Category: Cardinals vs. Titans

WR Christian Kirk named one of ‘secret superstars’ of Week 1

While Kyler Murray and Chandler Jones could win player of the week honors for their play, Kirk was as good as we have seen him.

The Arizona Cardinals picked up a big 38-13 win over the Tennessee Titans in Week 1. The performances of quarterback Kyler Murray and linebacker Chandler Jones were the big stories. Murray had four touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown, while Jones had five sacks.

Both should be the conference players of the week when the awards are announced later this week.

However, receiver Christian Kirk had a fine game and, according to Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar, he was one of the “secret superstars” of Week 1.

The Cardinals selected Kirk out of Texas A&M in the second round of the 2018 draft, and while he hasn’t been a bust, he’s been relatively hidden in multiple iterations of Arizona’s offenses — mostly as a slot guy, and never with more than 68 catches, 709 yards, or six touchdowns in any of his four previous NFL seasons. But against the Titans on Sunday, Kirk got one third of the way to his 2019 touchdown total with two of them, part of his five-catch, five-target, 70-yard day. This 26-yarder in the third quarter was the clear highlight.

Head coach Kliff Kingsbury showed more interesting looks in the passing game against the Titans than he did through most of the 2020 season, and Kirk seems primed to benefit.

No one in the Cardinals organization has ever doubted Kirk’s talent. His issue has been durability and also consistency. Coming out of college, he was viewed as someone who would thrive in the slot. He rarely played there before this year.

The seeming retirement of Larry Fitzgerald opened that position up and he is now thriving early.

DeAndre Hopkins will always get big numbers. There is a ton of attention on A.J. Green on the outside.

Kirk should have his best year as a result. This should be just the first of many very good performances.

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Cardinals continue to give reserve guards playing time

Brian Winters and Justin Murray both got a little work at guard in the Cardinals’ 38-13 win over the Titans.

The Arizona Cardinals are doing something for the third year in a row that you don’t see all the time in the NFL. They have rotational play on the offensive line, at least at guard.

Usually when a team has a set starting offensive line, unless someone gets hurt, those players will play every snap in a game.

However, the Cardinals have had players on their bench they believe are capable of starting, so they make sure to give them some playing time on Sundays.

That was evident in their Week 1 win over the Tennessee Titans. Starting guards Justin Pugh and Josh Jones did not play every snap.

Jones played 56 of the offensive snaps. Veteran Brian Winters came in for 13 snaps.

Pugh played 66 of the 69 snaps. Justin Murray played three at left guard. Murray likely would have gotten a few more at guard. However, right tackle Kelvin Beachum went down with a rib injury and Murray finished the game there.

The Cardinals did this with Mason Cole in 2019 and Murray in 2020.

Kingsbury has said it is rewarding these backups who he believes are able to start and play at a high level, and it gives the starters a breather, allowing to play at a higher level. It also maintains a small level of competition at positions. As we saw last year, Murray ended up replacing J.R. Sweezy late in the season in the starting lineup.

It keeps the starters fresh and it keeps the backups sharp.

We will probably continue to see it throughout the year while players are healthy.

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Cardinals Week 1 defensive snap counts and takeaways

The defense was on the field for 64 snaps on Sunday in the Cardinals’ 38-13 win. See how the playing time was divided up.

The snap counts for the Arizona Cardinals’ 38-13 win over the Tennessee Titans are out. They played 64 defensive snaps and no one played every snap.

How was the playing time divided up and what do we learn from it?

Below we go over the snap counts for each individual player in each position group and explain what we can take away from the numbers.

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Cardinals Week 1 offensive snap counts and takeaways

The Cardinals played 69 offensive snaps. See how the playing time was divided up and what it meant.

The snap counts for the Arizona Cardinals’ 38-13 win over the Tennessee Titans are out. They played 69 offensive snaps and three players were on the field for every snap.

How was the playing time divided up and what do we learn from it?

Below you can find the snap counts for each player in each position groups and takeaways for the numbers.

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Chandler Jones, Kyler Murray should be Offensive, Defensive Players of the Week

Their play in Week 1 were the best in the conference.

The Arizona Cardinals picked up a huge season-opening win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, defeating them 38-13. They had big contributions from several players, but their top performers were linebacker Chandler Jones and quarterback Kyler Murray.

They were not only top game performances, but come Tuesday morning, we should see an announcement saying that the Cardinals have both the NFC Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week.

Just how good were they in Week 1?

