The Arizona Cardinals were heading into the halftime break up 20-0 over the New York Giants, needing only 30 more minutes to pass before they reached their first win of the season.
The offense was flying and firing on all cylinders. The defense held Daniel Jones and co. in check and allowed little to no hope of sniffing the end zone.
Yet the tide quickly turned at State Farm Stadium. New York began the third quarter with an opening drive touchdown, though the Cardinals answered and went up 28-7.
That's when all hell broke loose for Jonathan Gannon and his staff, as the Giants scored 24 unanswered points to find their first win of the season in 31-28 fashion.
"We've got to coach better. We got outplayed in the second half. A tale of two halves. We have to do a better job to help our guys out because the effort's there and the intensity is there—we've got to coach a little bit better," Gannon said following the game.
Cardinals captain Kyzir White took ownership for the defense collapsing:
“I think when you get up 20-0 there might be a natural instinct of 'we got them', but it’s the National Football League. Just like we scored 20 in a half, they can go out and score 20 in a half. We definitely played with a lot of energy in the first half, but the second half was unacceptable and not good enough. I put that on me as a leader on this defense to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Week 2's battle between the Cardinals and Giants made history in the following ways:
- That was the largest comeback in franchise history for New York
- Daniel Jones became the first quarterback in NFL to do the following in the second half of a game: threw for 250+ yards - rushed for 50+ yards - threw multiple TD passes - rushed for a TD - had no turnovers (via OptaSTATS)
- Per 98.7's Vince Marotta: Since moving to Arizona in 1988, the Cardinals had been 29-0 in games where they scored 28 or more points and didn't commit a turnover. After Sunday, they're 29-1.
- The Giants are just the third team in NFL history to suffer a 40+ point loss while also mounting a 20+ point comeback in the same season. They're the only team to do so in consecutive weeks (via Greg Harvey)
- Perhaps not historical, but the Giants had less than a 4% chance of winning in the third quarter according to ESPN's FPI.
We'll see if the Cardinals can bounce back in a tough test against the Dallas Cowboys next week.
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