GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Defenses have figured out how to take away the Arizona Cardinals' vertical passing game this season, but the Cardinals found a counter Monday night.
And it might have just saved their season.
The Cardinals dusted off their intermediate passing game Monday night, and it led them to a 28-3 demolition of the Jets at University of Phoenix Stadium in front of a national TV audience. The win evened the Cardinals' record at 3-3 and gave them their first winning streak of the season at two straight.
In a detour from their typical down-field passing offense, the Cardinals attempted just a single deep pass, save for a free play on a penalty. The longest pass Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer completed in the air was 13 yards, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Thirteen yards.
Who is this team?
It’s one that saw how defenses were taking away their vertical passing game by playing six, seven and eight defensive backs, or by playing their defensive backs far off Arizona's receivers and keeping the plays in front of them. So Arizona adjusted. Cardinals coach Bruce Arians knew the Jets, coached by former Cardinals' defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, would play a similar cushion defense. Arians countered by going short.
On the first play of the game, Palmer hit tight end Darren Fells on a quick pass in the middle of the field. From there, it was an exhibition on self-containing a passing game that was complemented by one of the best running backs in the NFL, David Johnson.
"We never go in saying we are throwing deep balls," Arians said. "Every (play) we have has a deep ball in it. It’s just whether you throw it or not. It’s just a judgment of what’s going on and how we play it. I thought we had our intermediate game extremely well tonight. It’s always what they give us."
Of Palmer’s 23 completions Monday, 12 were plays between 10 and 19 yards, accounting for 140 of Palmer’s 213 yards. Four others went for eight or nine yards.
But only eight of his completions were thrown 10 yards or longer in the air, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
"It’s good to see us do that," Palmer said.
He added: "They made us get rid of the ball quick. They did a number of things to put us in situations where the ball had to come out quick. I feel like we normally have big chunk plays -- 15- and 20-yard pass plays. They forced us to get rid of it quick, and we did a good job capitalizing in those situations."
But the Cardinals weren’t the Cardinals everyone has come to know and love under Arians, whose penchant for the deep ball courses through his veins. When Arians was first hired in 2013, one of his mottos was having "six bullets" on his play sheet, referring to deep passes.
Sometimes, however, it comes time to adapt and adjust. That’s exactly what the Cardinals did Monday night.
"It was a little weird," Palmer said. "We don’t have some of the plays in that we typically have, just knowing and assuming we were going to get some of the looks we got.
"We all want to throw the ball down the field every play, and you’ve got to pick your poison. You’ve got to take your shots. We took a couple shots, but really, they forced us to get rid of the ball quick."
Though short chunks moved the ball, it was a 6-feet-1, 224-pound counter-punch that landed Arizona in the end zone.
It’s not revolutionary that an effective run game can produce a successful passing game. That’s Football 101. But in the Cardinals' case, Johnson provided the perfect complement to Arizona’s intermediate passing game.
Johnson ran for 111 yards, including a 58-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The hotter his engine got Monday night, the more the Jets committed to stopping him, which led to more short passes for the Cardinals.
"Once you start running the football in four, five, six yards a clip, that safety starts coming up and they start diving down, you can get some single coverage behind, and I think I did a good job," wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. "We didn’t have any chunk shots but (quarterback) Carson (Palmer) was very accurate. He got the ball out of his hand. We didn’t give up any sacks. I think we did a really good job of just getting the ball out and not holding it and just taking what was there."
Arizona had not scored in the first quarter this season until Johnson’s first touchdown Monday. The play was set up by the drive before, when Arizona threw on three of its five plays -- one was a fumbled snap. They built momentum on Johnson’s running, and the Cardinals began to roll early in a game like they hadn’t yet this season.
All night, Johnson was causing fits for the Jets' defense. Of his 111 rushing yards, 84 came before first contact, including his 58 yard touchdown run on which he was untouched, according to ESPN Stats & Information. For the game, Johnson averaged 3.8 yards before first contact per rush. Entering Monday, the Jets were allowing 1.8 yards before first contact per rush, which was second-best in the NFL. The second-year back rushed for 60 yards outside the tackles, including the 58-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Entering the game, the Jets had allowed 20.6 rushing yards per game outside the tackles, seventh-best in the NFL.
"When you've got a back like David Johnson, you've got to feed him," Fitzgerald said, "and he's going to make something happen."
Monday night wasn’t a typical Cardinals game. The fireworks were traded in for the sparklers. But it was a move that was needed. It was a move that showed Arians can adapt, enough, possibly to spark a run this season.
"It takes a lot of patience," Fells said. "We were struggling a little bit to start off, just trying to get back in our rhythm and play the way we know we can play.
"That little intermediate pass is definitely what we needed to get that back."