THE STORY: NEW ORLEANS – Budda Baker wasn't going to get to the ball. Saints tight end Juwan Johnson was "too high in the sky." Baker joked that Johnson might've been 11½ feet in the air as he went to snare the end zone pass with seconds left in Sunday's game at the Caesars Superdome.
So the Pro Bowl safety tried to dislodge it the best he could.
"When I heard the crowd I was like, 'He caught that?'" Baker said. "Then I looked and all I heard was, 'Oooohhhhhh.' And was like, 'Hell yeah, he didn't catch it.'"
The disappointed Saints fans let the world know Baker had done his job, and the defense did too, in a 20-13 Cardinals' season-opening win.
The game itself was far from what the Cardinals (1-0) wanted it to be. But it was a win. "That's all that matters," Baker said with a huge postgame smile.
Week 1 presents all teams with "a lot of unknowns," coach Jonathan Gannon said. "Honestly, what I'm most pleased about is that we came out 1-0."
The day was choppy all around. Quarterback Kyler Murray woke up with a "bug" that had been going around, Gannon said, bothering him enough to be added to the injury report. Murray threw two touchdown passes in the first half and connected on a beautiful 45-yard pass to Marvin Harrison Jr. to set up Harrison's later TD catch.
But the Cardinals seemed like they had multiple chances to sew up the game long before Baker was going to worry about any Saints high jumpers. They had multiple second-half possessions to push the lead to greater than 20-10, but the closest they came was a Chad Ryland field goal that was blocked, opening the door for the endgame.
"We'll go back to the lab," center Hjalte Froholdt said. "It's fair to be a little frustrated (in-game). We would've loved to get that last first down in the four-minute (offense) and kneel it out. But the defense was playing well all day. You just have to learn to move on."
Which, again, is much easier to do in a win.
Murray said despite his illness, he "wasn't going to miss this game. The plan was always to play."
"Do I want to do more?" Murray said of the offensive production. "Of course. But you're happy with the win."
And that was where the Cardinals landed overall. Tight end Trey McBride and Harrison played well, but even with the 45-yard bomb Murray had only 163 yards passing. No turnovers, however, and he contributed 38 yards rushing on seven attempts. (He was sacked five times.)
Defensively, only Baron Browning had a sack, but there was multiple pressures by newcomer Josh Sweat. Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler was effective at times, and Gannon credited the Saints' game plan to "not letting us rush."
"You keep the score at 13, you should win a lot of games," Gannon added.
The locker room felt like a victory. Gannon said his team has to learn, but the exhilaration of taking the first game of the season was the vibe of postgame.
On Sunday, that's how it should have been.
"We knew at the end, it was going to be on us," safety Rabbit Taylor-Demerson said of the defense. "We've worked on this since the 49ers game (to end 2024). It's everything. So we're going to be happy. And then tomorrow, it's on to prepare for the next opponent."
TURNING POINT: The Saints had the ball at the Arizona 18 on second down (Rattler had spiked it on first down to stop the clock) with 13 seconds left. Three incompletions later – including the middle play in which Baker belted Johnson – the Saints never gained another yard and the clock read 0:00.
THE STANDOUTS: Harrison (5 catches, 71 yards, TD) and McBride (6-61) were excellent. Running back Trey Benson broke off a 52-yard run, the longest of his career, to set up a field goal. Defensively, rookie cornerback Will Johnson played a solid game, including a huge hit on Chris Olave to break up a screen pass in the fourth quarter.
INJURY UPDATE: Linebacker Zaven Collins hurt his hand. Both linebacker Cody Simon and safety Joey Blount suffered concussions on the initial kickoff coverage of the second half and did not return.
