The Arizona Cardinals trailed the Indianapolis Colts 12-6 at halftime. They made a lot of mistakes and there were mistakes made by the officials.
However, a banged-up Colts team held only a six-point halftime lead.
This is what the Cardinals did to themselves:
- They gave up a 43-yard run on the Colts’ first offensive play.
- They missed a field goal.
- They missed an extra point.
- They turned the ball over on downs.
- They were flagged seven times in the first half. Two were false starts by Josh Jones that stalled drives. Two were consecutive offsides penalties that extended a Colts drive. A fifth was an illegal contact penalty that negated a strip-sack by Chandler Jones that the Cardinals recovered for a turnover. A sixth was intentional grounding in the end zone by Kyler Murray for a safety after the snap was fumbled.
- They wasted a challenge.
The officials were bad.
- On the Cardinals’ turnover on downs, they missed an obvious pass interference against Zach Ertz, which would have given the Cardinals a first down.
- They flagged Wilson for pass interference when he broke up a pass. It wasn’t interference.
- They gave Carson Wentz a generous spot that gave the Colts a first down.
There were injuries.
- The Colts, already missing three starting linemen, lost left tackle Eric Fisher (knee) and left guard Chris Reed (back). They lost tight end Jack Doyle (knee, ankle).
- The Cardinals lost Wilson on the pass interference play. He appeared to hurty his shoulder.
The Cardinals need a much cleaner second half. If they can do that, they might have a win.
