The struggling Arizona Cardinals lost their 5th game in a row, as they got beat at home by the visiting Pittsburg Steelers 32-20 in Phoenix on Sunday. Arizona needs a lot of improvement in their pass defense, and it showed. Fans have certainly noticed their inability to defend against passes by now and it has really affected the sale of Cardinals tickets. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger shredded the Cardinals for 361 yards passing and three touchdowns, including a 95 yard TD pass to WR Mike Wallace. It was the longest pass completion in Steelers history. I am sure the Steelers fans who purchased Cardinals tickets for this game were happy to see their team play so well.
The Cardinal’s coaching staff were well aware that Wallace was a prime threat to go deep, they had been studying game film in preparation for him. Time and time again, they watched as Wallace blew by defenders to get open, and yet they were still unable to find a way to stop him.
In the second quarter, pinned deep at the Steelers 5 yard line, Roethlisberger dropped back to pass from his own end zone. He found Wallace sprinting down the sideline behind a Cardinals defender. Wallace caught the ball in-stride and broke a couple of tackles for the franchise record completion and the score.
“We knew that was coming,” Arizona head coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “We did everything we could to work to prevent that.”
The Cardinals pass defense is 30th out of 32 teams in the league. On the bright side, you have to give Arizona credit for holding the Steelers to under 100 yards rushing. The game probably would have been a blow out, if not for the Cardinals rushing defense.
In the opening quarter, Pittsburg got on the scoreboard first after they intercepted a pass from Cardinals QB Kevin Kolb. Kolb was trying to find TE Rob Housler on a crossing pattern. But the ball bounced off Housler’s helmet into the arms of Steelers safety Ryan Clark, who returned it to the Arizona 31 yard line. Five plays later Roethlisberger found TE Heath Miller wide open in the end zone for a 12 yard touchdown. With the extra point that gave the Steelers an early 7-0 lead.
It was in the second quarter after the Steelers 95 yard TD pass, that Arizona mounted it’s first scoring drive. Down 14-0, Kolb engineered a 13 play – 80 yard drive that ended with a 1 yard TD run by RB Alfonso Smith. The drive was kept alive by two key penalties on Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor, who was defending Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is a two-time all-pro and gives defensive backs fits when trying to cover him.
That made the score 14-7 with 1:43 left to go before half-time. But Pittsburg tacked on a 41 yard field goal by kicker Shaun Suisham just as half-time expired, extending their lead to 17-7.
In the third quarter Arizona cut the lead to 17-14 with a nice 73 yard touchdown pass from Kolb to RB LaRod Stephens-Howling. Kolb was 18-34 passing, with 272 yards and 2 TDs – 1 INT. But the Cardinals just couldn’t keep pace with the Steelers as their pass defense failed them multiple times.
Pittsburg scored what was to be their last touchdown of the day in the third period, on a 4 yard pass from Roethlisberger to WR Emmanuel Sanders to make the score 24-14. The game was never really in question after that. The Steelers added 2 points late in the third period on a safety, when the Cardinals QB Kolb was called for intentional grounding in his own end zone.
In the fourth quarter Pittsburg added two more field goals, and the Cardinals got a late touchdown pass from Kolb to WR Early Doucet. The Cardinals 2 point conversion failed, making the final score 32-20. Something has to change with this Cardinals team if they want to continue selling out of Cardinals tickets for the rest of their season.
