Cardinals defense roughed up from the start in loss to Texans

The Arizona Cardinals’ success in Texas clearly didn’t extend beyond its Monday Night Football win over Dallas.

Much like what the Los Angeles Rams did to the Cardinals in last week’s dismantling, the Texans put their foot on the gas and didn’t let up in a 40-20 win over Arizona.

“That’s a good football team. We didn’t do enough all three phases. We got to play a little bit better complimentary football,” head coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters postgame. “Anytime we had chances to get some momentum back then one of the three phases kind of let us down.

“We can’t dig a hole like that versus a good football team. Battled back and had a chance to cut it to a one-score game at one point. Just couldn’t get it done.”

The Cardinals now sit at 3-11 on the year and have allowed at least 40 points in four of their past six games.

After watching the Rams rip off five scoring drives to open up the game last week, the Texans did the same across the first two quarters. Had it not been for a Calais Campbell blocked field goal to end the first half, that streak would have extended three more drives.

Houston’s first punt of the day? It came with 8:54 left in the game.

Quarterback C.J. Stroud got it done through the air with 260 yards and three scores on 75.9% throwing. Houston’s run game wasn’t hampered by Woody Marks injury, either, averaging 4.3 yards per carry on its way to 143 yards on 33 carries. It was paced by rookie Jawhar Jordan, who racked up 101 yards on 15 carries in his first ever NFL game.

But the defense wasn’t the only area to blame on Sunday.

While quarterback Jacoby Brissett was sacked just twice, the Texans defense got the better of the signal caller with a second-half interception that erased a lot of the momentum Arizona had fostered on the drive.

Brissett managed to bounce back with a pair of touchdown passes in the second half but still faced a two-score deficit given the hole the Cardinals dug for themselves in the two quarters prior.

The run game, meanwhile, turned in another inefficient afternoon behind 72 yards on 21 carries, while the special teams unit watched Jaylin Noel average 54 yards on two kick returns to put the Texans in prime real estate for more points.

The Cardinals’ bad injury luck continued on, too, with Bam Knight, Cody Simon and Andre Baccellia all exiting in the first half. They did not return.

Not even tight end Trey McBride’s record-setting afternoon or Michael Wilson’s third TD grab in the past two games was turning the tide for Arizona in the Lone Star State.

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