Top 5 Takeaways from the Cardinals’ 27-21 win over the New York Giants

The Cardinals were winners of two straight heading into an early morning road game against a Giants team that’s shown flashes but has struggled the last few weeks.

They managed to come away with a win, suffocating the Giants offense for the majority of the game.

What were the biggest takeaways? Let’s find out:

#1. Chase Edmonds, welcome to the big time.

Whenever you’re a fantasy player who goes off for over 100 yards and 3 touchdowns, you’ll become a household name.

Fantasy football is built around guys who have big names and can carry a team to victory, but there’s room for HUGE games where in ESPN leagues he broke 36 points and now has more 20+ yard touchdowns in this season than David Johnson has in his career.

The Cards with this offense have a bright future and for now Chase Edmonds seems a part of that. David Johnson didn’t play much in a rainy day (probably a smart decision) but there’s definitely a new sheriff in town.

Kyler, for his part, didn’t throw for more than 150 yards for the first time in his career, only passing for 104 yards as Kingsbury took the game out of his hands.

#2. The defense took a step forward with Patrick Peterson back

8 sacks, 3 forced turnovers and the first interception of the year.

The Giants offense w/ a rookie in Daniel Jones isn’t good, but they’ve played those guys before and haven’t had the same impact. This was easily the best performance for Joseph’s squad for the season:

Pat’s presence was certainly felt, with Peterson practically ending the game on a 4th down cornerback blitz sack/fumble that was recovered by the Cardinals. He looked good in coverage and the team clearly was able to cover well enough to win the day.

Peterson, to his credit, gets a win and the team gets to three straight for the first time since 2015.

#3. Kyler Murray showed he’s still a rookie

Kyler doesn’t deserve a lot of blame for the poor numbers but was effective in what he did as Arizona went up early and then dialed it back. Kliff seemed to be spooked a bit by the rain and didn’t want him to throw. But there were some mistakes to be found that showed he’s not perfect just yet.

For starters, he ran out of bounds in a crucial situation where the clock needed to keep running.

And secondly despite the conservatism there was room for some reads depending on the situation.

In that situation if Kyler keeps it and gets the first it’s practically enough to force the Giants to use a time out and then you can take a knee and give it back to them with seconds left on the clock and nothing left to make a comeback.

All just learning lessons for the young buck, who still played effectively enough to win.

#4. Conservative Kliff is Kardiac Kliff

Be still, my beating heart

The game was one sided but the final score didn’t make it seem like it.

That’s because Kliff Kingsbury essentially took the keys away from the offense after they got up big and ran the ball a ton, but that gave the Giants, unfortunately, multiple chances to get back in the game with a bad defense on the other side of the ball

Fans wanted him to go for it or push the gas pedal down to win it but he didn’t and the team, while they won, it wasn’t without some nervousness. Ultimately, it won’t matter but it will be something to watch as the pair grow together.

#5. For better or worse the Bengals, Falcons and Giants are bad

The truth about these teams is that the Cardinals are 3-0 in their last 3 games. The combined record of the 3-18.

THAT’S GOOD NEWS.

Sure, it shows that the Cards won against three awful teams.

But...the Cards were considered by many to be an awful team and as bad as one of those opponents.

Now? They’re clearly in a tier above and have looked better than each of their opponents.

By winning games against bad teams like they’re supposed to, that’s a step forward as the Cards were completely unable to do that same thing last year and instead dropped games against winnable opponents that sunk them to the top overall pick.

Now the next step will be continuing to grow as a team and with an identity.