Cardinals winners and losers: Passing attack shines, injuries mount vs. Raiders

But in what has been an encouraging preseason, the Cardinals earned a tangible reward for their efforts, beating the Las Vegas Raiders, 27-14, on Thursday at Allegiant Stadium.

And unlike last week’s loss to the Carolina Panthers on the final play of the Hall of Fame game, this contest featured starters. Only Trey McBride and Budda Baker — the Cardinals’ two biggest stars — were rested for reasons not related to injury.

Here are three winners and losers from the game.

WINNERS

Cardinals passing attack

It’s been a heck of a summer for the Cardinals’ passing attack. All through training camp, that group has gotten the better of the secondary, with receivers finding open pockets of space downfield. The trend continued at last week’s Hall of Fame game, when Carson Beck put together his impressive debut in front of a national audience.

This game, though, offered a new test. This was the Cardinals’ starting offense against a starting defense, in a real game, with pads and live tackling.

Suffice it to say the Cardinals passed with flying colors. At halftime, their quarterbacks — Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew — had completed 15 of 15 passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns. Not bad.

It wasn’t just the stats. Mike LaFleur consistently schemed up space for his receiving weapons, and both quarterbacks looked impressive in finding them. On Brissett’s lone drive, he hit Michael Wilson on an out route to convert a third-and-11, then followed that up with an impressive throw on the move to Marvin Harrison Jr. in the corner of the end zone.

It should be noted here that defenses typically show vanilla schemes in preseason, and don’t game plan for opposing offenses. But the early returns are as encouraging as they could be for LaFleur’s offense.

Jeremiyah Love

Throughout training camp, LaFleur has made his philosophy clear at running back. Training camp, he says, is a poor way to evaluate the position, given that there’s no tackling. Maybe you can see whether a running back is taking the correct lanes, but there’s no way to assess their elusiveness, a key trait at the position.

That was the rationale behind playing Jeremiyah Love for the entire first half. And boy, did Love deliver.

That shiftiness was on full display nearly every time Love touched the ball, as he sliced through every possible sliver in the Raiders’ defense. He finished with 58 yards on 11 carries — a healthy 5.3 yards per carry average that was only possible because of his own elusiveness.

That’s to say nothing of Love’s impact in the passing game, where he caught all three of his targets for 14 yards. Two of those catches came on angle routes where Love appeared to be the first read — an encouraging sign for how this coaching staff views his receiving prowess.

Also worth noting: He led Tyler Allgeier comfortably in both carries (11 to 4) and targets (3 to 0).

Jalen Brooks

Any number of Cardinals’ quarterbacks and wide receivers could be highlighted here: Brissett, Minshew, Harrison, Wilson, Reggie Virgil, you name it.

But it’s hard to ignore the impact that Brooks has made this summer. He was among their better players in training camp, posted a game-high 99 receiving yards last week and followed that up with six catches for 52 yards and a touchdown against the Raiders.

Perhaps most notably, Brooks was removed at halftime, well before the rest of the Cardinals’ backup receivers. He appears to have a firm grasp on a roster spot.

LOSERS

Cardinals injury luck

When right guard Chase Bisontis went down holding his left knee in the third quarter, it felt like déjà vu for this Cardinals team. In both 2024 and 2025, they lost first-round picks to the injury for the majority of the season. This spring, they lost fourth-rounder Kaleb Proctor for the year. And now, Bisontis’ status is in significant doubt, as he was carted to the locker room.

It wasn’t the only injury blow of note for the Cardinals.

Carson Beck missed the game with a ribs injury, although that appears to be of minor concern. Baron Browning, who missed their last practice, did not play. And Trey Benson has now been out for two weeks with what LaFleur described as a “flare-up” to his surgically repaired meniscus.

Benson’s absence could have put him in this category on his own. The 2024 third-rounder needed a strong training camp to make his case for a roster spot, but has now missed half the preseason. At this point, it’s difficult to see him carving out a job.

Struggling pass defense

There’s an argument to be made to just list the entire Cardinals’ defense here. But outside of one breakdown on a 53-yard carry, their defense allowed just 3.5 yards per carry in the first half (when players likely to make the Week 1 roster were still in the game).

There are no similar caveats to excuse the pass defense. That group allowed 10 completions on 14 pass attempts for 97 yards and two touchdowns — good for a 130.1 passer rating.

As with the offense’s success, it’s worth noting that nobody is preparing a game plan for preseason games. Defensive coordinator Nick Rallis’ schematic prowess was not being tested here.

But the lack of fundamentals was concerning. Take the Raiders' second touchdown, when nickel corner Sean Murphy-Bunting attempted to pass off a slant route, only to realize — too late — that no one was picking up that receiver.

Those types of miscues have been far too common for the Cardinals, in both training camp and the preseason. That’s not to mention their inability to affect the quarterback. Walter Nolen was the only pass rusher to cause any problems for a weak Raiders offensive line.

There was one winner here: Second-year cornerback Denzel Burke, who appears to be the favorite for a starting job opposite Will Johnson. But it was a bad day for the pass defense overall.

Cardinals discipline concerns

When LaFleur was hired, he made it a goal for the Cardinals to have the best pre-snap operation in the NFL. Doing that, LaFleur says, does not require talent. It is entirely in their own control.

But in the three weeks since training camp began, those tenets have not been on display. The Cardinals had consistent issues with pre-snap penalties in training camp and committed three false starts last week. In the first drive against the Raiders, their starting offense followed up with two more false starts.

This time, they were able to overcome the setbacks and score a touchdown anyway. But for a team that needs to win on the margins, that won’t always be the case.