Chippy Cardinals Finish Preseason on a High Note

Gannon’s Cardinals complete another second half comeback in an 18-17 win in Minnesota.

Kevin Hicks | Aug 26, 2023

Chippy Cardinals Finish Preseason on a High Note /

In this story:

Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals trailed the Minnesota Vikings 17-3 early on in Saturday’s game. The team ended up exiting Minnesota with an 18-17 victory in the last game before the season opener on September 10th.

How did a comeback transpire again?

The answer is simple: Culture. As touched on previously, the Cardinals came into the season with one of the most thin and least densely talented teams in football.

The team came back and won two preseason games that most other teams would wave the white towel on and that’s a direct reflection on general manager Monti Ossenfort and head coach Jonathan Gannon.

The Isaiah Simmons trade earlier in the week was a perfect reflection and is quite evidently telling of the expectations in the desert.

"I don't think it was an issue of what Isaiah did, he did everything that we asked him to do," Gannon said via the team's official website.

"Moving forward we feel this is the best way we want to play football against other people. We're going to try and put the best guys out there that can function and do the best job."

Simmons had what many considered a horrendous performance both effort and production wise last week versus Kansas City.

He was off the team less than a week later.

Ossenfort and Gannon value competition - and hitting every rep hard no matter what. This shows even when fringe roster players are playing high-leverage snaps.

Players such as Kyle Soelle and Corey Clement have showed a lot of motor and desire to compete in the playing time they’ve received this preseason.

Here’s to hoping this relentless competitive nature carries into the regular season, as players such as Hollywood Brown and Zaven Collins need to realize a secure future with this franchise isn’t guaranteed for anyone outside of perhaps Budda Baker and D.J. Humphries.