EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Arizona Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton, who was pressed into making his fifth career start this week after starter Carson Palmer was unable to throw because of a sore right shoulder, didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard in his team’s 25-14 win over the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.

He didn’t have to, though, as the Giants picked up right where they left off in Week 1, with breakdowns on offense, defense and special teams, all of which contributed to them falling yet again.

The Cardinals scored on their first two drives of the game to take a 10-0 first-quarter lead. On those drives, the Giants defense was called for three defensive penalties, two of which came on third-and-long situations.

On offense, the picture was a little better for the Giants and quarterback Eli Manning, who seemed to have some success throwing the ball against Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson.

However, Manning threw his third interception of the season in the first quarter while deep in Cardinals territory, and receiver Victor Cruz would later drop a key third-down pass in the fourth quarter, which forced the Giants to punt the ball away.

Enter the special teams breakdown. Punter Steve Weatherford’s 49-yard punt was returned 71 yards for a touchdown by the Cardinals return specialist Ted Ginn to make the score 19-14, giving the Cardinals the lead for good.

The miscues didn’t stop there. On the ensuing kickoff, Giants returner Quintin Demps ran the ball out 26 yards before having it knocked free by Kenny Demens of the Cardinals.

The loose ball was scooped up by Arizona’s Robert Hughes, and the turnover ultimately resulted in a 32-yard field goal by kicker Chandler Catanzaro to widen the Cardinals’ lead to 22-14.

“The little things cost us the game today. We had it. It’s just the details in every way,” said Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who recorded 1.5 of the Giants’ four sacks on the day.

“We missed all big plays, Penalties killed us, all sides of the ball — offense, defense and special teams — and they came up with the win.”

The Giants tried to come back in the fourth quarter, but miscues struck the offense again. With second-and-10 from the Cardinals’ 17-yard line, Manning completed a two-yard pass to running back Rashad Jennings.

However, Jennings lost the ball to Arizona safety Rashad Johnson to snuff out another Giants scoring drive.

Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians praised his team for fighting back again in the fourth quarter to pull out a win.

“I think it speaks a lot about the character of this football team and the leadership of this football team,” Arians said. “We had two very contested fourth quarters, last week and again this week, that I thought we handled very well.

“This one went a little easier in the last three to four minutes, and I’m very pleased with how our defense played and finished it up, and how our offense moved the ball.”

While it wasn’t a solid game statistically for Stanton, who was sacked four times by the Giants, he did well to finish 14-for-19 for 167 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions in his first start since 2010, when he was with the Detroit Lions.

What the Cardinals said:

“As soon as I found out there was a chance I was going to start, I texted (former Lions teammate Shaun Hill). He’s someone I learned from on how to prepare yourself throughout the course of the week as a backup quarterback, because there’s an art to it, no question.” — Quarterback Drew Stanton, who filled in for Carson Palmer and led Arizona to a win.

What the Giants said:

“I don’t think it went wrong. I just feel like we kind of slacked off with what we were doing, and they came back and won the game.” — Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.

What we learned about the Cardinals:

1. Arizona is resilient. Despite being behind entering the fourth quarter in each of their two first games this season, the Cardinals banded together to play smart, efficient football that resulted in a win. Arizona shut out its two opponents, the Chargers last week and the Giants this week, by a combined score of 27-0 in the fourth quarter.

2. Cornerback Patrick Peterson is still trying to find his groove. Peterson was penalized three times Sunday, twice for defensive pass interference and once for defensive holding, proving that he is still trying to adjust to the tighter rules governing contact made beyond the 5-yard mark in the defensive backfield.

–K Chandler Catanzaro, who won the Cardinals’ kicking job thanks to his big leg, set a career long with his 49-yard field goal in the first quarter. Catanzaro’s previous long was 44 yards, the kick coming last week against the Chargers.

–WR Larry Fitzgerald stretched his streak of consecutive games with at least a reception to 151. Fitzgerald’s streak is the longest among active receivers in the NFL. He finished with six catches for 51 yards.

–P Drew Butler, who joined the Cardinals this week, did the holding for rookie K Chandler Catanzaro. He also averaged 41 yards on four punts.

What we learned about the Giants:

1. The Giants are delusional. The players keep talking about making progress, yet the mistakes appear to be the same ones committed by different players, be it dropped passes, missed tackles, communication breakdowns, etc. It doesn’t seem to matter what the scheme is; the Giants simply cannot get out of their own way.

2. The Giants are a worn-out team. Back in the glory days, when New York got punched in the mouth by an opponent, it came out swinging in return. Now? Even the opponents are noticing that the Giants seem to fold up the tent and going home after adversity strikes. “You could tell on their side of the ball, on the New York side, it kind of went down,” said receiver and return specialist Ted Ginn, Jr. of the Giants’ body language after Ginn returned a Steve Weatherford punt 71 yards for the go-ahead score.

–DT Johnathan Hankins picked up his first career sack in the third quarter when he dropped Cardinals QB Drew Stanton for an 8-yard loss on first-and-10. It was his 13th NFL game.

–TE Daniel Fells caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from QB Eli Manning in the first quarter. It was his first score since the 2011 season, when he was with Denver.

–LB Jon Beason (toe) was spotted leaving the stadium with his right foot in a walking boot. Beason, who told reporters he was good as he continued on his way, first injured a toe on his right foot on June 12. Coach Tom Coughlin said that he believed Beason’s previous injury was related to the current one, and he added that the linebacker would undergo X-rays and an MRI exam Monday.

–CB Walter Thurmond III came out of the game in the fourth quarter, and he said he would have a MRI exam Monday to determine the extent of his pectoral injury. Thurmond was not wearing any kind of wrap or ice pack after the game when he spoke to reporters in the locker room.

–WR Victor Cruz has gone 12 games without catching a touchdown pass. His last score came in Week 4 of the 2013 season, against the Kansas City Chiefs. Cruz has not scored a touchdown at home since Week 17 of the 2012 season, against the Philadelphia Eagles.