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To judge how Budda Baker played in the month of October, it wasn't his excellent production in three victories -- it was what was absent in the game he missed.
The Cardinals struggled when their Pro Bowl safety had to skip a game in Carolina after undergoing thumb surgery, a loss to the Panthers in which the defense struggled. When Baker came back, he dominated, and the defense found itself.
However Baker was measured, it earned him NFC Defensive Player of the Month honors Thursday morning.
"He is certainly the guy who, his tempo and the mentality he plays with, is really a game changer," GM Steve Keim said. "You saw the game he did not play really hurt us."
Baker also won NFC Defensive Player of the Week after the Week 6 win over the Cowboys in which Baker made his first career interception.
He becomes the fourth Cardinal ever to win a monthly award, joining safety Kwamie Lassiter (November 2001), safety Tyrann Mathieu (November 2015) and linebacker Chandler Jones (twice, December 2017 and December 2019).
Baker during training camp signed a contract extension making him the NFL's highest-paid safety, and he's playing like the best safety. In three games in October, Baker -- playing with a cast -- totaled 31 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions, three tackles for loss, three quarterback hits, two passes defensed and a forced fumble.
"I texted him the other day and said thank you," Keim said. "I told him a long time ago we were going to take care of him, and when we do, I would hope he would repay us. Budda Baker isn't a guy you have to ask to repay you."
Losing ?Chandler Jones? did not help the Cardinals' pass rush.
Being able to add ?Markus Golden? with Jones out, however? The Cards might not have been able to find, given the circumstances, a better replacement.
"He fits perfectly," defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said.
Golden won't practice with his new team until next week, thanks to COVID protocols, but after Jones' season-ending injury - prompting ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky to write off the Cardinals as a potential contender - bringing in a familiar and proven reinforcement can only help coming out of the bye.
"Great guy, great player, great teammate, great attitude," said outside linebacker ?Haason Reddick?, who leads the Cardinals with five sacks. " 'Junk' is relentless, he plays the game hard and he has a dog mentality. He wants to be one of the best. I'm happy to have him here and I know he can make an impact right away."
The Cardinals haven't done a bad job with the pass rush, even without Jones for two games and counting and even though Jones only had one sack when he did play. The Cards, with 19 sacks, are seventh in the NFL. According to profootballreference.com, the Cardinals are fifth in the NFL with 72 quarterback pressures, and 13th in pressure percentage, at 23.5.
Golden only had 1? sacks this season with the Giants, but only played 36 percent of the defensive snaps. That number will increase in Arizona. Last year in New York playing under former Cardinals defensive coordinator James Bettcher in a system closer to what the Cardinals run now, Golden had 10 sacks.
In 2016 - his last full season in Arizona before an ACL tear in 2017 derailed his last two years - Golden led the team with 12? sacks.
"Supply and demand tells you there aren't many outside linebackers out there that can rush the passer," General Manager Steve Keim said. "The fact that we drafted him, and we have a relationship with Markus already, it made it easy to pull the trigger because we know the kind of player he is and who he is as a person.
"He's a guy I've always admired because of his mentality, his motor, his love and passion for the game. To be able to acquire him at this point in the season when we do need some depth at that spot to me will only ignite that passion and that excitement in our locker room."
Between blitzes, the emergence of Reddick and unexpected help from Dennis Gardeck?, the Cardinals have been able to tread water after Jones got hurt.
But even before Golden's arrival, Reddick felt that role of the defense couldn't be buying into excuses.
"It's heartbreaking to see what happened to Chan," Reddick said. "But because he is out, there can't be a shortage of production."
Joseph isn't specific about how he'll deploy Golden yet. Reddick is playing well, as is Devon Kennard on the other side. But Joseph's enthusiasm for Golden is apparent.
The man they call "Junk" -- short for the "Junkyard Dog" moniker he picked up soon after arriving in Arizona -- brings more than just pressure off the edge. That energy the Cardinals seek week-to-week in the near-empty stadiums of 2020? Golden is one of those guys that will juice up his teammates. That was as much his role during his first go-round with the Cards as sack man.
"As a kid, I used to be so hype playing football, and then after I used to be, not embarrassed, but like, 'Dang, why was I acting that crazy?' " Golden said in 2018. "Then it was like, I accepted it. I loved playing ball, I loved to compete."
That's what the Cardinals are counting on.
"He overwhelms tackles just with effort," Joseph said. "And that's what it takes in this league. Most sacks aren't cute rushes. It's dirty, it's grimy and it's tough. That's the kind of player he is.
"With his relentless personality, he is going to make plays for us."
A great player making a great play. That's how Larry Fitzgerald talked about DeAndre Hopkins?' one-handed touchdown catch in New York this past weekend. Not surprisingly, Fitz didn't go into much detail about his own amazing one-handed grab during the game.
A one-handed grab goes beyond an amazing highlight for social media. The amount of times both Hopkins and Fitz have made such a play in their careers would be tough to count (I still remember Fitz diving to haul in an errant John Skelton bullet during a home game against the Seahawks in overtime to close out the 2011 season that remains one of the greatest grabs I've ever seen.)
Hopkins was introspective when he was asked about re-watching a play like he made against the Jets.
"I want to keep doing it so I can keep looking at my own catches and not somebody else's," Hopkins said with a chuckle. "Sometimes I look at it and you know, 'Man that was me who just did that, but it's my preparation and how I prepare and the little things I do to make a catch liket that.
"Sometimes I awe myself, I'm not gonna lie."
That last bit is not a line I imagine Fitz ever saying.
The one Fitz made in New York was underrated -- that he even got a hand on the ball to bring it in and then essentially switched hands to secure the catch without the ball ever being grabbed by two hands at the same time was pretty special. But yeah, Fitz said he never really thinks about such plays.
"You don't set out to make those kind of catches," Fitzgerald said. "It just happens. If that guy wasn't holding D-Hop in the end zone he'd have put two (hands) on it. It's just so reactionary. You hope you can make those plays at a proficient rate. But you never really practice it, so to speak.
"He did a great job of being able to position himself to make that catch. I was right there, saw the whole thing happen. The way he was able to control his body and take a hellacious shot from the safety on top of catching it with one hand, it was spectacular."