Sunday was a miserable performance put on by the Arizona Cardinals offense. The team had the chance to get back to 3-3 prior to the return of DeAndre Hopkins, but fell flat on their face and are now last place in the division.
On the bright side, the Cardinals defense was excellent once again. There were standout performances from a number of young defenders, which we’ll get into.
The Cardinals have an immediate turnaround at home against the Saints on Thursday Night Football in four days.
Who stood out and who disappointed in the loss? Below are our Week 6 studs and duds.
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DUD: Kliff Kingsbury
Depending on which statistic you look up, Seattle’s defense was anywhere from 28th to 31st in total defense. Either way, their unit is young and has been awful to this point in the season.
The Cardinals’ offense made them look like the ’85 Bears, putting up just three offensive points in the entire game. Seattle is in a transition year, while the Cards are in Year 4 of a regime that has playoff expectations.
Kingsbury is failing his star quarterback and isn’t utilizing the talents of his playmakers. His job is being called for by Cardinals fans on social media and the noise will start to get very, very loud if there is a repeat performance on Thursday.
STUD: LB Zaven Collins
There won’t be enough room to include everyone here, but the defense was outstanding once again. Vance Joseph deserves his roses for the job he’s done this season in maximizing the talents of a very young Cardinals defense.
Second-year inside linebacker Zaven Collins is quickly ascending into a good player with another standout performance. The 2021 first-round pick had nine tackles and two sacks in this game and looked the part of a No. 16 overall pick.
Collins was subject to tons of criticism for what was essentially a redshirt first year in the NFL, but he’s quickly becoming an impact player for Joseph and the Cardinals.
DUD: WR Rondale Moore
Since returning from injury, Moore has replaced Greg Dortch, who was playing inspired football until being benched.
While he did have a nice outing against the Eagles last week, last year’s second-round pick did not look good against Seattle.
Moore had a crucial drop on fourth down early in the game and another on third down in the fourth quarter. He was routinely unable to work his way open and build off last week’s performance.
The Cardinals are going to need Moore to be the impact player he can be the rest of the way, particularly with the injury to Marquise Brown.
STUD(s): LBs Myjai Sanders and Cameron Thomas
I didn’t want to exclude one or the other in this list, so we’re giving props to both rookie edge rushers in Myjai Sanders and Cameron Thomas.
Thomas had a sack of Geno Smith early in the contest, while Sanders had consistent pressures in his snaps and should have had two sacks. Smith escaped Sanders but the play was cleaned up by fellow linebacker Zaven Collins.
Both rookie edge rushers got their first career sacks on the day and looked good against what has been a good offensive line for the Seahawks to this point. Their development makes sense as to why the Cardinals released outside linebacker Devon Kennard earlier this week.
It was an encouraging start for the two young edge rushers. The Cardinals are going to need them to build off of this performance moving forward.
