Cardinals Drop Pre-season Game to Bengals

By Francisco Romero

Three pre-season games are in the books for the Arizona Cardinals.  The third game was not as bad as the scores indicates.  The Cardinals lost to the Bengals 19 – 13 and were down at the half by a score of 13 – 3.

The Bengals opened up the score in the first half with an interception was returned for 54 yards by Terence Newman. 

Cardinals vs Bengals
Picture Courtesy of azcardinals.com

“It wasn’t the execution we were looking for,” said Quarterback Carson Palmer after the game.

The Cardinals offense had plenty of opportunities to score, but Palmer was a bit erratic. 

“We didn’t take advantage and I didn’t take advantage of some of the looks we had, we are just a little bit off and that is not what we wanted to do.” said Palmer, who missed a wide open Michael Floyd for a touchdown in the first half of the game.

Palmer finished the game with 92 passing yards and completing 7 of 19 passes.

“Red zone and third down were things that offensively we did not do very well or defensively,” mentioned Cardinals’ Head Coach Bruce Arians.

“We’ll move on and we’ll get better over the next two weeks,” added Palmer during statements after the game.

Arizona’s defense was tough against the run, it only allowed 45 yards on the ground. 

Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton completed 13 of 21 passes and finished the games with 183 passing yards.

Arizona will take on the San Diego Chargers next Thursday in San Diego. 

The Cardinals need to cut 13 players in their current roster by Tuesday. 

It is expected that most of the Cardinals starters will either see limited action or not play at all against the chargers, being the last pre-season game.