Cardinals vs. Saints: Injuries spread out the playing time on defense

The Arizona Cardinals had to change up their defensive rotations on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. They lost three defensive starters -- safety Rashad Johnson and linebackers Lorenzo Alexander and Sam Acho. as a result, the playing time looked different.

The league released its snap count numbers and this is how it looks.

While the Saints ran 74 official plays from scrimmage, the number of defensive snaps came to 75.

Only two players were on the field for every snap -- cornerback Patrick Peterson and linebacker Karlos Dansby. Corner Jerraud Powers and safety Yeremiah Bell were on the field almost the whole game with 74 and 73 snaps, respectively.

On the defensive line, Calais Campbell led the way with 64, followed by Darnell Dockett with 55, Alameda Ta'amu with 33, Frostee Rucker with 27 and Ronald Talley with 13 snaps.

Among the linebackers, Matt Shaughnessy saw a big jump in playing time. He was out there for 63 plays. After Shaugnessy, Jasper Brinkley got 51, John Abraham got 44 snaps, Acho had 41 before getting hurt and Elxander had 12 snaps before leaving the game. Rookie Alex Okafor got his first NFL game action of his career with five defensive snaps.

For the defensive backs, after Peterson, Powers and Bell, Tyrann Mathieu played 64 snaps. Javier Arenas, getting his first defensive snaps of the season, played 28 snaps, Rashad Johnson was in for 21 before the tip of his finger was severed. Tony Jefferson, after playing a big role against Detroit, saw only six snaps.

More from Revenge of the Birds:

• Rashad Johnson finger injury: See the gruesome digit and read his description
• Cardinals vs. Saints: Vote for the Week 3 play of the game
• Arizona Cardinals lose Lorenzo Alexander, Sam Acho for season; Rashad Johnson loses fingertip
• Cardinals vs. Saints: Vote for the Week 3 player of the game
• Arizona Cardinals vs New Orleans Saints, the Bonehead award