The Arizona Cardinals fell behind 10-0 to the Denver Broncos in the first half of their preseason opener Friday night.
However, while they didn’t score any points, there are some things we can take away from the game.
What is there to take away from the first half?
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Offense looks...traditional
After four seasons of Kliff Kingsbury’s Air Raid concepts, their new offense under Drew Petzing looked pretty ordinary. There was play action. They rolled the quarterbacks out. They ran pretty traditional routes.
They even ran a quarterback sneak from under center at one point.
Colt McCoy kept offense on schedule
The one series the Cardinals had McCoy in the game with the offensive starters, there was nothing special, but they moved the ball some. They picked up a pair of first downs and kept their third downs manageable.
He went 4-of-4 passing for 17 yards.
They went 28 yards in nine plays.
That wasn’t good but they improved field position.
Starting defense didn't look bad
On paper, the defense looks like it will be awful.
The starters looked decent.
They forced a three-and-out.
They held the Broncos to a field-goal attempt (that was missed) after the offense turned the ball over.
DL L.J. Collier batted down a pass on third down.
The defense looked like a traditional 3-4 scheme
Things will perhaps change as the regular season approaches and they show more, but the defense was very obviously a 3-4.
They played with three down linemen and four linebackers.
In nickel, the nose tackle came off the field.
