WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – One moment, he had his arms wrapped around Josh Allen's torso, turning and slamming the Bills quarterback to the SoFi Stadium turf.
Another moment – post-snap – he refused to back down from Buffalo offensive lineman O'Cyrus Torrence and go of Torrence's face mask.
In overtime, he was celebrating after recovering inside linebacker Nate Landman's peanut punch-created forced fumble.
"It felt good," Donald said of the aforementioned sack, even if it was negated by a penalty. "Watching the film, looking more like myself, feeling more like myself out there. The game is starting to slow down. Feeling good. I'm having fun, getting into a good groove. I have to keep it up. I wish it would have made it, but I didn't. I have try to make it this week that's all."
Returning in Week 5 after missing Week 4 due to back soreness, Donald played 67% of Los Angeles' defensive snaps, his highest yet across the three games he's played in his unretirement season.
Though he had two pressures without a sack across 19 pass rushes in Week 5 versus the Bills, and though that 10.5% made seem pedestrian by Donald's standards, it was still his first game with multiple pressures since coming out of retirement, per Next Gen Stats. From an advanced stats and eye test standpoint, it was the closest Donald had looked to the pre-retirement version of himself yet in 2026.
"It felt good to be out there in a hard-fought game," Donald said. "It would have been better if we got the win, but it felt good to be out there with the guys again."
Donald takes on a Cardinals team against which he's recorded the most sacks of any opponent in his career with 16, including three at Arizona in Week 14 of the 2021 season. According to Next Gen Stats, Donald also generated 68 pressures across 12 games against Arizona from 2018 to 2023, most by any defender against a single opponent over that span. Including the last three seasons, that total ranks eighth among defenders against a single opponent and remains the highest against the Cardinals.
Of course, this is a different Cardinals team, especially from a personnel standpoint on offense and coaching-wise, compared to the ones he played from 2014-23.
"Just playing football, that's it," Donald said, when asked whether there is a particular reason for his success when playing the Cardinals. "Whatever plays present themselves, try to take advantage of it and just play the game. That's it."
