The St. Louis Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals 17-3 in Thursday's game. Quarterback Sam Bradford'stouchdown passes helped the Rams a comprehensive win over the until-then undefeated Cardinals.
After Thursday's loss, the Atlanta Falcons and the Houston Texans are the only unbeaten teams inthe NFL.
The Associated Press quoted Bradford as saying: "Those guys played outstanding. They've playedgreat all year and they have kept us in a lot of games."
After the loss The Cardinals are at 4-1 while the Rams have improved to 3-2, thanks to their rapidlyimproving defense.
Bradford could connect only on 7 out of the 21 passes for 141 yards which happens to be the secondlowest total in his career, but it was still good enough for the win. He hit Lance Kendricks on a seven-yard scoring strike. His 51-yard pass to rookie Chris Givens helped them beat the Cardinals. TheRams are 3-0 at home.
St. Louis has strengthened its defense by having three first-round picks on the defensive line andKendall Langford, the fourth, was a key free-agent pickup.
Robert Quinn said: "We believe in ourselves. We believe we can be one of the great defenses. Whenthere was a play to be made, we made it."
In their previous game against Seattle last week, the Rams had displayed a strong defensive gamewhile beating them by 19-13.
Cardinals quarterback Kevin Kolb, who got his helmet knocked off two times, described their firsthalf performance as "sickening". He said, "I'm all right. I'm glad we've got the weekend to heal up,mentally and physically."
The Rams also did well to restrict the Cardinals to 45 yards rushing on 17 carries.
The Rams defensive end Chris Long said: "Bottom line, they decided they wanted to throw the ball alot and that made it kind of a track meet. We've been waiting a long time to feel like we've done ourjob on defense."
Meanwhile the Cardinals' head coach Ken Whisenhunt was obviously disappointed with his team'sperformance.
"I didn't like anything," he said. "The thing I respected is our guys didn't quit, and even as bad as itwent we had a chance at the end of the game."