Arizona Cardinals kick off 2012 with win against Seattle Seahawks

GLENDALE, AZ - It may not have been pretty, but the Arizona Cardinals are off to a 1 and 0 start in 2012 after a victory against the Seattle Seahawks! And when we say "may not have been pretty," we're talking about the officiating.

Here's what you need to know about Game 1 of the 2012 regular season for the Cardinals:

1) There were a total of 23 penalties called by the replacement referees for a total of 192 yards.

2) Cardinals quarterback John Skelton was hurt midway through the fourth quarter with what appears to be a high ankle sprain. Prior to the injury, Skelton completed 14 passes for 149 yards with 1 interception. If you're keeping track, his quarterback rating was 51.0. (not that good)

3) Kevin Kolb came into the game midway through the fourth after Skelton was injured and directed the Cardinals on an 11 play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Andre Roberts.

4) Kolb's final statistics: 6 of 8 for 66 yards with 1 touchdown and a quarterback rating of 138.5. Before you get too excited about Kolb, let's remember it's one half of one quarter of one game.

5) The Arizona Cardinals managed just 43 rushing yards on 20 plays, that's a 2.2 yard per carry average. Not the kind of rushing production that anyone was hoping for.

6) The Cardinals offense finished Game 1 with 253 total yards, 43 rushing yards and 210 passing yards.

7) The replacement refs will definitely need some schooling this week. The last thing the NFL needs now is to muddy the waters with terrible officiating. Sunday was definitely terrible!

8) The Cardinals won the game 20 -16. This is probably the only statistic you need to remember at this point of the season.

Have fun and enjoy being tied for first place in the NFC West. (at least for week one).

When all was said and done, it was exactly the kind of game we thought it would be, a defensive battle between two teams with solid defenses and suspect offenses.