PHNX Daily: Cardinals Staring Down Scary Texans Defense

👋 GOOD MORNING – Happy Friday. You’ve made it through an interesting week in Arizona sports.

The Arizona Cardinals are in rough shape, and while they aren’t facing an NFC West opponent this week, they may be facing an even uglier defensive matchup than what they’ve seen all year in the Texans.

This might get ugly, but we’re going to talk about it anyway.

Here we go!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

Cardinals Prepare For Tough Trench Matchup

So the Cardinals are 3-10, and have been eliminated from the playoffs for two weeks now. Ouch.

Arizona just got done taking a beating at the hands of Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams, but they won’t get much of a respite this week against the Houston Texans. Sure, Houston’s offense has been spotty at best, but they have the NFL’s best defense.

Pair that up with a Cardinals offense that has struggled to put points on the board despite some garbage time volume yardage, and Sunday could get ugly.

And there is some pressure building on this team. There may not be any stakes to these last four games, but that doesn’t mean winning goes out the window.

For as safe as Jonathan Gannon and the rest of Arizona’s coaching regime has seemed to be this season, they still need to at least end the year with some semblance of hope. Repeated blowouts on the way to a 1-14 finish to 2025 may force some large-scale decisions to be made about the future of this regime.

Sure, we’d all love to grab a high draft pick, but wins matter in the NFL — no matter how out of any playoff race you may be as a team. Arizona probably needs to put together some amount of tangible success if they want to avoid another complete restart.

But that may be very difficult to do — this week, at least

How do Cardinals, Texans Match Up?

As our friend Johnny Venerable likes to say: get your barf bags ready.

The Texans, under stud head coach DeMeco Ryans, have emerged as the top defensive squad in the NFL this year. While the Cardinals were expected to be among those top teams defensively, it’s been the Texans who have manhandled their opposing offenses.

The Texans rank first in the NFL in points allowed this year — 208. That is the fewest by 18. They’re allowing the fewest total yards (266.3) per game, and sport top-five figures in passing yards allowed per game (172.0) and rushing yards per game (94.3).

The Cardinals, meanwhile, rank 15th in total yards per game (335.5), but most of that in recent weeks has come in garbage time. Since the Texans haven’t won many blowouts this season, the opportunity to rack up late-game yards probably won’t be there this Sunday.

In terms of scoring, the Cardinals have managed just 21.7 offensive points per game — the 11th-worst number in the NFL. Good luck.

On top of that, they’ll be without their best offensive lineman, which makes our X-factor…

• The Offensive Line

Standout LT Paris Johnson Jr. (knee) will not play this weekend. G Evan Brown has not practiced.

That means it will be up to an undrafted rookie in Josh Fryar to step into a starting tackle role, with Jon Gaines II and Isaiah Adams playing the interior.

The Texans only have the eighth-most sacks on the season (36), but 10.5 of those belong to Will Anderson Jr., who’s been a complete menace coming off the edge. Remember how much Micah Parsons terrorized this Cardinals team? It could look even worse than that this week.

The Cardinals’ banged-up offensive line is going to have a challenge in front of them. Keeping Jacoby Brissett upright will be no easy task against this defense.

Cardinals Injury Updates

In addition to those OL updates, the Cardinals had numerous other injuries of note in Thursday’s practice.

WR Marvin Harrison Jr. (heel) did not practice, as did fellow WR Xavier Weaver (hamstring). RB Emari Demercado (ankle) has been limited.

On the defensive side, CB Max Melton (heel), S Rabbit Taylor-Demerson (ankle) and S Jalen Thompson (hamstring) did not practice yesterday, nor did DL Bilal Nichols (knee).

There was one positive update. DL Walter Nolen III (knee) practiced for the second-straight day (in a limited capacity), but appears to be trending towards playing. It won’t help the Cardinals score points offensively, but Nolen is a major difference-maker defensively.

Quick Hits

Departure: The Arizona Wildcats football program reportedly lost a key member of its staff to the Arkansas Razorbacks — GM Gaizka Crowley (yes, I know how weird it is for college football programs to have GMs, but it’s the world we live in).

The No. 1-ranked men’s basketball squad gets another tough ranked matchup on Saturday, facing No. 12 Alabama at 7:30 p.m. in Birmingham.

NFL-Bound: Star ASU WR Jordyn Tyson will officially declare for the 2026 NFL draft, as will S Xavion Alford. The decisions do not come as massive surprises, as both have had excellent college careers. On to the next.

Meanwhile, Sun Devil men’s hoops will take on the Santa Clara Broncos in Las Vegas on Sunday, with tip-off set for 5:00 p.m.

Run it back?: The Suns get another matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. — this time at home. Phoenix is 14-11 and looking to rebound from a rough game against the NBA-leading Thunder.