Arizona Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals must protect Carson Palmer

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Arizona Cardinals face the Buffalo Bills on Sunday in Orchard Park, NY

The Arizona Cardinals have done a relatively decent job protecting quarterback Carson Palmer so far over the first two games. Sunday will be a great test for the Cardinals offensive line.

The Buffalo Bills love to blitz. It is expected that Bill head coach Rex Ryan will send the wolves. The Bills are expected to throw as many blitzes as they can.

Guys like Jared Veldheer and D.J. Humphries are going to need to step up big time in protecting Palmer. Coverage sacks are one thing, but they need to give Palmer that time to find his open receivers.

What will help that is guys like Mike Iupati opening up running lanes for the Cardinals running backs. David Johnson rushed 12 times for just 45 yards last week against Tampa Bay. His backup, Chris Johnson rushed 16 times for 54 yards. The two combined were held under 100 yards.

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It won’t be easy to beat those 99 yards against the Bills. The Bills allowed Matt Forte to rush 30 times for 100 yards on his own last week for the New York Jets. Still, it was a 3.3 per carry average. The Cardinals need a better performance than that.

I expect the Cardinals to be ready for the Bills blitzing however. Opening up the run game and finding open receivers on screens could have the Bills scaling back a bit.

The Cardinals will need to recognize the blitz early though. If the Bills get any early momentum, it could be a long afternoon for the Cardinals in Buffalo.

The Jets just put 37 on the Bills last week though. If the Jets can put 37 on the Bills on a Thursday night game on a short week, there is no reason to believe the Cardinals can’t put another 40 spot up on the board this week.

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