A game plan, not a lucky break
Mike LaFleur beat Jim Harbaugh in his first game as a head coach. Arizona came away with a 26-14 win on the Chargers’ field in Week 1, and the way it happened mattered as much as the scoreline.
The Cardinals piled up close to 400 yards. Jacoby Brissett threw for 277 of them. Arizona’s pass success rate, 47.6%, ranked 10th on the day. Nothing outrageous in isolation, but plenty for a team nobody saw coming.
The real clue came on the other side of the ball.
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Same coordinator, 17 places gained
Arizona finished 11th in Week 1 for allowed success rate, at 39.2%. That number carries more weight once you look at who runs the unit. Nick Rallis was already the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator last season under Jonathan Gannon, and his group finished 28th in the league on the same measure.
Same coordinator. Almost the same roster. Seventeen places gained in a single game. That points to a change at the top rather than a shopping spree.
LaFleur arrives with a background that explains some of it. Three seasons in Sean McVay’s Rams offense, then six years alongside Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco from 2015 to 2020. Two coaching trees that have supplied a hefty chunk of the league’s current coordinators.
The NFC West is waiting
Opta is already pouring cold water on the excitement. The model says this pace is unlikely to hold across a full season for one simple reason: Arizona plays in the NFC West and drew one of the toughest schedules in the league.
Context matters here too. Week 1 of 2026 set an all-time record with 52.43 points per game, the highest opening-weekend total on record. Eleven of the 32 teams put up more than 30 points, the second-best Week 1 mark ever. Defenses were getting carved up everywhere.
The Cardinals were the exception. How long that lasts is the only question worth asking.
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