With the Arizona Cardinals on the verge of a major upset in New England, Arizona running back Ryan Williams made the day’s costliest mistake at the worst possible time. And the Cardinals won anyway.
Williams, a Cardinals running back who was given a handoff with Arizona leading 20-18 and New England out of timeouts with less than a minute left, stunningly fumbled the ball, setting up a game-winning field goal attempt for New England. But Stephen Gostkowski’s field goal attempt with one second remaining was wide left, and the Cardinals managed to pull off a stunning upset.
The Patriots sure didn’t look like Super Bowl contenders for most of the game. Tom Brady was ineffective after one of his favorite receivers, Aaron Hernandez, left with a high ankle sprain, and the Patriots’ defense failed to force Cardinals quarterback Kevin Kolb into the mistakes that he so often makes.
Kolb wasn’t great for Arizona, but he was good enough, completing 15 of 27 passes for 140 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.
Arizona’s defense deserves a great deal of credit for the way it shut down the normally outstanding Patriots offense: Brady was out of sorts all day, and the Patriots couldn’t do much on the ground, either.
No one expected to be saying this today, but the Arizona Cardinals are 2-0.