Video: What Week 3 loss to Detroit Lions tells us about the Arizona Cardinals

Video: What Week 3 loss to Detroit Lionstells us about the Arizona Cardinals 

Wolf & Luke take a closer look at what the Arizona Cardinals’ Week 3 loss to the Detroit Lions says about the team as they prepare to take on the Washington Commanders at home on Sunday.

TEMPE — Early on into the Cardinals’ 20-13 loss to the Buffalo Bills, it looked like Arizona’s defense was in for a long afternoon after back-to-back scoring drives and a 20-point first half by the visitors.

Detroit’s two-headed running game was as advertised behind 109 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries, while quarterback Jared Goff completed all 12 of his passing attempts for 137 yards and a pair of scores in the first two quarters.

There really wasn’t an area the Lions couldn’t beat the Cardinals, who trailed at the half for the first time this year, leaving some expecting the worst for the rest of the game.

The defense, however, didn’t just bounce back in the second half, it gave it right back to Detroit. And even though Arizona was on the losing end of the one-score ballgame, head coach Jonathan Gannon got a glimpse of what the unit can be.

“You give up 20 points in a half, that’s not great. And then to keep the score at 20 with the takeaway, the fourth-down stop, the punts in there … I thought they battled and gave us a chance,” Gannon said Monday. “That game could have gotten out of hand if they’re not physiologically prepped the right way. I think they showed me that they were.

“That’s the first time we’ve been down at half, right? What are you going to do about it? I thought that we made some adjustments and they executed the adjustments and we had guys make a bunch of plays. That was really good to see. That was one of the things I was enthused about last night watching it was we responded the right way. That’s typically the sign of a good unit.”