How Cardinals Escaped Wild Panthers Comeback

Before we knew it, the Cardinals were up 7-0, and that was thanks to a fantastic play from their defensive front.

On just the third play from scrimmage, defensive lineman Josh Sweat got to quarterback Bryce Young and forced him to fumble. After a scramble for the football, linebacker Zaven Collins eventually scooped it up at the 3-yard line and stumbled into the end zone for the score.

The takeaways didn’t stop there, though, as on the very next possession, Arizona picked off Young to give the offense the ball in plus territory. Linebacker Baron Browning was the one to intercept Young’s pass, his second pick of his career.

Arizona cashed in with a field goal to make it 10-0, all 10 points coming from or after a forced turnover. This swung momentum all the way in the Cardinals’ favor, allowing them to build a substantial lead in the first half.

If it wasn’t for these two key plays early in the ballgame, Carolina’s late comeback would’ve been enough to secure the victory. When Arizona was up 27-3, many may have viewed the fumble touchdown and interception on the following possessions as icing on the cake, but in the end they were the difference between a heartbreaking loss and a single-digit win.

At the time, the two impact plays set the tone and gave Arizona the momentum, as they not only gave the Cardinals a baseline 10 points to start out with, but got the home fans engaged from the very beginning.

TDs before and after halftime extend give Cardinals insurance

It’s huge for a team to be able to score touchdowns on back-to-back drives without the other team getting a chance to have a productive series of its own, but that’s exactly what the Cardinals did to end the second quarter and begin the third quarter.

After forcing a punt late in the second quarter, Greg Dortch executed a marvelous return of 29 yards to set up the Arizona offense with just 51 seconds until halftime. In that short amount of time, Murray and the offense were able to not only get into field goal range, but drive all the way into the end zone for a touchdown.

Murray found Michael Wilson for the score on a beautiful ball, with Wilson able to snag his first touchdown pass of the 2025 season. This was all done in 47 seconds, leaving just four seconds for Carolina to respond before the half.

Of course, there was no way the Panthers could score barring a miracle, so they simply took a knee and accepted that Arizona would get the ball back once halftime concluded. With a 20-3 lead, the Cardinals weren’t done just yet, though.

Arizona drove down the field in nine plays for a 71-yard touchdown drive to start out the second half, with James Conner rushing for the score in what was his first touchdown on the ground in 2025.

This was the best the Arizona offense looked all game, with the 45-yard drive to end the first half being the only other real contender. Now up 27-3, the Cardinals had enough of a comfortable lead that even if they were to collapse — which they did — it would be enough to secure the win.

Between 14 points on these two drives and the 10 points off turnovers, Arizona scored 24 of its 27 points across the most critical points in the game. If it wasn’t for the Cardinals being able to double-dip before and after the half, it’s more than likely that they’d be sitting at 1-1 instead of 2-0.

Defense able to weather the storm in the final minutes

I mentioned that the two turnovers and two touchdown drives were the “critical moments” of the ballgame, but with the way the Panthers were able to claw back into this one, the last few seconds became the more crucial plays of the contest.

After three Panthers touchdowns with a Murray interception and a Blake Gillikin punt sprinkled in there, Carolina had an opportunity to execute an onside kick and get the ball back down 27-22. The Cardinals couldn’t come up with the ball and allowed Carolina to recover, allowing their worst nightmare to continue.

Young and the Panthers’ offense had a chance to win the game with 1:55 to go, and the Cardinals’ defense was tasked with saving the game for Arizona. In what ended up being a “ref show” of sorts, Carolina was given a couple of fresh starts, but the Cardinals’ defense held firm.

On a fourth-and-15 from Arizona’s 38-yard line, Carolina had one last chance, but veteran defensive lineman Calais Campbell was able to wrap up the quarterback and secure the victory for the home team.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Cardinals got the win due to their defense stepping up at the right time. The collapse from being up 27-3 to just 27-22 was certainly ugly; however, the old adage “a win is a win” holds true.

There were points in the game that Arizona played great, while others were, to put it nicely, not so great. In the end, the Cardinals got the 27-22 win and are 2-0 with an even bigger test in San Francisco on the horizon.

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