Arizona
Arizona Cardinals had major defensive improvements in 2024 despite challenges
The Cardinals have bolstered their defense in 2025. But they had a surprising improvement in 2024 with less talent
The Arizona Cardinals have made a concerted effort this offseason to improve their defense, adding starting talent and depth on the defensive line, the defensive edge and linebacker in free agency and then addressing every defensive position in the NFL draft.
But that roster improvement comes after they made marked improvements from 2023 to 2024 defensively.
BetMGM’s Nick Hennion noted that the Cardinals “moved from 32nd in defensive DVOA in 2023 to 14th in 2024” and that the improvement was impressive for a number of reasons.
- They played the third-hardest schedule of opposing offenses in 2024 after playing the hardest schedule in 2023.
- They lost 72.9 adjusted games to injury on defense, the fourth-highest total in the league.
- They lost BJ Ojulari, Dennis Gardeck, Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols to season-ending injuries.
They were 15th in scoring defense last season but 21st in yards allowed. They were 14th in passing defense and 20th in run defense. However, they had an interesting dichotomy of metrics. They were sixth in the league in the percentage of opposing offensive drives ending in scores, but they were dead last in plays allowed per drive and second-to-last in time allowed per drive.
If they improved that much with a roster that is markedly worse than the current one, imagine what this year’s defense might be when they have an easier schedule.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Arizona
Kavan’s shutout lifts Texas to win over Arizona State, back to WCWS
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas will return to the Women’s College World Series to defend its national title.
The Longhorns capped a 2-1 series win in the super regional round over Arizona State with a 5-0 victory Sunday at McCombs Field. Katie Stewart drove in four runs, and Teagan Kavan hurled a complete-game shutout with five strikeouts.
Austin Super Regional: No. 2 Texas 2, Arizona State 1
The win sends the second-seeded Longhorns back to Devon Park in Oklahoma City, where they claimed the program’s first national championship last season. They’ll face Tennessee at 1:30 p.m. CT Thursday in the double-elimination tournament.
It’s the ninth time the Longhorns have been to the WCWS.
Texas bounced back from a 4-1 loss to open the best-of-3 series on Friday against the Sun Devils, claiming Saturday’s game 4-3 thanks to a pinch-hit 2-run home run in the seventh inning by Victoria Hunter.
Stewart provided the bulk of the offensive punch for the Longhorns, smacking a pair of 2-run singles in the third and sixth innings. Shortstop Vivi Martinez capped a 15-pitch at-bat against Sun Devils pitcher Kenzie Brown with an RBI triple in the fifth to score Kayden Henry. Martinez fouled off 11 pitches during the plate appearance, and then ripped a pitch down the first-base line that rolled all the way to the right-field wall, plating Henry to give Texas a 3-0 lead.
Martinez said she kept telling herself to win each pitch.
“I was just trying to keep it simple,” she said. “She has a great changeup, so I had to be aware of that.”
Kavan kept the Sun Devils off balance, forcing eight groundouts and eight flyouts to go with her strikeouts. She scattered five hits, allowing a 2-out triple to Yannixa Acuna in the fourth on a pop-up that dropped in shallow right field just out of Leighann Goode’s diving catch attempt. With the outfield heavily shifted the opposite way, the ball squirted into foul territory, allowing the speedy Acuna to scamper to third.
After Kavan walked Brooklyn Ulrich, she got Tiare Ho-Ching to ground out to end the inning, escaping the jam unscathed.
“Teagan was lights out. She showed the mindset of a warrior,” Longhorns head coach Mike White said. “The ability to put things that don’t go her way aside, and come out and compete for her team. She loves her team.”
Texas (47-11) was 7-for-19 with runners on and 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Arizona State didn’t have a hit with runners in scoring position, going 0-for-5. Both of Stewart’s 2-run singles came with two outs.
Stewart, Henry and Martinez all had two hits for the Longhorns. Acuna had two hits for the Sun Devils.
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