Little chance Arizona Cardinals overlook Buffalo Bills
Oct 11, 2012, 11:09 PM | Updated: Oct 12, 2012, 12:10 am
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald seemed incredulous that the question was even asked.
“How can you be over-confident after scoring three points in a game,” he said when asked if the Bills’ struggling defense could present a different kind of challenge for the Cardinals offense. “How can you? That’s not the attitude we have right now.
“We have the we have to prove ourselves attitude and we do. After putting a bad performance like that on national TV we have a lot that we need to improve on, and we need to go out there and show that we’re capable of executing at that level.”
The “bad performance” Fitzgerald was speaking of was Arizona’s 17-3 loss to the Rams last Thursday, a game where the offense tallied just 282 total yards.
It led to Arizona’s first defeat of the season, and while it counts as just one loss, it has led many to wonder if Arizona’s offense will ultimately be its undoing.
Which is why, really, the idea that the Cardinals could be over-confident against anyone — even the NFL’s 31st (out of 32) ranked defense — seems somewhat preposterous.
But Arizona’s defense is a different story. They should be feeling pretty good about this game, right? After all, the Bills were just held to three points by the San Francisco 49ers, and come into their game against the Cardinals having turned the ball over 13 times in five games, which is the third-worst total in the NFL.
Not exactly.
“They’re very explosive,” Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson said of the Bills. “They spread the field out, create space, and just have their athletes in space trying to make plays.”
Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson agreed with the idea that the Bills are explosive, pointing the fact that while Buffalo quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick may be third in the NFL in interceptions thrown (8), he’s also third in touchdown passes (12). Many have come on big plays, which is something the second-year pro said the Cardinals need to do a better job of defending.
“We have to do a better job this week of paying attention to the details and preventing those long passes,” he said.
The Bills are averaging 23.6 points per game, which places them 15th in the NFL but nearly five whole points ahead of the Cardinals. And while Fitzpatrick gets a lot of the attention, their two-headed monster at running back of Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller has given Buffalo the fifth-best rushing offense in the league.
In other words, the Bills can move the ball in a variety of different ways.
“They give you a number of different looks,” Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “It’s kind of a different offense from what you see, the conventional type.”
