Game Recap
Buffalo Bills at Arizona Cardinals
Sunday, October 05, 2008
*Warner, Cardinals knock Bills from unbeaten ranks*
GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- The Buffalo Bills lost their perfect start and their starting quarterback on Sunday.
Kurt Warner threw for 250 yards and two touchdowns as the Arizona Cardinals routed the Bills, 41-17.
Buffalo's Trent Edwards left the game with a concussion when he was drilled into the turf by Adrian Wilson after completing a pass to James Hardy on Buffalo's opening possession.
The second-year quarterback from Stanford jammed his left shoulder into the ground and hit his head on the turf. He was helped off the field and carted to the locker room.
"He (Edwards) is responding but he is little groggy," Bills head coach Dick Jauron said. "Hopefully he will be fine as the time goes by but it is good to have the bye week."
Warner completed 33-of-42 passes and connected with Larry Fitzgerald on a pair of 2-yard scores. Fitzgerald caught seven balls for 52 yards and Steve Breaston added seven catches for 77 yards in place of Anquan Boldin, who missed the game after undergoing surgery on his fractured sinus Thursday.
"We all miss Anquan and I am sure our guys played hard for Anquan but if you are going to be a good team in this league you have to have guys step up," Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "Last year when we had guys injured we didn't have the depth we have this year. In camp there was a lot of competition at the receiver position and that made all the guys better and it paid dividends today."
J.P. Losman came in for Edwards and lost a fumble on an attempted handoff with Marshawn Lynch two plays later, giving the Cardinals the ball on the Buffalo 38-yard line.
Arizona (3-2) took advantage of the field position when Warner and Fitzgerald connected on their first touchdown for a 7-0 lead.
Rookie Tim Hightower found the end zone for his first of two rushing touchdowns on the Cardinals' next drive, capping a 14-play, 80-yard drive with a 17-yard score and putting Arizona up by two touchdowns.
Buffalo cut the deficit in half on a 3rd-and-14 from its own 13-yard line. Losman, who finished the day 15-of-21 for 220 yards, found a wide-open Lee Evans on an 87-yard touchdown reception.
"I try to mentally prepare every game like I am going to go in," Losman said. "It is tough and today I was put to that test and quite early, too. That's my job now and it is a great steppingstone for me to learn how it is and to get in there and try to keep everything under control and still lead the guys down the field."
After Edgerrin James scored from 1-yard out to extend the lead to 21-7, Losman scrambled in from 2 yards out to pull Buffalo back within seven at 21-14.
The Bills (4-1) entered the day as one of three unbeaten teams, but were overmatched in their second consecutive road game.
"We go into the bye at 4-1 and I don't think there were a lot of people in this room that thought that was going to happen," Jauron said.
With Cardinals leading, 24-17, Warner led a seven-minute, 13-play scoring drive that ended with another touchdown strike to Fitzgerald.
Warner bounced back from a six-turnover performance last week in a 56-35 loss to the New York Jets.
"Bottom line is you know you are going to have games like last week and you have to come back and turn it around, on track," Warner said. "It wasn't the first time I had a game like that and it probably won't be the last. You just have to bounce back. I wasn't worried about it other than the fact of trying to protect the ball. I knew I would be fine."
Losman fumbled on the next two possessions, leading to Neil Rackers' 38-yard field goal and Hightower's second touchdown to open up a 41-17 edge.
"You turn the ball over as many times as we did and penalties, they took advantage of that," Losman said. "Good teams will. We still have to realize that we are still 4-1 and still a very good football team."
