The Lions hit the road for the first time this season as they head for Arizona for a Week 3 matchup with the Cardinals. The two teams have a long history with each other. Sunday will mark the 70th time the Lions and Cardinals meet. Detroit leads the all-time series 35-28-6.
The series dates all the way back to October 5, 1930, when the Lions were still the Portsmouth Spartans and the Cardinals were still playing in Chicago. That first meeting ended in a scoreless tie. The first win for the Spartans came in their third meeting on September 23, 1931. Portsmouth won 13-3.
The franchise’s first win in this series as the Detroit Lions came in a 6-0 victory on September 30, 1934. That was part of a stretch of Detroit/Portsmouth going unbeaten in 18 straight games against the Cardinals (14 wins, four ties).
December 6, 1959 was the last meeting between the two teams with the Cardinals still playing in Chicago. The teams moved to St. Louis in 1960 and played there until moving to Phoenix in 1988. The Lions won that game 45-21. In case you’re wondering, the teams did not meet in 1944 when the Cardinals were known as Card-Pitt, the team created by the temporary merger of the Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers that year due to the teams losing players to service during World War II.
The first meeting between the Lions and St. Louis Cardinals (yes, during that time there was an NFL and MLB franchise known as the St. Louis Cardinals) came on November 12, 1961 at Busch Stadium. The Lions won that game 45-14.
The Cardinals moved to Phoenix in 1988. The first meeting between the Lions and the new Phoenix Cardinals — they would become the Arizona Cardinals in 1994 — happened on September 10, 1989 with the Cardinals winning in Detroit 16-13. The Lions won for the first time in the desert on December 12, 1993, 21-14.
The Lions are unbeaten against the Cardinals in their last five meetings with four wins and a tie (27-27 to open the 2019 regular season which was also Kyler Murray’s NFL debut). The teams last met on December 19, 2021. Quarterback Jared Goff went 21-of-26 for 216 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-12 win. Craig Reynolds rushed for 112 yards on 26 carries and Amon-Ra St. Brown led the way with 90 receiving yards on eight catches. Jason Cabinda also had a receiving touchdown that day.