Arizona Cardinals vs Chicago Bears Match Player Stats On Sep 20, 2015

The Sports Xchange
Sep 20, 2015

CHICAGO -- Quarterback Carson Palmer threw four touchdown passes, including three to Larry Fitzgerald, leading the Arizona Cardinals to a 48-23 victory over the Chicago Bears, whose starting quarterback Jay Cutler was forced out of the game with an injury suffered while trying to make a tackle on an interception return on Sunday.

The score was tied at 14 in the second quarter when Palmer led the Cardinals on an 80-yard, nine-play drive that ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Fitzgerald.

Two plays after the kickoff, Cutler, who to that point had completed all eight passes he attempted, threw behind tight end Martellus Bennett and into the receptive arms of Cardinals safety Tony Jefferson, who returned the gift 26 yards for a touchdown that put Arizona ahead, 28-14.

Cutler was injured as he dove to try to tackle Jefferson near the sideline. It appeared Cutler landed on his shoulder and head, but the Bears announced the injury as a hamstring, and he did not return to the game. The full extent of the injury was not immediately known.

Chicago got a break when two Arizona turnovers led to a pair of Robbie Gould field goals in the final minute of the half and cut the Cardinals' margin to 28-20. But Jimmy Clausen, the Bears' backup quarterback, threw an interception to cornerback Patrick Peterson on the third play of the second half, and that set up the second Palmer-to-Fitzgerald TD connection, a 28-yarder that put the Cards ahead by 15 points. Chicago never got any closer.

Until that sequence, the Bears had matched the Cardinals score for score, rebounding nicely after David Johnson, a first-year free agent, ran the opening kickoff back 108 yards for the first Arizona touchdown.

Johnson, literally untouched on the return, scored another touchdown later on a 13-yard run, and Fitzgerald scored his third on a 9-yard pass reception late in the fourth quarter.

Palmer completed 17 of 24 passes for 185 yards, with Fitzgerald catching eight for 112 yards.

Arizona defensive lapses helped Chicago stay close early.

Late in the first quarter, on third-and-4 from the Chicago 17-yard line, Cutler scrambled out of the pocket while the Cards defense lost track of running back Matt Forte near the right sideline, and Cutler threw to Forte for a 27-yard gain.

Three plays later, on third-and-2 from the Arizona 48, two Cards' defenders went with wide receiver Marquess Wilson and no one went with wide receiver Joshua Bellamy, whose first career catch went for a touchdown and 7-7 tie.

Later in the first quarter, a 42-yard pass interference penalty on Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller set Arizona up for a 6-yard touchdown pass from Palmer to wide receiver John Brown.

With starting back Matt Forte resting on the sideline, the Bears tied the game again with an 80-yard drive following the next kickoff. Rookie running back Jeremy Langford was the runner on this 11-play drive, during which the Cardinals never forced a third down. Langford scored on a 1-yard run to tie the game at 14, setting the stage for the Arizona runaway that followed.

NOTES: The Bears played without WR Alshon Jeffery (hamstring), who led the team in receiving yards and touchdowns a year ago and also in their opening day loss to Green Bay . . . RB Andre Ellington (knee), Arizona's leading rusher, also missed the game . . . Cards LB LaMarr Woodley went out of the game in the first quarter with a right shoulder injury . . . QB Jimmy Clausen, who joined the Bears as a free agent in 2014, appeared in four games last year, starting one in late December . . . Cards WR J.J. Nelson left the game in the third quarter with an injured right shoulder.