GLENDALE, Arizona – The Arizona Cardinals’ season-ending slide is starting to look like a total collapse.
For a third week in a row, Saturday night, the Cardinals were unable to confirm their qualification for the National Football League playoffs. Facing the battered Indianapolis Colts who were deprived of one of their best defensive players and four regular members of their offensive line, they suffered a 22-16 loss.
After starting the season with a 7-0 record, the Cardinals (10-5) have lost five of their last eight outings.
The mistakes started early and built up over a disastrous first half.
Kicker Matt Prater missed a long field goal and convert. The Cardinals’ offense failed in an attempt to convert a fourth down, and it conceded a safety touchdown when quarterback Kyler Murray was unable to master a long, slightly low throw from his center. Also, the Cardinals were penalized seven times in the first half, and on 11 occasions during the game.
“No matter what the level of football, you can’t do these things,” Murray admitted. “Right now, essentially, we are causing our own woes. “
This is the second year in a row the Cardinals have been stuck in a late-season drawdown. The team started 2020 with a 6-3 record, but a 2-5 record to close the schedule saw them miss the playoffs for a fifth straight season.
Comparisons are inevitable and running back Chase Edmonds knows the criticism will ring out soon.
“Right now we’re just in a difficult position. We have to come together, we have to come together, form a whole as a family. We know what will happen next with the heckling. “
There were injuries that certainly caused harm. JJ Watt, three-time Defensive Player of the Year winner, suffers from a shoulder injury that will likely keep him off the pitch for the rest of the year. Star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins could also miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
“I think everyone should focus on their job,” observed head coach Kliff Kingsbury.
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“Sometimes guys try to do a little too much. We have to attack the games one at a time, reset (the machine) and start over. “
Hours before Saturday’s game, the Colts learned that linebacker Darius Leonard, an all-star player in 2020, and two other team players had tested positive for the virus.
By the end of the first half, the Colts were starved of four starting offensive linemen and their number one tight end due to injuries.
Still, the Colts found a way to win.
That’s, in part at least, because the Cardinals continue to find ways to lose.
Kingsbury is 0-5 with the Cardinals when they had a chance to carve out a place in the playoffs.
“The thing about all of this is it can be fixed,” said Murray.
“We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and stop making these mistakes because this game was winnable. Good teams don’t do that. “
