Beanie Wells had arguably the biggest game of his career yesterday, as the running back rushed for 228 yards during the Arizona Cardinals' 23-20 win over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday afternoon at the Edward Jones Dome. He nabbed a franchise record for rushing during the game, averaging 8.4 yards on 27 carries and even scoring a touchdown in the process.
Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson also had an epic game, returning an 80-yard punt by the Rams for a touchdown in the third quarter. It was the rookie's fourth punt return for a TD this season, which ties an NFL record.
Such efforts helped the Red Birds counteract the poor play of quarterback John Skelton and squeak out a much-needed win of the season against the much weaker Rams, resulting in their fourth victory of the season and their seventh straight win over St. Louis. It's also a relatively meaningless win, however, as the Cards have little chance of making the playoffs this year (mostly because the San Francisco 49ers are a hairsbreadth away from clinching the NFC West crown).
Despite the record-setting achievements by Wells and Peterson, there were a lot of poor performances by Cardinals players.
Skelton wasn't very stellar and went 12-for-23 and racked up only 114 yards, tossing two interceptions and zero touchdowns in the process. Larry Fitzgerald was open for most of the game, but the QB saw fit to only pass to him on a few occasions.
Then there's the fact that the Cardinals came close to blowing the game in the fourth. The team was down 10-0 to the Rams at halftime, the Red Birds came back strong in the third quarter with the aforementioned touchdowns by Petersen and Wells. Then came the final quarter, when two fumbles allowed the Rams to tie the game at 20. A field goal from J. Feely with less than five minutes to go managed to put things out of reach for St. Louis.
Hopefully they'll fare better against the Cowboys this weekend when the Red Birds will return home to University of Phoenix Stadium to take on Dallas (6-4) on Sunday afternoon. Kickoff is at 2:15 p.m. Visit www.azcardinals.com for tickets and more information.