2024 Week 3: Lions 20, Cardinals 13
The Cardinals are (1-2) but played Buffalo and Detroit close. I thought the Buffalo game was a bit flukey but still, they were hanging in there with two playoff teams.
I think Arizona could have beat Detroit but they forced the ball to Marvin Harrison too much, into double/ triple coverage, and that was the game. Kyler threw a pick on a terrible floating pass to a double covered MHJ, and was lucky even more weren’t picked off as he continued to force the ball there.
Detroit (2-1) doesn’t look great so far, but they are winning which is more than you can say about other preseason contenders. The Lions just played their own game of football and let Arizona make the mistakes.
==================================
We’ll just tackle Arizona in this since I don’t really have any notes on the Lions. Like I said they just played their style of football.
- Kyler Murray (21-34 for 207 yards, 1 TD/ 1 INT, 5 rushes for 45 yards) came back to reality after his monster game against the Rams. Kyler may have another big game against this shotty Commanders defense Week 4.
- Trey McBride (3-25-0/6) may miss the week 4 game against Washington, he left with a concussion in this game. Elijah Higgins (1-11-0/1) would fill in mostly for the passing game work, he’s a good receiving threat.
- Marvin Harrison Jr (5-64-1/11) is going to have a good season because Kyler is force feeding the ball to him, which is to be expected. MHJ doesn’t look great to me, still doesn’t after the last two games. His routes aren’t lazy but they aren’t awe-inspiring… they’re just normal. He isn’t super physical either which is what you would expect from a 6’3” wide receiver. He also doesn’t block much if at all.
- The best receiver Arizona has, and I’ve thought this for weeks now, is Michael Wilson (8-64-0/9). Wilson LOOKS like a #1 receiver. His routes are sharp, he actually gets open (unlike MHJ) and Kyler was giving him meaningful work… like the same kind of throws Amon-Ra St. Brown gets. MHJs targets seem more like a hope-and-a-prayer. The more defenses throw at MHJ the more Wilson will open up, so even if you don’t agree with me about who’s better, Wilson will get more work as Marv draws more coverage.
- I’m tired of writing this, Trey Benson (2-8-0) is better than James Conner (9-17-0). If the Cardinals lose their next few games Benson will be featured more. He’s their future.
image source: (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)