One more game remains for the Detroit Lions before they’re off for a week—and it’s an important game in deciding the vibes as Detroit heads into their Week 6 bye.
We had the pleasure of connecting with Seth Cox, the Managing Editor for Revenge of the Birds, to give us some insight into this Arizona Cardinals team ahead of this week’s matchup. We learned about the offense’s check-down struggles under Jacoby Brissett, the early-season hullabaloo surrounding the fatigue facing Arizona’s top pick Jeremiyah
Love, and a passive defensive scheme that’s struggling to generate pressure—plus much more.
1. Per Next Gen Stats, Jacoby Brissett completed just six of 18 pass attempts for 55 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions against the Giants’ blitzes, facing pressure on 52.4% of his dropbacks.
What about the Giants’ blitz packages caused problems for Brissett and the offense? How does losing Paris Johnson Jr. for the season complicate things for Arizona’s offensive line?
The Arizona Cardinals offensive line stinks, the quarterback sat out all offseason of a new system after going 1-11 and the Cardinals caved and gave him $10 million more and then this has been the result.
An offense that looks like it’s afraid to or just unwilling to push the ball down the field right now. The thing is, the offensive line was bad last year and the problem was all the running backs were hurt. Now this year, they got rid of the “problems” in Drew Petzing and Kyler Murray, and the passing attack is literally just check downs.
It’s actually not even enjoyable to watch for the first four weeks.
2. Arizona took a bold and brave swing by drafting running back Jeremiyah Love with the third overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. He’s dealing with a new ankle injury that head coach Mike LaFleur said is separate from the injury he suffered back in August.
“It’s more of just the whole thing,” Love said after last week’s game. “It’s been a long year for me. Like, [my] body sometimes is down. Somebody [is] sometimes tired. So, like, it’s just managing those things. Like, coaches know that. Like, this is probably gonna be the longest year of my life.”
How have fans reacted to Love’s postgame comments, what have you made of his rookie season so far–and what about the run game as a whole?
There’s always the “it is taken out of context” remarks, but through the first four weeks he does seem genuinely dejected and not like he’s having fun.
Of course being in a losing situation with a team that doesn’t seem to have a big plan week to week on how much they are using that huge investment does make sense on why it has been tough through the first month of the season.
3. The Cardinals defense looks like it’s struggling a bit to pressure the quarterback, ranking 29th in pressure rate (30.3%) and 30th in passing EPA per play allowed (+0.29). In what ways have opponents been successful against the Cardinals pass defense?
Can you rush the passer? No. Can you cover? No. Does your defensive coordinator employ blitzing to manufacture pressures? No.
Well, then you see the results.
Their schemes are super passive, and they have one super talented guy in Walter Nolen, a guy who is good when he’s on in Josh Sweat, but seems to be completely checked out right now.
There’s not a whole lot to it. They stink.
4. Arizona’s run defense looks like it’s pretty solid: 15th in yards per carry, 14th in stuff rate (17.0%) and second in rushing EPA per play allowed (-0.24). Who has been key in the Cardinals ability to stop the run this season?
It’s fine in the sense that the numbers look okay, but the reality is that a lot of those good numbers come from the fact that they are down so much and teams just are running and they know it’s coming.
When games are competitive though, you are seeing good things out of Roy Lopez, Nolen, Zaven Collins and then Mack Wilson doing good work.
Of course there is always Budda Baker as well, who remains one of the best run support safeties in the NFL, and Andrew Wingard has done well (although he is out this week it seems like).
5. The Cardinals opened as 4.5-point underdogs heading into Week 5 against the Lions, and that line has remained steady so far over at FanDuel Sportsbook. What’s one thing you want to see, what’s one thing you need to see, and one thing you’re sure you’ll see happen in this matchup between the Lions and Cardinals on Sunday afternoon?
I’d love to see the Arizona Cardinals push the ball down the field. Against what has been a poor Lions pass defense, you’d love to see that come into play, but you do have a very good pass rush through four weeks so that’s something to worry about starting two backups (left tackle and right guard) and Elijah Wilkinson.
So, I’d also like to see them use their third overall pick like that type of investment (of course if his ankle really is messed up then I retract this statement) and really force the Lions to load up and stop Jeremiyah Love.
What I expect to happen is that the Detroit Lions score 30+ points, and the Arizona Cardinals do well enough to keep it close before the Lions pull away and have their best game of the season.
Good luck and good health to the Lions in this one.
