When Dennis Gardeck was headed home from State Farm Stadium last Sunday, fresh off his three-sack game against the Rams, his former teammate and the recently retired Markus Golden FaceTimed him.

Golden had been at the game as an honorary captain, but the two had really had a chance to chat.

"It's always good to see Markus," Gardeck said.

They could talk about Gardeck's first three-sack outing (which Golden did once for the Cardinals, in a win at San Francisco in 2021.) The Rams were beat up on the offensive line, but Gardeck – the one-time undrafted edge whose height (6 feet) and shorter arms seem to say he shouldn't be the pass rusher he's turned out to be in the NFL.

"I've heard the phrase 'When they come, they come in bunches,'" Gardeck said in a moment of reflection this week by his locker. "I think it's important not to chase sacks especially. I was thinking about it the other day: Coverage is important, who you are rushing with is important. There are so many factors, the stars almost have to line up for sacks to happen. So if they come, great, it's the win-percentage. I want to win my one-on-one matchups."

Gardeck has shown his natural abilities long before. In 2020, he had seven sacks in only 94 defensive snaps all season. But he tore his ACL at the end of that season and it took the arrival of the new coaching staff – and Gardeck's prep – to get to where he is now, a starter.

"As a coach, there are levels to it," outside linebackers coach Rob Rodriguez said. "There's arithmetic, there's algebra, and then there is calculus. With him, you can coach the calculus."

Gardeck was Pro Football Focus' highest-graded pass rusher last week, but he faces a Lions team with possibly the best tackle tandem in the NFL: LT Taylor Decker and RT Penei Sewell. The Lions have allowed only two sacks in two games.

That's where the mental side of Gardeck's growth – and his game – hopefully will show up.

"I feel like I'm at the point in my career, my toolbox is pretty well built out," Gardeck said. "Before it'd be, 'I want to use a wrench in this situation.' Sometimes you don't get the right bolt that you need that wrench for and it turns out you need a screwdriver.

"Where I am at now, I want to be able to pull out what I need from my toolbelt in the moment. If I realize, 'Oh I need the screwdriver, then boom, right here. I want to adapt to whatever is being given to me.

-- Cardinals-Lions could arguably be the game of the week in the NFL. The idea of two physical teams clashing is an inviting one; Detroit is a team with huge expectations after reaching the NFC Championship game last season, and the Cardinals want to get where the Lions are.

That is understood inside the Cardinals locker room.

"I wouldn't say every team is physical. Every team isn't built to be physical," said defensive lineman Justin Jones, who faced the Lions in the division the last two season while playing for the Bears. "But the ones that are, those are the dangerous ones. In the fourth quarter, when other people tuck it in, they get better. That's what is fun for this game, because you're going to have to play all 60 minutes. What comes with being physical, also comes with resilience. The want-to to dominate the opponent."

-- The Cardinals are wearing their third uniform in three weeks on Sunday, sporting their all-black look with the black alternate helmets.

-- James Conner is rolling. Rookie backup running back Trey Benson isn't. Not yet. Last week he might have been the one offensive player who didn't click, gaining only 10 yards on his 11 carries. Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said Benson will learn as he goes, and emphasized the outcomes of Benson's carries aren't all pinned on the rookie. "I'm not concerned about that at all," Petzing said.

-- Kyler Murray was so good last week and we've talked about why. But I was up early one morning this week and rewatched his highlights and it's worth re-watching. Stunning performance.

-- Like Kyler, Budda Baker was excellent last week. But I might've made a tiny mistake asking him if it felt like a vintage Budda performance.

"Kinda just feels the same," Baker said. "For me, when you think of vintage, you think of old, so for me, yeah I've been doing it for a long time. I just play my game and when my number is called just make the play."

Budda smiled as he said it so we're good. (But man, if he is heat-seeking missile like that every week, the Cards' defense will be better for it and he's going to make a big push for a big next contract.)

-- Here's hoping Kelvin Beachum is OK and playing. Aidan Hutchinson has already been making sure to line up against backups anyway, so Beachum and not Paris Johnson Jr. was the likely Hutch foe. If Beachum's hamstring doesn't let him play ... Petzing will have a heavy lift to help that side.

-- Last week, the Cardinals – with 258 net passing yards and 231 rushing yards – reached the 250-230 plateau for only the second time in the past 65 years. The only other time was a 263-230 game in Philadelphia in 2015. You remember, the game the Cardinals clinched the NFC West, but also the game Tyrann Mathieu tore his ACL and Carson Palmer jacked up his finger.

-- Matt Prater drilled a 57-yard field goal like it was nothing, but that's the NFL these days. Going into Week 3, kickers have made an amazing 35 of 39 field goal of at least 50 yards. (And the guy many consider the GOAT of 50s, Justin Tucker, is 0-for-2 somehow.)

"Part of that has to do with how good the snappers are and how good the holders are and the factors for the kickers are a little bit easier than they were 20 years ago," Cardinals special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers said. "The guys have stronger legs. But as a coach and a decision-maker over whether you are going to attempt a longer field goal or not, when you have seen a guy do it and do it consistently, it makes that decision a little easier."

Weather will eat into that percentage as the season goes on, but still, it's a crazy stat.

-- Prater, meanwhile, moved his all-time 50-yard-field-goal record in the NFL to 81 in his career (Tucker is second at 58). Prater has kicked 26 field goals in his career of at least 55 yards.

-- Tight end Elijah Higgins played wide receiver at Stanford. When he became a sixth-round draft pick of the Dolphins, they moved him to tight end, and when he was released at the end of the 2023 preseason, the Cardinals grabbed him. Higgins was still learning the position. But just about a year later, he's a key part of the Cardinals in their two- and three-tight end sets, his 18-yard TD catch last week capping one of the best plays of the NFL season.

"I didn't know what to expect coming into (the NFL)," Higgins said about his position switch. "But I knew if I put my head down and did my job, came to practice prepared to develop, I'd be in the position I am in now. I didn't know how long it was going to take, but being here now is night and day from what I was expecting from last year."

-- The Cardinals are 14-of-24 on third downs this season. That's 58.3 percent, leading the NFL. Converting those are a big reason the Cards have piled up 69 points in two games – and why the Cardinals pulled off another 99-yard drive last week, the third 99-yard drive in 18 games under OC Drew Petzing's direction.

-- The last word comes from Jonathan Gannon, who knocked down the idea the Cardinals have any momentum coming from their rout of the Rams last week as they play Detroit.

"I just don't believe in it. Truthfully," Gannon said. "What carries over is some confidence. What carries over is some winning behavior. Day to day, and how you handle the week and the distraction of the week and the opponent and everything new. Confidence and doing the right thing all the time and maximizing your 'five buckets' and maximizing the time you have allotted … I think that can carry over. But I don't think the momentum of winning a game carries over to the next Wednesday."

See you Sunday.