What we learned from Jeremiyah Love, Cardinals in Week 1 win over Chargers

The Arizona Cardinals walked out of Los Angeles victorious with an impressive 26-14 win over the Chargers in Mike LaFleur’s first game as a head coach.

Arizona’s offense got after it right away with some help from rookie Jeremiyah Love before the defense put the final nails in the coffin with a suffocating second half.

A look at the biggest takeaways from Arizona’s first real taste of the LaFleur era:

Cardinals-Chargers Week 1 takeaways

Just about an even split at RB

LaFleur wasn’t lying when talking about splitting reps in Arizona’s backfield.

Through a half of play, it was exactly that between Jeremiyah Love and Tyler Allgeier, with the pair each seeing eight touches (six carries, two catches).

The two running backs saw equal yardage in the receiving game through the first two quarters, with nine yards each.

By the time the dust settled on the game, Love posted 13 touches to Allgeier’s 19.

Love, however, found the end zone behind a five-yard touchdown run to open up Sunday’s scoring.

“I thought you saw his explosiveness,” LaFleur told reporters postgame. “I expect him to get better and better. He hasn’t practiced in three or four weeks. He’s just going to get more and more conditioned out there to go.”

Allgeier kicked off most of Arizona’s drive as the first running back on the field. He was also the trusted back late in the game with nine of his 17 carries coming in the fourth quarter.

It’ll be interesting to see how the touches shake out as the games pile up.

Points (mostly) on the regular

The Cardinals offense moved the ball with ease for most of Sunday’s tilt, scoring on four of its first five possessions.

It would have been a clean 5-for-5 effort had Chad Ryland converted a 54-yard field goal in the second quarter. Arizona had two scoring drives across four full possessions in the second half.

The only big issue with most of the scoring efforts? They were field goals (four) rather than touchdowns (two).

The time of possession battle really stood out, too, with Arizona chewing up 37:31 of clock compared to 22:29 for the Chargers.

Laundry still an issue for Arizona

While there was a lot of good from the Cardinals offense, it still had plenty shooting-itself-in-the-foot moments in L.A. with multiple false start and holding penalties.

Ryland kicking the ball out of bounds following his fourth field goal of the afternoon didn’t help things. Neither did a third-quarter defensive pass interference call that put in the Chargers in scoring position a play later before Justin Herbert connected with Ladd McConkey for the touchdown.

As a team, Arizona ended up committing eight penalties for 111 yards across the afternoon, compared to the Chargers’ seven flags for 64 yards.

If there’s one thing LaFleur doesn’t want to see, it’s the yellow laundry on the field.

He’s been adamant on having a clean operation and will definitely have some teaching tape to go off of after this one.

Arizona’s sneaky addition wastes no time

A lot of the talk has been about Love, Michael Wilson, Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr.

Showing off his comfortability in LaFleur’s offense and with Jacoby Brissett, Kendrick Bourne was open more times than not. He finished with eight catches for 75 yards.

“He’s a good piece underneath. They played a lot of soft zone coverage and Kendrick is about as good of a hands-to-drop-step guy and the hidden yardage that you can ask for,” LaFleur said postgame on the radio broadcast with J.P. Shadrick and A.Q. Shipley.

The wideout was a presence throughout and should be a consistent contributor moving forward.

Defense said, ‘Watch this!’

For as much as the Cardinals offense found success from the jump, the same can be said for the Chargers, who also opened up the game with a touchdown.

Had it not been for a self-inflicted fumble after Omarion Hampton ran into a blocker engaged with safety Andre Wingard and a massive fourth-down sack from Dante Stills in the red zone, the final score could have looked a whole lot different.

That feeling quickly went away in the second half, though.

Instead of watching its lead dwindle away with defensive ineptitude, Arizona saw a unit turn in its best game in recent memory.

And it’s not even close.

On top of winning the turnover battle with a fumble and interception — both caused by safety Andrew Wingard — Arizona’s defense forced three turnover on downs and a blocked punt to hold L.A. to just two touchdowns all afternoon.

Here’s a crazy stat. L.A. did not have a drive that spanned more than five plays throughout the second half.

“I’m just proud of that whole defense. They go down there that first drive — tip the cap to them, they had a good opening script — and for our guys to hunker down and make it miserable in the second half for them was pretty cool,” LaFleur said.

It’s no secret that defensive coordinator Nick Rallis is coaching for his job after an ugly 2025 showing that resulted in a head-coaching change. If things go south and the defense is the biggest culprit like many expect, he’s likely the first one to be shown the door.

At least for a week, that thinking can be firmly tabled.

From an individual standpoint, Dante Stills flexed his starter status with a sack. Jordan Burch also got to the quarterback.

And while Walter Nolen III’s stat sheet didn’t wow, he was causing havoc along the interior, allowing others to apply the pressure on Justin Herbert.

Streak snapped!

With Arizona’s victory over Los Angeles, LaFleur became the first full-time Cardinals head coach to win their first game since Don Coryell in 1973.

“I’m just so excited about these guys and the work that they put in to get the results,” LaFleur said when asked about what the win meant to him. “We’re not going to be results-based. We know what this league is. It is results-based, I get it. But inward, in our building, we’re going to be about our process and putting in the work and let the results go where they may.”

Safe to say, it was a long time coming!

Jacoby Brissett cashes in

Brissett’s wallet grew a little bit more with Arizona’s win in L.A.

According to Spotrac, the veteran earned a $285,000 bonus for playing at least 50% of the snaps in a game the Cardinals won.

Not a bad day at the office.

Related

Cardinals’ win over Chargers gives franchise much-needed hopeRapid reactions: Cardinals begin Mike LaFleur era with complete win over ChargersCardinals defense slams the door shut on Chargers in season-opening winKyler Murray throws pick, exits 1st game post-Cardinals career after hard hitJeremiyah Love scores 1st Cardinals touchdown of the seasonJeremiyah Love officially active for Cardinals-Chargers