NFL Fantastic 5: Matt Ryan and the best stats from Week 3
By Shaun Church
Cardinals’ rookies 23, 49ers 14
Stat: Arizona rookies score all 23 points
We don’t have a stat for the last time this happened in an NFL game, nor do we know for sure if it has ever happened (it probably has), but the Arizona Cardinals defeated the NFC West-rival San Francisco 49ers Sunday by having rookie players account for every point the team scored.
Rookie kicker Chandler Catanzaro, who is 9-of-9 on field goal attempts with a long of 51 yards this season, booted three field goals and two extra points, while rookie wide receiver John Brown added two second-half touchdowns.
Brown, a third-round pick of the Cardinals this past May, has nine receptions for 109 yards (12.1 yards per catch) and a team-leading three touchdowns. He is the first rookie Cardinals receiver to have a multiple-touchdown game within his first three career games since Anquan Boldin in 2003, and the only other Cardinals player to do it since 1960 is Mel Gray, way back in 1971.
Brown explained his success against the typically tenacious San Francisco defense to Kyle Odegard of AZCardinals.com: “People are watching Mike (Floyd) and Larry (Fitzgerald),” he said. “Once they pull down, they basically give me one-on-one coverage because I’m new.”
His “They-don’t-know-who-I-am” routine may not work much longer, as he, Cleveland Browns running back Isaiah Crowell and Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Allen Hurns lead all rookies with three touchdowns each in three games. The franchise record for receiving touchdowns by a rookie is eight, held by both Boldin and Fitzgerald.
And not to be outdone, Catanzaro is fourth in the entire NFL in scoring with 30 points through three games. He is on pace for 160 points, which would be a franchise single-season record.