough in the fourth quarter, going up 17-6 being up and not finishing the game, it’s what it comes down to,” said Mike McCoy, San Diego’s head coach and added “Give them credit (Cardinals), they made the plays, they made some great plays throughout the game.”

Chargers’ quarterback Philip Rivers finished the game with 238 passing yards.

Up next for the Cardinals will be the New York Giants at East Rutherford, N.J. next Sunday.