Progress is tough to sell after Cardinals' embarrassing loss to Commanders

The Arizona Cardinals were facing a rookie quarterback. They were hosting a team that had a short week of rest after playing on the road on Monday night — three time zones away. They were facing a defense that entered the game in the bottom five of the NFL’s rankings in yards allowed per game, passing yards allowed per game, takeaways per game, and points allowed per game.

And that’s the performance you put out on the field?

Beyond an impressive opening drive and an athletic interception by cornerback Garrett Williams — Washington’s first turnover of the season — there were no positives for the Cardinals to take away from the Commanders’ 42-14 win on Sunday at State Farm Stadium. 

Unless you have a mother’s eyes.

The Cardinals couldn’t move the ball consistently behind an offensive line that prides itself on its physical identity. Quarterback Kyler Murray turned in a pedestrian performance in which he was indecisive and ineffective.

And the defense had few answers for Kliff Kingsbury’s college offense, turning in a worst-case-scenario performance in which Washington could run the ball at will (216 yards on 37 carries for a 5.8-yard average), leaving rookie QB Jayden Daniels free to dink and dunk his way to first downs — or just run for them like the rest of the Commanders’ rushers.

Kingsbury put the middle finger on this win when, after taking a 33-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the Commanders went for two and completed a conversion pass to former Cardinal Zach Ertz. 

“We didn’t do a good enough job stopping the run so we’re playing behind the 8-ball all day and it’s a hard way to go,” coach Jonathan Gannon said. “We’ve got to tweak some things in the run game; make sure we’re doing a better job. Saying that, we do have to do the little, easy things better. Set edges. Tackle. Get off blocks. Be in the right spot. I know we’ll be able to fix those things.”

Everybody expected the defense to have its troubles against the Commanders because of all the injuries and the oft-discussed personnel deficiencies, but what happened to the Cardinals offense on Sunday? Is injured tight end Trey McBride really that important (hint: he’s not)? 

What happened to the power running game after the first quarter? What happened to that enviable array of receivers? What happened to the offensive coordinator whom Gannon called “a stud” two weeks ago — the one who got completely outclassed by beleaguered Washington DC Joe Whitt Jr.?

What happened to that Kyler Murray MVP talk?

“I’m really frustrated,” said Murray, whose team is now four for its last 19 on third down. “To get beat like that at home — just in general to get beat like that — I thought we had a good week of practice and didn’t come out here and show it.

“When you can’t stay on the field on third down and the defense is always on the field, obviously they get worn down.” 

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We defended the Cardinals in this space last week, noting the ongoing rebuild and signs of progress despite a 1-2 start. Arizona squandered most of that goodwill on Sunday, completing a rare three-game homestand at 1-2 against a team that is just four games into its own rebuild.

How important was a win for the Cardinals on Sunday? Since 1990, 34 of 235 teams (14.5 percent) that started 1-3 made the postseason. And many of those failed teams didn’t face the daunting schedule that the Cardinals face in their next four games. Three of them are on the road — at San Francisco, at Green Bay and at Miami — sandwiched around a home game against the LA Chargers.

Look, it’s not time to overreact and say the honeymoon is over for Gannon or GM Monti Ossenfort. Last season was a total tear-down so some of these struggles were expected. But some of the criticisms are also fair, whether it’s Ossenfort’s lack of moves in the offseason to shore up the defense, or Gannon’s and Drew Petzing’s inability to unlock the potential of this offense.

Maybe it’s time for some changes.

“We didn’t coach good enough and we didn’t play good enough in all three phases,” Gannon said. “We’ve got to get back at it. We’ve got to adapt a little bit. We can’t look like that because we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win the game.

“I’m the head coach. Everything that goes on out there is my responsibility. When you get beat by whatever we got beat today, it doesn’t feel real good so I’m gonna look in the mirror and adjust and adapt and do a better job.”

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Will it be enough, given the issues that have emerged at roughly the quarter mark of the season?

The Cardinals may get defensive lineman Darius Robinson back next week, as well as a couple of other reinforcements, but are we really hinging a Cardinal rebound on a rookie defensive lineman who hasn’t played a single snap of real NFL football? Are we still convinced that this offense has all the weapons it needs when it just got embarrassed by one of the NFL’s worst defenses? Are we still thinking the Cardinals could be a surprise playoff team out of the parity-riddled NFC.

Or are we starting to think more about which players might be available in the top 10 picks of the 2025 NFL Draft? Or worse yet, are we starting to recite an age-old line in this city: Same old Cardinals.

Top photo via Getty Images

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