What's new with Arizona Cardinals since last matchup with Detroit Lions?

Allen Park — The first two games of the Detroit Lions’ season brought familiar foes to Ford Field. Sure, there are always going to be changes from season to season, but the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers had both visited within the calendar year. A couple of new coordinators clouded things, but it's fair to say the Lions had a pretty good handle on what to expect.

The same can’t be said for this week’s opponent, the Arizona Cardinals. And yeah, that feels strange given the teams' recent history.

If it seemed like the Lions and Cardinals were playing every year for a while, it’s because they were. In a scheduling quirk based on correlating finishes in their respective division standings, the two sides squared off nine times in 10 years from 2012-21.

It’s an overly simplistic viewpoint, but the last meeting felt trajectory-altering for both franchises. It was late in the 2021 season, and the 10-3 Cardinals came to town likely expecting to cruise to an easy win over the 1-11-1 Lions, who had been manhandled by the Broncos the previous week. Instead, the Lions took it to the Cardinals and sent the visitors packing with a 30-12 defeat.