St. Louis Rams top Arizona Cardinals 17-3 to hand them first defeat of the season – NFL Recap
St. Louis Rams got their second straight victory of the season on Thursday, October 04, 2012, as they ended four-game winning streak of Arizona Cardinals, 17-3, at Edward Jones Dome.
Cardinals’ one of the best starts to a season was not allowed to gain further glory by Rams sturdy defence that sacked Arizona quarterback Kevin Kolb nine times.
Kolb finished the game completing 28 of his 50 passes for 289 yards.
Cardinals struggled badly on offence and provided only one scoring move in the entire game. Jay Feely got a 35-yard field goal in the first quarter. Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt said after the game:
“There’s probably a whole laundry list of things we need to get better at.”
The plan worked perfectly for the Rams, who had been preparing hard for this encounter. Rams head coach Jeff Fisher wanted his defence to apply pressure on Kolb and they did exactly what the coach had asked.
Fisher said after the game:
“It was a great effort. The team had a sense for what we had to do because going into this game with the respect factor for their defence, their defence is really, really talented, and so we knew it was going to be a hard day at work, offensively, so the
defence had to step up and they did.”
Rams were aware that the Cards were entering the game on the back of four straight victories and that their defence had been phenomenal.
Cardinals defence was again up to the mark as it restricted Rams to only a few scoring opportunities, but the offence struggled badly.
Rams quarterback Sam Bradford was unable to run the ball effectively, but he still managed to get two touchdowns while throwing an interception. He completed seven passes of 21 attempts for 141 yards.
The good thing, however, was that the Rams were able to convert playing opportunities into maximum scoring gains. At times they rely on field goals as they struggle to reach the end zone, but they managed to shift their reliance from field goals to touchdowns
against Cardinals.
In first quarter, Bradford sent a seven-yard touchdown pass to Lance Kendricks, while the quarterback connected with Chris Givens for a 51-yard score in the final quarter. Rams also got a field goal in second quarter.
Bradford said after the game:
“It’s something that we had talked about all week was not settling for a field goal, getting touchdowns when we get down there.”
With the victory, Rams have also beaten their last season’s 2-14 record. Hoping to further stretch their two-game winning streak, Rams will now take on Miami Dolphins in Week 6 game.
Cardinals, on the other hand, are still leading National Football Conference (NFC) West. They will face Buffalo Bills in their next game.
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