The Arizona Cardinals lost their second preseason game on Saturday 21-13 on the road to the Indianapolis Colts. They fell behind early, took the lead before halftime and then allowed two second-half touchdowns.
As an offense, they had only 232 yards and 13 first downs, going 4-for-12 on third down.
With the game over, let’s have a look at what we can take away from the game with their offensive performance.
Clayton Tune better again than Desmond Ridder
Tune got the start against the Colts and that fact alone suggests that the competition between both players to be Kyler Murray’s backup is fairly close. Ridder started the preseason opener, playing the first half, and the roles were reversed on Sunday.
Tune led the Cardinals to 142 of their 232 yards in the half he played. He led them to eight of their 13 first downs.
He completed 8-of-10 passes for 79 yards and rushed for a touchdown. His throws were more on target and he overcame three sacks.
Ridder passed for 71 yards on 6-of-10 attempts, but three of those completions came in the final drive when they had only 27 seconds to get down the field and the Colts were playing deep to protect the end zone.
In the second half with Ridder, they had a field goal on their first drive, went three-and-out on their next two drives and then had three plays before time ran out. He led the Cardinals to only 58 yards before the final drive.
So many penalties
The Cardinals were penalized 11 times and had others offset and declined. Three consecutive holding penalties by rookie tackle Christian Jones basically cost them a touchdown in the first half as the second came when rookie Trey Benson had a 20-yard run to the two-yard line that would have given them first-and-goal.
A false start penalty ended the game. With five seconds left and Ridder trying to spike the ball to give the Cardinals one more shot to score a touchdown and tie the game, Dennis Daley flinched and, with no timeouts left, the 10-second runoff led time to expire.
Offensive linemen moved around
The preseason requires this some and, with no starters playing, the Cardinals had guys playing multiple positions.
Jon Gaines started at right guard and moved to center. Elijah Wilkinson started the game at right tackle and moved to right guard. Rookie Christian Jones replaced Kelvin Beachum at left tackle and then moved to right tackle.
Running game still worked
Benson rushed for 43 yards on nine carries (and it should have been at least 63 yards on 10 attempts). As a team, they averaged 4.7 yards per carry on the ground.
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