Jones had five sacks, four tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. He should be a lock for Defensive Player of the Week. He had three more sacks than the next best player.

Murray had 289 passing yards, four touchdown passes and added a rushing touchdown as well.

All of this game in a 38-13 win.

No one in Week 1 should even be considered on defense, but Murray does have competition.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Jameis Winston had five touchdown passes in the Saints’ 38-3 win over the Green Bay Packers. He threw for more touchdowns than Murray but Murray has the same total touchdowns, adding in his rushing score.

However, Winston passed for only 148 yards. He was great, but Murray had a better game.

Murray has been named Offensive Player of the Week four times. Jones has been Defensive Player of the Week three times.

Keep an eye out for that announcement Tuesday morning and, if for some reason it doesn’t happen, have your angry tweets and comments fired up and ready to go.

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Full highlights of Cardinals’ 38-13 win over Titans in Week 1

Watch every big play from the Cardinals’ impressive Week 1 win over the Titans.

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The Arizona Cardinals kicked off the 2021 NFL season with a bang. Quarterback Kyler Murray had five total touchdowns and linebacker Chandler Jones had five sacks as the Cardinals rolled to a 38-13 victory over the Tennessee  Titans in Week 1.

They jumped out to a 17-0 lead and never looked back.

The defense forced three turnovers and held the vaunted Titans offense to only 248 yards. Running back Derrick Henry, the NFL rushing champion the last two seasons, only had 58 yards, while receivers Julio Jones and A.J. Brown combined for only seven catches for 78 yards.

Check out the full highlights of the game above.

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Takeaways from the Cardinals’ 38-13 win over the Titans

There was a lot to like in the Cardinals’ 38-13 season-opening win over the Titans.

The Arizona Cardinals picked up a season-opening 38-13 win over the Tennessee Titans on the road. It was a dominating performance from start to finish.

They were great on offense. Quarterback Kyler Murray had a fantastic game. Linebacker Chandler Jones had the best game of his career. There were offensive contributions from several players.

It was nearly a perfect game against a team expected to compete in the AFC.

Below, we give our takeaways from the impressive win.

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Cardinals RT Kelvin Beachum leaves game with rib injury

He is questionable to return to the game against the Titans.

The Arizona Cardinals might be down a starting offensive lineman as the second half of their game begins. On the second play from scrimmage of the second half, after running back Chase Edmonds’ three-yard reception, starting right tackle Kelvin Beachum went down with an injury.

He was taken to the locker room and it was reported he was questionable to return to the game with a rib injury.

Justin Murray entered the game to replace him.

The Cardinals led 24-13 in the third quarter when he left the game.

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Chandler Jones’ 3 sacks lead nearly perfect half for Cardinals

The Cardinals defense allowed only 116 yards and the offense had 260 and three touchdowns in the first half to jump to a 24-6 lead.

The Arizona Cardinals played nearly a perfect half of football to start the season against the Tennessee Titans. They had it going on both on offense and defense, jumping out to a 24-6 lead.

Their performance was led by the players one would expect — Kyler Murray, DeAndre Hopkins and Chandler Jones.

Jones looked like a man on fire.

After picking up only one sack in five games last season before suffering a season-ending biceps injury and then not getting a contract extension, he was dominant.

He had three sacks in the first quarter. One of his sacks forced a fumble that led to one of the Cardinals’ three first-half touchdowns. He finished the half with four tackles, three tackles for loss, three sacks and a forced fumble.

Murray had 201 passing yards and two touchdown passes. He completed 15-of-22 passes. He also added 19 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Hopkins had a 38-yard reception on the Cardinals’ first play from scrimmage and finished the half with five catches for 73 yards and two touchdowns.

As an offense, they picked up 260 yards in the first half and did not turn the ball over. The one negative? They had four penalties.

Defensively, they held Derrick Henry to only eight yards on nine carries. The Titans only had 116 yards and were 2-of-7 on third down.

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Cardinals-Titans live blog, scoring updates, injuries, highlights

A running post of important things that happen in the Cardinals’ Week 1 game against the Tennessee Titans.

The Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans play Sunday morning in their season opener. It is a game featuring two explosive offenses and two of the best receivers of all time. The Titans have Julio Jones. The Cardinals have DeAndre Hopkins, and some would put A.J. Green in that same category despite a rough two years for him.

But the Cardinals hope to start what is a run to the postseason while the Titans hope to get back to the playoffs and advance past the first round.

It starts with this game against one another.

Below, we will give scoring updates, highlights and news as the game is happening.

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