Hayden Conner was there when Cam Skattebo truly hit the national consciousness. Conner was a starting offensive lineman for Texas when Skattebo carried his Arizona State Sun Devils to the brink of an upset of the Longhorns in the College Football Playoffs during the 2024 season.

"It sucked watching my own defense get destroyed like that, but it was pretty cool to see someone do that," said Conner, now a backup offensive lineman for the Cardinals. "That was the most unbelievable single-game performance I've ever seen."

Conner and the Cardinals can't afford to have such a Skattebo performance Sunday when they visit the Giants. With backup Jameis Winston in at QB, the Giants are going to run the ball, and Skattebo has long been that guy to take such a challenge head on.

"I'm glad I don't have to tackle him," Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur said. "He's a big boy and our guys know that."

Skattebo is only averaging 3.5 yards a carry this season, with 177 yards on 50 attempts. His rookie season last year was cut short after a serious leg injury.

When Skattebo came out for the draft, there were plenty of crossover ASU/Cardinals fans that wanted to keep the college star in town. That wasn't going to happen that year; the Cardinals still had a healthy James Conner and had just drafted Trey Benson the year before. As it turns out, they also ended up taking Jeremiyah Love this year.

(For his part, Skattebo shrugged off the idea he'd want to outdo Love on Sunday, saying "I want to outperform myself from last week. I'm not worried about any other running backs.")

The respect is there from the Cardinals, even from defensive lineman Roy Lopez – a product of ASU rival Arizona. Getting to Skattebo carries no more weight for Lopez than Christian McCaffrey did the week before. Part of that is Lopez's Valley upbringing, where he understands the pull the Sun Devils have locally.

"The city has got good love for Skattebo," Lopez said. "He's always welcome in the city. He's a good guy. He did a lot for ASU. He's an ASU legend for sure."

That said, Lopez understands the pressure under which the Cardinals defense is finding itself, with Skattebo and the Giants up next. The Giants are struggling on offense with Winston; the Cardinals have surrendered 31 and 36 points in back-to-back games.

There has been plenty of discussion about technique and scheme around what the defense needs to do, but for Lopez, his high-level message to teammates is simple.

"Flying around and being ourselves, staying in it for 60 minutes from the first snap and playing our style," Lopez said. "When we are playing our style, walking around with some swag, being us, celebrating, it's fun, it looks fun, it looks dominant and that's who we are. When we're not doing that, that's when we don't feel like ourselves."

-- Outside linebacker Josh Sweat showed up on the injury report on Friday with a groin injury that he did not have Thursday, and he was downgraded from full to limited. He is now questionable for the game Sunday, not ideal given the issues the Cardinals have had in the pass rush.

Sweat has three QB pressures thus far this season, all against the Seahawks. He has yet to get a sack. If the Cardinals elevate someone from the practice squad on Saturday, that could be a Sweaty tell.

-- Michael Wilson had 17 targets last week, catching 11 passes, and if there was a game in which his offseason comparison by Mike LaFleur to Rams wideout Puka Nacua, this was the game. There is simply a connection between QB Jacoby Brissett and Wilson that has been clear from the time Brissett took over as starter in Week 6 of 2025.

"I just think it's him," Brissett said. "I think when his numbers called, he makes the most of his opportunities. I said it last year and I'll say it again this year, I had probably the easy job as far as trying to find him to get him the ball."

Since Brissett got into the lineup until now, the most completions by a QB-pass catcher duo are the 123 from Brissett to tight end Trey McBride. The fourth-most in the NFL are the 88 from Brissett to Wilson. (Goff to St. Brown in Detroit and Darnold to Smith-Njigba in Seattle are two and three.)

-- The Giants are honoring the 40^th anniversary of their 1986 Super Bowl champs, which includes running back Ottis Anderson. Anderson just happens to be the Cardinals' all-time leading rusher, with the 1979 first-round pick gaining 7,999 yards on the ground until he was dealt to New York in 1986.

