Cards notes: Special teams play shines

Sean Morey made the Pro Bowl last year as a special teams player. If Calais Campbell keeps this up, he may repeat the feat this season. Campbell, the Cardinals’ second-year defensive end, blocked a field goal and made a touchdown-saving tackle on a punt return in Arizona’s 28-21 victory over the Houston Texans.

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The blocked field goal, Campbell’s second of the season, came on a 35-yard attempt by Houston’s Kris Brown early in the second quarter.

“Our goal is to get five this year,” Campbell said. “I’m just trying to do my part.”

Campbell said Gabe Watson took on two blockers, giving him a crease to go through, and he stretched his 6-foot-8 frame to block the kick.

The tackle on the punt return was even more impressive.

Houston’s Jacoby Jones took Ben Graham’s kick on the Houston 7-yard line and raced 62 yards before Campbell, filling in for an injured Stephen Spach, pushed him out-of-bounds.

The stop was critical because the Texans, despite the good field position, failed to score after being stuffed on 4th-and-1 at Arizona’s 22-yard line.

“I got down the field as fast as I could,” Campbell said. “I read he that he was breaking outside so I took an angle to the pylon … I just ran my heart out, dove and tried to make a play. I’m so happy he went down. I look fast, but it’s all angles.”

RUN STUFFERS

Arizona’s defense may have allowed Houston to score touchdowns on three consecutive possessions in the second half, but it also came up with some critical stops.

Most notable, of course, was the goal-line stand at the end of the game. But Houston also had three chances to pick up one yard for a first down at Arizona’s 22-yard line early in the third quarter, and the Cardinals stopped Steve Slaton twice for no gain and forced a Matt Schaub incompletion in the end zone.

The official statistics had linebacker Ali Highsmith stuffing Chris Brown on the fourth-down play at the goal line, but it was the defensive line that made the play.

“We pushed everything back,” Darnell Dockett said. “If the D-line can’t get penetration, it doesn’t matter how good your linebackers are.”

How good was the Cardinals’ run defense? Houston had seven rushes go for no yards, and the Texans wound up with 45 yards on 21 carries, a 2.1 average per carry.

FAST AND EASY

Whisenhunt’s message to the Cardinals during the week was that they needed to play loose, rather than worrying about being perfect.

Arizona took the message to heart in the first half. Kurt Warner carved up the Texans by completing 20 of 23 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns, and the defense held Houston to 130 total yards.

The 21-0 advantage didn’t hold up, of course, but Whisenhunt hoped the Cardinals learned something with their first-half performance.

“I think sometimes we get too uptight,” he said. “We’re trying to be too perfect. If we don’t make the play, we don’t make the catch, or we don’t make the block we get down on ourselves because we have a perception of what we can do. When we don’t do that it puts us in a little bit of a negative mindset. So we’re working to get out of that because I don’t think we have handled those situations as well as we should have.”

EXTRA POINTS

Larry Fitzgerald had his best game of the season, catching five passes for 79 yards and two touchdowns.

Warner became the second quarterback in NFL history to throw for at least 13,000 yards with two teams (Arizona, St. Louis). Fran Tarkenton did it with Minnesota and the New York Giants.

Anquan Boldin’s seven receptions gave him 525 for his career, moving him past Roy Green on the Arizona Cardinals all-time list and just 10 behind leader Larry Centers.