👋 GOOD MORNING – We’ve made it to the end of a long pre-holiday week. Nice work everyone. Christmas (if you celebrate) is right around the corner!

So what presents are sitting under our tree this weekend? Well… it’s a Cardinals game, so hopefully it comes with a gift receipt…

Regardless, we’re going to talk about it anyway, because that’s what we do here.

Here we go!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

Cardinals Face Falcons as Season Winds Down

Alright, so the Arizona Cardinals are 3-11, and don’t seem to be getting any better — in any capacity. Week in and week out it’s the same ugly show: the Cardinals go down big in the first several minutes, stay relatively out of the game, and manage to hang some garbage time stats on the board.

Some of those stats are important for fantasy football (looking at you, Trey McBride and Michael Wilson managers), but that doesn’t ease the pain of being a diehard fan of this football-gods-forsaken team.

Arizona has simply been outclassed on a regular basis by any and all opponents of late. Sure, they’ve played some tough teams, but they’ve also given up 40-plus points in four of their last six games. They haven’t won a game since week five against the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, which at this point feels like years ago.

This Sunday, they’ll get the Atlanta Falcons, who have had nearly as disappointing a 2025 as the Cardinals, surprisingly enough. Except Atlanta took down the Buccaneers in comeback fashion last week, and are now 5-9.

The Falcons are one of those teams that can look completely incompetent or sneaky good, depending on the game. With the Cardinals looking more and more like a default get-right game, this may still be an ugly one to watch.

Of course, many fans likely want to see the Cardinals lose this game for draft-position purposes. That’s understandable, but I’ll repeat this sentiment here: the only way to turn around a losing culture is to win games; it doesn’t matter if the season is already lost, and the players (and coaches) don’t care about draft positioning.

Okay, I’m off the soapbox.

On paper, this is perhaps the most winnable game left on the schedule. Kirk Cousins had an excellent performance against Tampa Bay, but still hasn’t looked quite like his pre-achilles-injury self yet this year. He’s still a savvy veteran, however, who can easily dissect and take advantage of holes in Arizona’s defense.

Cousins’ top two targets — Drake London and Kyle Pitts — were limited in practice this week, but seem to both be trending in a playing direction.

But it ultimately doesn’t matter all that much what happens to those two, because the Cardinals’ X-factor is…

• The Run Defense

The Cardinals have had an incredibly porous run defense over the past several weeks. As poorly as they’ve done in terms of disrupting opposing QBs, they’ve allowed their opponents’ backs to simply run wild.

Against the Texans, Arizona allowed 4.3 yards per carry, for a 143-yard total. Two weeks ago against the Rams, it was an abysmal 6.9 yards per carry for 249 yards and three scores.

And the Falcons have a certain Tucson, AZ native in their backfield who’s carving up even some of the better defenses in the NFL — RB Bijan Robinson.

Robinson is the definition of a force-fed star, but not in the way that implies he’s overrated. He’s so good in space, Atlanta can’t not give him the ball. On the year, he’s already got 1,174 yards on the ground and 684 through the air. He’s averaging five yards per carry and 2.4 yards per carry after contact. Good luck.

The Cardinals are the worst tackling team in the NFL this year, and don’t appear to be making strides in that regard.

Cardinals Injury Updates

OL Paris Johnson Jr. (knee) and Evan Brown (personal) did not practice this week. Neither did CBs Max Melton (heel) and Darren Hall (concussion protocol). S Jalen Thompson (hamstring) did not practice, either.

WR Marvin Harrison Jr. (heel) did return to practice this week in a limited capacity, as did LB Cody Simon (Knee/Ankle), S Rabbit Taylor-Demerson (ankle) and WR Xavier Weaver (hamstring).

Quick Hits

Keep on Rolling: No. 1 Arizona Men’s basketball takes on one of the last (somewhat) challenging opponents of their non-conference slate. They’ll head up to Phoenix for a matchup with San Diego State at Mortgage Matchup Center on Saturday night, 8:30 p.m.

The Wildcat women’s team earned a blowout victory last night over the Bellarmine Knights — improving to 9-2 with Becky Burke’s 100th career win at the Division I level behind a well-rounded offensive attack.

Keep on Rolling: No. 1 Arizona Men’s basketball takes on one of the last (somewhat) challenging opponents of their non-conference slate. They’ll head up to Phoenix for a matchup with San Diego State at Mortgage Matchup Center on Saturday night, 8:30 p.m.

The Wildcat women’s team earned a blowout victory last night over the Bellarmine Knights — improving to 9-2 with Becky Burke’s 100th career win at the Division I level behind a well-rounded offensive attack.

Pac-12 classic?: ASU men’s hoops takes on the Oregon State Beavers at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon in Tempe this weekend. Arizona State will look to rebound from their loss to UCLA.

The ASU women continue to roll, however. Molly Miller’s squad took a 68-66 win over Gonzaga this week and has not lost a game at 13-0 on the season. They’ll take on the Colorado Buffaloes at home following the men’s game Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

Nothing reassuring on the Kenny Dillingham front, yet, unfortunately.

Golden Dubs: The Suns engineered a gritty, tough-fought comeback over the Golden State Warriors last night, winning by a razor-thin 99-98 margin. Devin Booker led the low-scoring contest with 25 points, with Dillon Brooks recording 24 right behind him. Phoenix held Steph Curry to 15 points on the night.

These two teams will face off again on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. — this time in San Francisco.