TEMPE, Ariz. -- A game-winning strip sack didn’t do it two weeks earlier but three sacks Sunday against the Green Bay Packers won Arizona Cardinals outside linebacker Dwight Freeney the NFC defensive player of the week award.
All three of his sacks, which tied a career high, came in the second half of Arizona’s 38-8 win last weekend, including a strip sack late in the third quarter that resulted in a touchdown.
The weekly award was Freeney’s sixth overall and first since 2010, when he was with the Indianapolis Colts.
Freeney’s player-of-the-week nod came on the heels of linebacker Deone Bucannon's last week. Freeney’s honor was significant for the Cardinals as a franchise in a couple of ways. It was the first time Arizona has had defenders win back-to-back players of the week since 2007 when Karlos Dansby and Antrel Rolle did it.
It also marked the third time in franchise history that the Cardinals had players of the week three straight weeks. Kicker Chandler Catanzaro won the honor in Week 14.
