Cards top Hawks in Division Matchup

I could hardly have asked for a better way to kick off this blog, fresh off a win over the Seahawks, 23-20. The offense had a huge day with 431 yards of offense and Edge proved once again that he's ready to play this season. Rather than stumble through like he did in 2006, he's put up a pair of solid performances. Last week it was 26 carries for 92 yards, but this time around he's improved his ypc average and totals to 24 carries for 128 yards (T-3rd best this week) and his second score of the season.

Leinart had a much-improved showing, completing 62% of his passes for 299 yards and a touchdown/interception. It's a lot better than last week when he barely completed 50% of his passes for just over 100 yards and 1 score/2 interceptions.

Obviously, the star of those two stories is the o-line. They played a great game and didn't allow a sack (Leinart tripped over his center's feet on the only one recorded) while opening lanes for the running game. It's a great sign and it's still early in the season. Hopefully the line continues to meld.

But what I really like is that Shaun Alexander was held to 70 yards on the ground. Granted, he only had 18 carries, but his yard per carry average was below 4.0 (3.9), a vastly underrated statistic.

Altogether, the team played a pretty good game. The passing game still tore the team to shreds statistically (281 yards passing for Hasselbeck) and it was a very close game by all measures (two field goals in the final 5 minutes won it), but I'm still happy. Division wins are always huge and it would have been painful to start the season 0-2 in division games.