The hope is that when all is said and done, Jeremiyah Love is able to surpass Anderson's total. A long way to go. Love probably isn't going to get the workload Anderson did; his rookie season, Anderson gained 1,665 yards on 331 carries (20.7 per game). He had 301 carries in 1980 and 328 in 1981.

-- Simi Fehoko, Pro Bowl nod? Of course it's early early, but the wide receiver has been playing special teams at a high level. It took just three games for him to become the first Cardinal to have a blocked punt and fumble recovery in the same season since the 1970 merger.

"I wouldn't say I'm in a zone," Fehoko said. "I'd say I'm playing some of my best football. That has to do with scheme. Ghoby (Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial) puts me in the best positions. Now, I feel like I'm in a scheme where I am in a position to make plays."

Fehoko is still irritated he failed to down a Blake Gillikin punt inside the 5 last week, indecisive whether he wanted to try and catch the ball or just smother it until it just went right through his legs for a touchback.

The fumble recovery had luck, the ball bouncing off a 49ers player allowing Fehoko to jump on it.

"I can't say skill was involved," Fehoko said. "But me and Ghoby talk about it all the time, if we play our playstyle when we play, the way we practice, sometimes things just fall your way."

-- For all the talk about the Cardinals missing explosive plays – and their six is fewest in the league – the Giants are next on the list with only 10 this season.

-- Brissett and Winston are good friends. They have known each other for years, after Brissett's best friend, Nick O'Leary, played with Winston at Florida State.

"He's somebody that I've always looked up to," Brissett said. "I remember times where I kind of leaned on him for advice and things of that nature. (Just) trying to pick his brain about some of the things that he's going through in the league and how he's kind of stayed mentally afloat in a lot of situations."

They are in different spots in their careers, now. Both are starting yes, but Brissett was supposed to be the starter. Winston is in the lineup only because Jackson Dart got hurt. Brissett is 20^th in the NFL in EPA (expected points added) in expected passing situations, slightly above average. Winston is below average, near the bottom of the league, ahead of just Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers and Cooper Rush.

Brissett's 1.4 career interception percentage is best in NFL history. Winston's 3.5 is the worst among 40 active QBs with 1,000 passing attempts.

-- Rookie offensive lineman Jayden Williams was a wide receiver and tight end in high school, until his coach told him a move to offensive line would "change your life." His coach was right, but that doesn't mean Williams isn't relishing some tight end work in jumbo packages. He's lined up there 10 times already, although he awaits his first target.

"I think I'm always open," Williams said with a smile. "Call me Waffle House because I'm always open."

-- This is the 130th meeting between the Cardinals and Giants. They used to play twice a year as NFC East division foes. The first meeting was in 1926.

-- Love said he thought he did "pretty good overall" with his first heavy workload of the season last week (26 touches.) As for getting a run of at least 10 yards more often, Love said they will come.

"Those things happen organically," Love said. "Explosives aren't easy to come by in an actual game. You can get maybe two in an actual game. But in practice you can work on maximizing every rep so when the opportunity comes it's something you are ready for."

-- For all the talk about the Cardinals needing to pressure the passer, the Giants have only one sack in three games and are near the bottom of the league in pressures and pressure percentage. Feels like whoever can be the better pressure team will have a big advantage.

-- One of those players who hopefully can find some of that pressure is defensive lineman Walter Nolen III, who has to deal with heavy focus from opposing offensive lines, still will need to make a greater impact. In three games, Nolen has been credited with four tackles in 106 snaps and three QB pressures.

"He just needs to keep going at it," LaFleur said. "I love Walt and he wants it really, really, really bad. And that's what I respect. I look at people's intentions, and I know his intentions are that he wants to help this team and he wants to be productive. He just needs to keep going. Like I told him today, I said, 'You know how many people have sacked (49ers QB) Brock Purdy this year? Zero.

"That being said, we have a high standard, and we need to find ways to not worry about what other teams haven't done, and we have to do it."

-- Whew. That was a lot of words for the Friday Before.

See you Sunday.