Cardinal Defense Does Job

The Arizona Cardinals finally found a way to beat the New York Giants--play defense like they used to.

Punishing Giant quarterback Dave Brown with four sacks, holding Rodney Hampton to three yards in seven carries and capitalizing on four turnovers, the Cardinals won, 31-23, on Sunday over a team that has dominated them in recent years.

Boomer Esiason, who had 522 yards a week ago against Washington and 260 yards on 18 of 26 accuracy against the Giants, threw touchdown passes of 18 yards to Rob Moore and two yards to Frank Sanders.

He also directed drives that resulted in one-yard scoring runs by Cedric Smith and LeShon Johnson.

“The first three games, we were not able to run the ball,” said Esiason, who was 0-3 as a starter before he was benched for Kent Graham. Esiason got the job back because of an injury to Graham in a 16-8 loss to the Giants on Nov. 3, and now has won two straight.

“Special teams were giving up big plays, the defense was giving up big plays,” Esiason went on. “All of a sudden, maturity has taken over, everybody has settled down, and the quarterback is the beneficiary,”

The Cardinals (5-6) moved within one game of .500 by beating the Giants (4-7) for the first time in two years. New York had won nine of the previous 13 meetings.

New York’s Dave Brown threw a nine-yard scoring pass to Tyrone Wheatley with 9:56 left to close the gap to 28-20, but Arizona put it away with a fumble recovery.

Jason Sehorn bobbled a punt, and Anthony Edwards recovered on the New York eight. Kevin Butler’s 18-yard field goal made the score 31-20 with 4:26 left.

The Giants ran 15 plays in the next 3:01, but got only a 27-yard field goal by Brad Daluiso out of it. Then the Cardinals’ Seth Joyner recovered an onside kick.

The Cardinals had three sacks and two interceptions in the first half and forced the Giants to settle for 25- and 22-yard field goals by Daluiso after they got to the Arizona three.

“We went into the game running the ball, and we couldn’t run it effectively like we wanted to, and that’s what took us out,” Giant wide receiver Chris Calloway said.

Eric Swann had a sack in the first quarter and Simeon Rice had two in the second.

But the Giants didn’t squander their chance when Arizona’s Marcus Dowdell touched a bouncing punt and Charles Way covered it at the Arizona 14 in the third quarter.

Brown connected with Wheatley in the flat on a four-yard score, cutting the deficit to 21-13 with 6:33 left in the period.

The Cardinals answered immediately. Johnson covered part of a 75-yard march with a 35-yard catch and completed it with his short run to make the score 28-13 with 38 seconds remaining in the third.