5 reasons to panic after Cardinals lose twice in row
The cats were grinning big after devouring the birds.
It was sort of like when a hungry stray pounces on an injured fledgling.
It was sort of like when Sylvester would reach in the cage and shove Tweety in his mouth when Granny wasn’t looking.
It was sort of like when the Panthers have a couple of gamebreakers (Cam Newton and Christian McCaffrey) and the Cardinals are missing a couple of gamebreakers (Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins) and the whole thing is over before it starts.
I’m not the type to panic over one loss, even if it’s a 34-10 plucking in The Nest at State Farm Stadium, especially not when the Cardinals have looked like the best team in the league most of the year.
But if I were the fidgety type, here’s what would have me up in the middle of the night stressing out:
1. The run defense. The Panthers gained 166 yards on the ground, including 13 rushing first downs.
A lot of that damage was done up the middle, but the Cardinals couldn’t set the edge, either. That was especially apparent inside the red zone. Newton and Chuba Hubbard each scored after Arizona’s defenders failed to maintain leverage outside.
(Newton, by the way, found the end zone on each of his first two touches. Good luck telling him to retire those goofy hats after that performance.)
McCaffrey had something of a revival
with his best rushing game since Week 1. McCaffrey went for 95 yards on just 13 carries against the Cardinals on Sunday.
Complementary football. It’s hard enough to play defense in the NFL, but it’s even tougher when ...
... the offense has the ball six times but can’t cross the 50 in the first half.
... the offense goes seven plays for -1 yard, a fumble and a turnover on downs
on its first two possessions.
... the offense goes fumble, downs, interception, punt, punt, punt with just one first down in the first half.
3. Third-and-short. Or fourth-andshort. Or second-and-short, for that matter. Facing a 7-0 deficit early in the first quarter, Eno Benjamin and Colt McCoy were stuffed on consecutive shortyardage possessions. Benjamin went outside. McCoy went up the middle. Neither play worked.
It happened again at the end of the third quarter. James Conner was stuffed on second-and-1. Then he was stuffed on third-and-1. Then third-string quarterback Chris Streveler fumbled on fourth-and-1. (Although, the score was 31-3 at the time, so it’s cool if you didn’t notice.)
The Cardinals have to clean that up if they want to go deep into the postseason.
Home-field disadvantage. There’s no place like home, but apparently, that’s not a good thing. Arizona is 5-0 on the road, but just 3-2 at home.
Maybe it’s good that the Cardinals are taking losses? Maybe they don’t want home-field advantage throughout the playoffs? Maybe they like the thought of going to Green Bay in January with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line?
5. The schedule. Arizona has now lost two of three games. Two of the next three are against NFC West opponents.
The Rams are playing for a chance to win the division. The Seahawks will be fighting for their playoff lives.
Between those is a trip to Chicago, where it’s so cold this time of year that anyone with any sort of common sense at all packs up and moves to Arizona the first chance they get.
Again, I’m not the type to panic after one loss, but it’s not unreasonable to think Arizona could be looking at a skid of losing four or even five of six heading into the homestretch.
This is the kind of thing that could have nervous types up panicking in the middle of the night — unless they know Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins are coming back soon.