An interesting, competitive and offensive “Thursday Night Football” game?! Who knew that was possible this season, after many weeks of slow Thursday matches.
Through two quarters, the Arizona Cardinals have outscored the New Orleans Saints 28-14.
Saints quarterback Andy Dalton got off to a promising start, but enters the half with three interceptions, two returned for touchdowns.
The Saints offense got off to a strong start with a 54-yard touchdown pass from Dalton to Rashid Shaheed less than three minutes into the game and the Cardinals responded with a 50-yard field goal on their first play to make it 7-3.
The Saints were going on a 15-play drive that spanned more than nine minutes and looked like they were going to score another touchdown, but Dalton threw a pick in the end zone. This would be the start of a half of picks for the quarterback.
New Orleans’ offense showed many different facets tonight and Taysom Hill, the tight end at times the quarterback, is a big part of that. Dalton connected with Hill to extend the Saints’ lead and the extra point made it 14-6.
Just as the Saints were starting to build momentum, the Cardinals made a statement with back-to-back touchdowns, one on offense and one on defense.
Keaontay Ingram ran it in from 2 yards out and a two-point conversion tied the game at 14. Then the Cardinals defense stepped up with a 38-yard pick 6 for Arizona’s first lead of the night.
It was deja vu all over again for Dalton, who threw another pick-6, extending the Cardinals’ lead. After a missed extra point after the last touchdown, the Cardinals decided to go for two. His attempt was successful and made it 28-14 Cardinals.
The Cardinals go into halftime with 22 unanswered points.