The Arizona Cardinals may have lost a heartbreaking game to the Green Bay Packers, but that doesn’t make their start to the season any less impressive.
Before their loss to the Packers, the Cardinals were the only undefeated team in the NFL, starting their season off with a 7-0 record.
After week seven, the Cardinals were ranked second in the NFL in scoring. Kyler Murray has been a big part of the Cardinals’ STELLAR start. In the team’s first eight games, Murray has put up 2,276 passing yards while completing 164 of 223 passes with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Murray, who was drafted in 2019, appeared to limp off the field after the last play against the Packers and was spotted wearing a walking boot the following morning.
One of the keys to Murray’s success this season seems to be his ability to get everyone involved in the game. In the Cardinals’ week seven win over the Houston Texans, A.J. Green, Zach Ertz, DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk each had at least 50 receiving yards—and the last three also had touchdowns.
DeAndre Hopkins has been a contributing factor for the team as well. The wide receiver has 420 yards with 33 receptions. Hopkins was injured after a 55-yard catch in the first quarter of the game against the Packers. While the team did not plan on putting Hopkins back in, head coach Kliff Kingsbury said after the game that Hopkins is as “competitive as anybody I’ve been around, and he ended up making some plays” by returning to the game.
While the offense has been exciting, the Cardinals defense is solid and one of the best ranked in the NFL. After week seven, they were tied for the top few spots in some of the key indicators of a defensive team’s success. What may be most impressive though is that the Cardinals were ranked first in the NFL in both third- and fourth-down defense.
Despite their first loss of the season, the Cardinals still have a bright future ahead!
DNA Confirms Sitting Bull’s Great Grandson!
Genetics researchers developed a powerful new DNA test to prove that a person is indeed the great-grandson of the famous Lakota Chief Sitting Bull.
Analyzing just a bit of Sitting Bull’s hair from the Smithsonian Institution, researchers released their findings on Oct. 27 confirming that 73-year-old Sun Dancer Ernie LaPointe is the great-grandson of Sitting Bull.
Sitting Bull’s Lakota name was Tatanka Iyotake. He is famous for RALLYING Sioux tribes to fight against federal military forces, including defeating Lt. Col. George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.
Through passed down oral history, LaPointe’s mother had told him and his three sisters of their famous ancestor. But there were doubters, which LaPointe describes as a pain in the place you sit!
Sitting Bull was killed in a standoff with governmental police in 1890. A lock of his hair had been kept at the Smithsonian.
When the Smithsonian returned the lock to the family, most of it was burned in a ceremony, leaving scientists with less than 2 inches of the historic hair.
Genetics pioneer Eske Willerslev headed up the team trying to extract DNA from the hair. He’s the director of the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre in Denmark. It took 14 years to develop a method to analyze the hair, testing autosomal DNA.
For comparison, the researchers also analyzed the DNA of LaPointe, two of his sisters and 11 other Lakota people. Not only did the family stories turn out to be true, but now researchers have a way of tracing family trees from hair, teeth or bones of those long dead.
