Are the Cardinals exactly who we thought they were?

BUFFALO — The most troubling aspect of the Arizona Cardinals‘ 34-28 loss to the Bills was not the actual result. Buffalo is an annual playoff team with one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks. Few predictions had the Cardinals coming out ahead on Sunday at Highmark Stadium.

The most troubling aspect of this loss may be that the Cardinals are exactly who we thought they were.

We knew that they were capable of the offensive production they displayed in the first half when they built a 17-3 lead. Kyler Murray was efficient. James Conner was a workhorse and Trey McBride and Greg Dortch were effective safety valves for Murray. Even without the contributions of Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson, the Cardinals built a 17-3 lead late in the second quarter.  

But before the second half even started, the Cardinals displayed the issues that the fan base worried might plague this team. They couldn’t contain Buffalo QB Josh Allen. They couldn’t generate pressure off the edge, they couldn’t get stops, and when Buffalo stacked the box in the second half, the offense couldn’t adjust to sustain the momentum it had built against an AFC playoff team.

“We’re up 17-3 and you lose a game,” coach Jonathan Gannon said. 

That’s the fear — that the Cardinals will be able to score a lot of points in a game and still lose.

Buffalo scored 21 straight points to take a third-quarter lead that it never surrendered. Aside from a kickoff return from DeeJay Dallas, the offense produced three points in the second half, but that’s going to happen. The offense won’t be able to carry the defense all season.

“On defense we have to keep some of the explosive plays down,” Gannon said.

Everyone knows by now that GM Monti Ossenfort did not invest in an edge rusher this offseason despite the team’s glaring deficiency there last season. That lack of pressure puts a big strain on the secondary, but the front seven made things even worse by failing to contain Allen. All week leading up to the game, Gannon preached sound rushing technique and group efforts, but Allen made play after play with his legs, even running for a pair of touchdowns.

“Give him credit,” Gannon said. “That’s his secret sauce and he’s good at it. We got back there a couple times, but he did make some plays with play extension; with his legs. And then the hardest thing I think in the passing game is you’re covering for that long and he found some guys open.”

There is no solution walking through the door unless Gannon and defensive coordinator Nick Rallis can figure out a way to scheme away their team’s deficiencies. Darius Robinson won’t be back for several weeks. BJ Ojulari won’t be back this season and while Zaven Collins had his moments on Sunday, they were not frequent enough.

“At the end of the day, the season’s not over,” QB Kyler Murray said. “Obviously, you want to win your first game, but I’ve been doing this a while now. Next week we have a divisional opponent [the LA Rams]. The next one’s the most important.” 

Murray is right that the NFL’s once-a-week format is prime for overreactions. The Cardinals lost a game on the road against a team with good odds to win the Super Bowl. They’re 0-1 like half the teams in the league. 

But when you can accurately predict the losing score — as one of our PHNX Cardinals crew did — and when you can accurately predict the reasons that lead to that losing score, that seems like a problem.

3 cardinals observations

Williams loss a concern: There was no word on the severity of right tackle Jonah Williams’ knee injury after the game. Despite Gannon’s defense of Kelvin Beachum’s play, it was clear that there was a significant drop-off when Beachum entered the game in Williams’ place. Greg Rousseau finished the game with three sacks and he beat Beachum to force a critical Murray fumble that led Buffalo’s go-ahead TD pass to Khalil Shakir. If Williams is out for an extended period of time, that’s a storyline to watch.

New kickoff rules produce excitement: Gannon thought the new kickoff rules might afford the Cardinals an advantage. By the end of Sunday’s game they did when DeJay Dallas returned a kick 96 yards for a touchdown to pull Arizona within striking distance late in the game.

Overall, the kickoff was a mixed bag with Arizona also allowing a long return, but Dallas hinted that the Cardinals saw something they could exploit in the Bills’ coverage. When asked if teams had held their cards tight to the vest this preseason, Dallas nodded, but added that “some people did hide their stuff in plain sight. If you know, you know. Coach [Jeff] Rogers dialed it up and we executed.”

Where was MHJ? Murray targeted 2024 first-round pick Marvin Harrison Jr. three times and he caught one pass for four yards. Both Gannon and Murray defended the lack of targets and production as a product of what was available in the offense as Murray went through his progressions, but when you have a playmaking receiver on whom you spent the No. 4 overall pick, you have to find ways to get him the ball.

To put an exclamation on that point, Murray threw what was basically a jump ball to the 5-feet-7 Dortch on the Cardinals’ final offensive play as they were trying to take the lead. Isn’t that the kind of play for which you drafted Harrison? Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing has to do a better job of incorporating him into the offense. By the way, does anyone think that Murray and Harrison might have benefited from a little preseason action together to build some chemistry?

Top photo via Getty Images

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