The San Diego Chargers and Arizona Cardinals finished off the first week of the regular with a game that went from being boring to one of the better games of the week in terms of late quarter excitement.
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Both teams’ offense were mediocre for most of the night as the defensive units seemingly made big plays over and over. Philip Rivers threw for 238 yards, a touchdown and an interception, while Carson Palmer threw for over 300 yards and two touchdowns.
The most notable stat of the night was the fact that Pro Bowl wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald was held without a reception through three quarters and ended the night with only one catch. The other big stat came from Chargers rookie Jerry Attaochu, who ended the night with two tackles, a blocked punt, and a strip sack that caused a turnover.
Cardinals running back Andre Ellington, who was questionable through most of the week with a leg injury, fumbled early on, but the Chargers could not capitalize on the field position. This became a trend for the Chargers, as later on in the half they blocked a punt deep in Cardinals territory when they were down by three, and could only manage a field goal to tie the game.
Rivers was intercepted by Jerraud Powers near the end of the first half to cap off a terrible first two quarters of offense for the Chargers.
Palmer struck back quickly and threw a 25-yard pass down the middle to Ted Ginn Jr. that put the Cardinals into field goal range. With four seconds left on the clock in the second quarter, Chandler Catanzaro nailed a 44-yard field goal to give the Cardinals the 6-3 lead going into half time.
The Chargers got the ball to start the second half, and the offensive adjustments were apparent immediately. Rivers drove his team down the field on a 7 play, 80 yard drive with precision passing en route to the game’s first touchdown.
With the Cardinals’ John Abraham hurt earlier in the drive, the Chargers offensive line allowed Rivers time to throw two passes of 20 or more yards as well as a six yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Floyd.
With momentum on their side, the Chargers defense made a huge play following the offensive touchdown as they strip sacked Carson Palmer and forced a big turnover. Jerry Attaochu, who blocked a punt earlier in the game, got the sack and forced fumble for the Chargers. Just a few plays later, Ryan Matthews hustled 20 yards to the endzone to give the Chargers the 17-6 lead.
Raising Zona
Marcus Gilchrist dropped an interception late in the third quarter as the Cardinals were driving which ended up being costly as the Chargers gave up a touchdown a few plays later.
The Cardinals attempted a two-point conversion by snapping the ball directly to Jonathan Dwyer, but the Chargers snuffed it out easily and held their lead at 17-12.
With the game hanging in the balance, the Cardinals offense needed to score another touchdown badly.
Executing on key third down, Carson Palmer drove the team on an 11 play, 91-yard drive that ended with a 13-yard strike to rookie wide receiver John Brown to take the 18-17 lead late in the fourth quarter as they went on to hold of the Chargers and earn the win.
Arizona got off to the hot start that they needed to, but the work is only just beginning to crawl out of the NFC West. As for the Chargers, it’s a disappointing way to start the season but there is still time to turn things around and correct what went wrong in Monday night.
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