So much for fast starts.
It was more of the same for the Cardinals when Sunday began against the Los Angeles Rams. And even though they made it a game in the second quarter and in the second half, long drives that end in field goals won’t win many games in the NFL, especially against the Rams.
Hold the Rams, or any NFL team to 20 points, and you should win the game. But that wasn’t the case for the Cardinals.
Each team scored four times, but unfortunately for the Cardinals, their scores were all off the foot of kicker Matt Prater, while the Rams were able to score two touchdowns to go with their two field goals in a 20-12 victory.
That extended their mastery over the Cardinals to eight straight wins in State Farm Stadium, six with Sean McVay as head coach.
It was also the seventh consecutive loss for the Cardinals at home, dating back to last season, and it won’t get any easier when the Philadelphia Eagles travel to Arizona in two weeks.
As quarterback Kyler Murray said, “The first quarter, you can’t make anything happen. You can’t get anything going. It’s just bad football.”
How bad? The team’s first four possessions totaled 22 yards on 13 plays and the Cardinals failed to convert on their first six third-down opportunities. Of course, in that stretch, in order, there was a third-and-21, a third-and-14 and a third-and-11. At one point in the second quarter, the Rams had outgained the Cardinals 185-22.
Of course, the Rams had a poor succession of possessions of their own in the latter stages of the second quarter and into the third when they had three three-and-outs in which they gained 18 yards on nine plays.
Anyone looking at the final numbers would see some things and wonder how the Cardinals lost. Delve a bit deeper and it’s easy to see why.
The Cardinals actually possessed the ball almost eight more minutes than the Rams, 33:56 to 26:04. They outgained the Rams, 365-339 and had 23 first downs to LA’s 15.
Stunningly, the Cardinals ran 81 offensive plays to a mere 46 for the Rams. But the Rams made their plays count. Big plays were a non-starter for the Cardinals.
“We’d like to have some more explosives,” head coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “We had some shots at a couple that were close, but didn’t hit them, which happens. The drives where we take a sack or a penalty or whatever, that’s really hurting us as far as staying on schedule.”
The Cardinals had only two plays of 20 or more yards while the Rams have five.
Murray attempted a career-high 58 passes, completing 37 for 314 yards. However, he averaged only 8.5 yards per completion and a microscopic 5.41 per attempt.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was 18-for-25 for 249 yards, a nifty 13.8 yards per completion and 9.96 per attempt.
Overall, the Cardinals’ 81 plays averaged 4.5 yards while the Rams averaged 7.4 on their 46 plays.
The long drives were excruciating to watch.
Consider that 22:49 of the Cardinals’ 33:56 of possession time and 52 of their 81 plays came on three field-goal drives.
The first totaled 75 yards on 19 plays and ran 9:30 off the clock. Another lasted 7:47 and consisted of 16 plays for 58 yards. The final one of 17 plays and 89 yards was 5:32.
Trailing 13-0, the first field-goal drive failed to result in a touchdown when the Cardinals had first-and-goal at the 3-yard line and running back James Conner had a drop on third down from the 5. There were other drops in the game, including one where Conner appeared not to realize the ball was coming his way.
“I told guys you have to be awake when you play with me,” Murray said. “No matter what the play is. I have free rein to do whatever, so when you sleep and you don’t think you’re getting the ball; you can’t play like that. Everybody has to be head up, in the game, locked in and we just have to be better. We will be, but it’s frustrating when you lose and you felt like you could have played better in the game.”
Conner bolted after the game with reporters waiting at his locker, refusing to give his take on the loss.
Murray did blame himself for a misfire on a possession that began at the end of the third quarter and had a different disappointing ending in the final quarter.
On second-and-10 from the 25-yard line, Murray launched a deep ball to wide receiver Marquise Brown, who had his man beat. The pass landed just past Brown on what could have been a touchdown with the score 20-9.
Murray said, “I let it go too early.”
The Cardinals did manage a first down on third-and-10 and then moved to the Rams’ 26-yard line when Murray threw high to Brown. Rather than kick a field goal that would have made it a one-score game with 11:35 to play, Kingsbury went for it on fourth-and-4, but it was incomplete. It was the only failed fourth-down try in the game in five attempts.
Asked about that decision, Kingsbury said, “I just didn’t think field goals would get it done against them. I liked the play-call and I liked what he had. It just didn’t work out.”
Prior to that drive, the Rams had increased their lead from 13-9 following a Prater 49-yard field goal to make it 20-9.
Unlike the Cardinals’ plodding possessions, the Rams moved 75 yards in eight plays with one huge third-down conversion coming on third-and-11 from their own 24-yard line.
Linebacker Zaven Collins, who later left the game with a shoulder injury, seemed to have Stafford dead to rights, but Stafford got away and whipped an 11-yard completion to wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who had only four receptions for 44 yards in the game while scoring on a 20-yard run.
After a 26-yard pass to tight end Tyler Higbee, running back Cam Akers came alive with four consecutive carries for 39 yards that ended with a 14-yard touchdown. Other than that, Akers had only eight attempts for 22 yards in the game.
Higbee averaged 15.3 yards on four catches for 61 yards, while unheralded wide receiver Ben Skowronek led the Rams with 66 yards on four receptions (16.5 average).
While Brown was targeted 17 times and had 14 catches, they averaged only 10.0 yards a pop (140 yards). Wide receiver Greg Dortch’s nine receptions totaled 80 yards (8.9 average) and tight end Zach Ertz was equally pedestrian with six receptions for 45 yards (7.5 average).
Murray said the slow start and falling behind played into the Rams’ defensive strategy.
“We’re up against a team that when they’re up, they’re playing a soft zone, everything is in front of them,” he said. “They want to get up, they want to attack the quarterback and let them dominate the quarterback. I thought we did a good job with protection and getting completions. We just didn’t finish with the ball in the end zone.”
Kingsbury repeated his the consistent message he has communicated early in the season about getting key players back. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins will return after the sixth game. His suspension is now half complete. It is hoped wide receiver Rondale Moore will be back in Week 4 but no later than Week 5. Wide receiver Antoine Wesley might be available in Week 5.
After 6-foot-4 wide receiver A.J. Green left the game with a knee injury in the third quarter (after having no catches on two targets by the way), the Cardinals were sadly left with no wide receivers taller than me: Andre Baccellia is the tallest at 5-foot-10, followed by Brown, Andy Isabella (5-foot-9) and Greg Dortch (5-foot-7).
“I just think consistency on offense is what we’re fighting for,” Kingsbury understated. “We have really good players and I like what we’re doing schematically. We’ve got to make sure we’re maximizing the players and figure out exactly who we are. We’ve got to get some of those other pieces back. We have some dynamic receivers that will make a big difference at some point, but right now we’ve got to figure out who we are for the next couple of weeks.”
The figuring out will continue next week in Carolina against a team that also has the Cardinals’ number.
The Panthers have won six consecutive games over Arizona including playoff games in 2014 and 2015. Carolina has won the last four regular-season games by a combined score of 133-71, including 34-10 in Arizona last season.
Don’t hesitate to comment or ask questions on Twitter @hbalzer721 or email me: howard@gophnx.com
