How bad was the 28-0 first quarter the Arizona Cardinals allowed to the Minnesota Vikings? According to research from ESPN's Mike Sando, it's only happened ten other times in the NFL since 1940. The Cardinals head into the second half having played their worst football of the season, down 28-3.
It's hard to place blame on any one part of the game when you get dominated that bad but quarterback Kevin Kolb has been atrocious. He gave up a fumble for one turnover, was tipped at the line several times with one going for an interception. And after a long drive late in the half took an 18-yard sack to push Arizona out of field goal range.
Kolb's numbers are 11-22 with two sacks taken, one interception, one fumble and just 104 yards of offense. It's a good think his coach and teammates have faith in him, because the fans and media are quickly losing hope.
Defensively, the Cardinals were unable to contain Adrian Peterson who ran for and three touchdowns and 86 yards on 13 carries. The defense was saddled with bad field position on multiple occasions but still needed to find a way to make something happen.
Donavon McNabb continues to be horrible himself, going 4-12 for 63 yards but didn't turn over the ball.
Arizona had 123 total yards and seven first downs and were 4-11 on third down conversion attempts. The Vikings had 162 yards with 12 first downs and were just 1-4 on third down. The difference in the game was the two turnover and poor special teams that gave the Vikings the ball on the Arizona 18 early in the game.
The Vikings have giving up big first half leads three times so far this season. We'll see if the Cardinals can respond and at least show some life in the second half.
For more on this debacle in progress, visit Revenge of the Birds live game thread.