The first third of the season of the NFL with two very marked poles at the top and at the bottom of the table. While the Arizona cardinals have equaled the best start in their history with six wins in the same number of games, the Detroit Lions they sink as they are the only team that still doesn’t know what it’s like to win.
The Cardinals they beat 37-14 Browns in their visit to Cleveland and tied the 6-0 they achieved at the start of the 1974 season, which until now had been their best record. At that time, playing in the city of St. Louis, they finished the regular season 10-4 and advanced to the playoffs, although they lost the divisional round to the Vikings.
In the two months of the 2021 season, Cardinals they have defeated the Browns, 49ers, Rams, Jaguars, Vikings and Titans, although he still has to face rivals who are showing strong as the Green bay packers and the Dallas cowboys. With its current 6-0, Arizona remains the leader of the Western Division in the National Conference, in which it is closely followed by Rams (also from the West), the Packers (North) and Buccaneers (South) with a 5-1 record.
This year, Cardinals they are poised to make the postseason for the first time since 2015, when they lost the NL championship to the Carolina Panthers.
The sixth victory of the Cardinals It came in the middle of an unprecedented week for the club, with three players, three coaches and front office staff, including head coach Kliff Kingsbury and general manager Steve Keim, testing positive for Covid-19. In this way, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph made his debut as a head coach in place of Kingsbury.
Quarterback Kyler Murray completed 20 of 30 passes for 229 yards and threw four touchdowns, including two to wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. The defense of the Cardinals also captured the quarterback of the Browns, Baker Mayfield, five times in the victory, showing the muscle of the team, thus closing the first six of 17 dates this season (for the first time that amount is played in the regular phase).
The Cardinals, who have played in Chicago, St. Louis and Phoenix Before coming to Arizona, they have never won a Super Bowl and their closest moment was the one they lost in 2008 to the Pittsburgh steelers. However, in that year they won their only conference championship, while they have seven division titles, the last being in 2015.
Disaster in Detroit is shaping up to a negative record
Even the worst team of the 2020 season already managed to win in 2021. The Jacksonville Jaguars 23-20 surpassed the Miami dolphins in the second game of the NFL held in London this year, a score that combined with the 34-11 triumph of the Bengals Over the Lions, left the latter team as the only one that has not added a single victory.
The Lions have lost against Bengals, Vikings, Bears, Ravens, Packers and 49ersAlthough against Baltimore and Minnesota their losses hurt even more because they were on last-minute plays. This is Detroit’s worst start since 2008, when they finished an embarrassing 0-16.
The Lions have lost to the Bengals, Vikings, Bears, Ravens, Packers and 49ers. Photo: Reuters
The loose start to the 2021 season has already made the head coach of Detroit, Dan Campbell, question his own starting quarterback, Jared Goff: “I feel like he needs to go one step further than he has,” he declared at the end of the loss to Cleveland.
In week 7, Lions will visit Los Angels Rams with the task of saving the season and avoiding that 0-16 of 2008 or the most recent that has occurred in the NFL, which was for the Browns in 2017. Detroit He has not advanced directly to the playoffs since 1983, having qualified to six wild card rounds since 1991 and has only won one.
In other results from week 6, Kansas city chiefs they reacted and beat Washingon 31-13 to balance their balance at 3-3, although they are still at the bottom of the American Conference West Division. For their part, Ravens, Cowboys and Packers They are the best on the rampage after the Cardinals with five consecutive wins after starting with a loss; on the contrary, Texans they are the only team with a five-loss streak after starting with a win.
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