Week 2: Why Sunday's Cardinals game is a 'must win'

Cardinals at Jaguars - Sunday, September 20th - 10am (MST)

The Cardinals open the 2009 road schedule this Sunday against the Jaguars in Jacksonville.

The game will mark just the third meeting between the two teams, with Jacksonville having won the previous two games.

This year, both teams enter the game winless with the Cardinals coming off their loss to the 49ers and the Jaguars looking to bounce back from a 14 to 12 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

Sunday’s game will be the first of three Eastern Time zone games for the Cardinals during the 2009 regular season.

They also have road games against the Giants (10/24, Sunday night) and Lions (12/20).

For the Cardinals, the game is almost a must win situation with the team looking to avoid an 0-2 start before returning to University of Phoenix Stadium to play the Colts on Sunday, August 30th.

Looking back at the Niners

Last week, the Cardinals defense held the 49ers rushing attack to just 21 yards on 25 carries, an average of less than 1 yard per carry.

The performance gave the Cardinals the NFL’s top rushing defense through week one.

On the other side of the ball, the Cardinals offense struggled with just 40 yards rushing, 3 turnovers and just 16 points, despite outgaining the 49ers by almost 100 total yards.

Injury Inquiry 

The Cardinals two biggest question marks on the injured list are Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston. Both players look like they will play on Sunday, but we may not know for sure until just before kickoff.


What could be….

A win this week vs. Jacksonville would be the Cardinals first win against the Jaguars and would leave Denver (0-7-1) and Houston (0-1) as the only NFL teams the Cardinals have never defeated during the regular season.

With 100 yards receiving, Tim Hightower would become the first RB in franchise history to have back-to-back 100-yard receiving games in the same season. Hightower would be the fourth Cardinals player to open a season with consecutive 100-yard receiving games and the first to do so since David Boston in 2000.


One other note

Jaguars offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter was the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils from 2001-06.


Key Players

Cardinals - The whole offense - Kurt and company need to get the offense in gear.

Jaguars - Maurice Jones Drew - The engine of the Jaguars offense.