What Went Right/Wrong for Cardinals in Win vs Panthers

It was a tale of two halves for the Arizona Cardinals against the Carolina Panthers, but the birds pulled out the win. Here's what went right and wrong in the victory.

The Arizona Cardinals have been a very volatile team in 2022. 

The team is 0-2 at home and 2-0 on the road, but every game has been undeniably frustrating to watch. Arizona had its first lead in regulation this season(!) in the fourth quarter against the Carolina Panthers in Week 4. That is not how you win football games.

But somehow, the Cardinals have scratched and clawed their way to relatively competitive games, aside for the Kansas City Chiefs game in Week 1.

This win against the Panthers was anything but pretty, but a win is a win in the NFL. 

Plus, the Cardinals had a masterful fourth quarter that will hopefully build some momentum moving forward. There was plenty that went right for Arizona, but there was also some undeniable frustration. Let's break down both sides of the game now.

What Went Right for Cardinals

Marquise Brown

The legend of Marquise Brown continues to build for the Cardinals, and he may have put together his best performance in his short stint with the team against the Panthers. 

Best known as "Hollywood", he was certainly soaking up the limelight in this game with several toe-drag-swag moments and plenty of highlight-reel-worthy plays. 

On the day, Brown brought in six of his 11 targets for 88 yards and a game-sealing touchdown. The connection that he has built with Kyler Murray and the trust his quarterback already has in him is special, even though the two were teammates back at Oklahoma.

Brown's flashes of brilliance have certainly been incredible this year, with plenty more highs than lows. Perhaps a change of scenery from Baltimore to Arizona was what Brown needed to reach his maximum potential.

Defensive Line Play

Man, the defense was very up-and-down this week. However, the defensive line was certainly a massive strength for the team.

Standing out the most amongst a strong performing group was future Hall of Famer J.J. Watt. Watt only recorded three tackles, but he had two huge pass deflections that completely stalled anything the Panthers were hoping to get going. 

What makes the performance even crazier is that Watt reported prior to the game on his personal Twitter account that he went A-fib this past Wednesday and had his heart shocked back into rhythm. 

And here he is playing a short few days later. Insanity.

But it wasn't just Watt that performed well. Zach Allen also batted a pass and recorded a sack. Dennis Gardeck also recorded a sack and even pulled down an interception to help set up a late Cardinals' score. When the defensive line dominates like the way it did, one has to feel confident about the defense's performance moving forward.

Second Half Survival

Apparently the Cardinals are a second-half team, because the team once again could not record any points in the first quarter and also scored just three points in the first-half entirely. This is... far from ideal.

However, the Cardinals have found ways to be more productive in the second-half of games this year. We saw this first in Week 2 against the Las Vegas Raiders when the Cardinals stormed back from a 20-point deficit to ultimately win in overtime. 

Against the Panthers, they executed a near-perfect half and looked like the team we know they're capable of being.

We've seen Arizona capable of long, sustained drives but they ultimately stall out and the team was consistently having to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns. They did a much better job this week and were able to put this game away comfortably. Even with a late touchdown from the Panthers, the Cardinals felt firmly in control during the second-half of this game.

What went wrong

Sluggish Starts

We've been talking about this for a while now, but I feel like it's time to panic about the Cardinals' inability to score points in the first quarter. We are four weeks into the 2022 season and the team STILL has yet to record ANY points in the first quarter of any game this year. This is no longer coincidence; it is a pattern.

It truly is remarkable that Arizona has found a way to squeeze out two wins this year considering that fact. However, those two teams consist of the Las Vegas Raiders who recorded their first win of 2022 today against the Denver Broncos, and the Panthers who went into this game with one win. 

The two losses, meanwhile, have come against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Rams, both of whom are Super Bowl contenders.

To me, this is not enough to make any excuses. Good teams step up against good competition and the Cardinals have yet to do that. While you are absolutely supposed to beat bad teams, Arizona also has trailed at half every game this year, including today vs the Panthers. Something needs to get fixed ASAP.

Honestly? The struggles aren't even exclusively to the first quarter. The Cardinals in the first half of games entirely have been bad to, put it politely. Arizona has scored just 16 points in the first half of all four games its played this year. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not your ordinary bad... this is advanced bad.

The fact that Arizona is somehow 2-2 with this type of play feels like an anomaly at best, but probably just some luck. The team has got to come up with better solutions moving forward, because you're going to lose a lot more games then you'll be winning at this rate.

Questionable Coaching

The cherry on top of it all has been some exceptionally bad coaching. This has been a theme for the Cardinals for quite some time, likely dating back to the end of the Bruce Arians days. However, it feels like it has progressively gotten worse.

Kliff Kingsbury has been as average of a head coach in the league as they come. The proclaimed "offensive mastermind" has had as about as bland of an offense as you can run in his three-plus seasons as the team's head coach, and that is in spite of having Kyler Murray at quarterback and a plethora of other terrific offensive weapons. It truly is unacceptable.

While we can't pin everything on Kliff, as the coordinators have been equally as bad, a lot of the failures the team has seen this year has come from coaching. This may not be a Super Bowl contender this year, they are certainly better than what we've seen thus far.

Cardinals fans: rejoice in the strong second-half performance that your team put together against the Panthers. 

It wasn't always pretty, but the closing out of this game is everything you want to see. If they can put this kind of performance together for 60 full minutes, I don't see any reason why the Cardinals can't be a competitive team in 2022.

Thank you for making All Cardinals your number one choice for Arizona Cardinals news, updates, analysis, and more. Be sure to give us a like on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Cards content.

Cardinals DE J.J. Watt After Win: 'I Was Scared'

Cardinals: Three X-Factors from Victory Over Panthers

Four Takeaways From Cardinals 26-16 Victory Over Carolina

Notable Numbers From Cardinals-Panthers

Report Card(inals) - Week 4 at Panthers

Game Recap: Cardinals Escape Carolina With Week 4 Win