Birdgang MVP – Arizona Cardinals Preseason Week 4

Aug 24, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Cardinals kicker Chandler Catanzaro (7) kicks a 23 yard field goal during the second half against the Cincinnati Bengals at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Last night concluded the slate of preseason games for the Arizona Cardinals. The Cards would finish with a 1-3 record overall. Winning and losing during the preseason does not matter at all, though, as the Cards will start back out at 0-0 as they start the regular season with games that truly do matter.

Last night featured a game of backups and, most importantly, a game of players fighting for their NFL lives as they try to impress the coaches in order to have a shot at sticking with the team for the regular season.

The Cardinals offense was pretty stagnant, last night, as they would struggle to move the ball down the field and would fail on 3rd down conversions.

The Cards defense stood its ground when they needed to as they would prevent the San Diego Chargers from ever entering the end zone for a touchdown. We have to give a shout out to linebacker, Glenn Carson, for having a nice night with 10 tackles and 3 pass deflections.

The Birdgang MVP, though, has to go to the man who was the only player to put up points for the Cards, kicker Chandler Catanzaro. Catanzaro was 100% of field goals attempted and made going 3-3. Catanzaro’s longest field goal of the night was from 42 yards out.

Catanzaro is a rookie NFL kicker who, just last week, was in a training camp battle with Jay Feely to see who would become the Cardinals’ kicker for the 2014 season. Feely was thought of as having the upper hand due to his veteran NFL experience but Feely would be cut last week leaving Catanzaro with the kicking job in Arizona.

Now with beating out a veteran NFL kicker in camp and being, literally, just out of college, it was hard to imagine how Catanzaro would perform. Some, after winning a job over someone, would begin to lay off the gas pedal a bit with the feeling of job security. Catanzaro definitely did not lay off the pedal last night as he would perform like a true NFL kicker.

Can Catanzaro keep it up for the regular season? Will he be able to perform in the clutch which is always bound to happen in a NFL game? Still some questions to be answered but Catanzaro definitely provided confidence for Cardinal fans as the kicker position will become critical especially later in the season and into the playoffs.

The Cardinals will play their first regular season game against the San Diego Chargers in Week one. The game will be on Monday Night Football on September 8th at 7:20 p.m.

To view the full schedule, click here.

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