Arizona Cardinals need more than two good drives

The Arizona Cardinals had very good drives to open the first half and second half but that was all she wrote

Sunday’s Arizona Cardinals loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was a good news/bad news situation.  The good news was the Cardinals scored on their first offensive drive in both halves.  The bad news is that was all they did.

If they had even put two of their remaining nine drives together like the two to open the halves, then this would  be a different discussion we’d be having today.  However it more of the same old news, a lot of failures in performance and execution.

The two scoring drives

David Johnson had his best day of the season.  He was more involved.  He carried the ball 21 times for 98-yards.  He also caught seven passes for 85-yards. He had two touchdowns, one on the ground and one in the air.

Johnson touched the ball in seven of the 12 plays on the opening offensive drive.  He touched the ball on six of the 12 plays in their offensive scoring drive to open the second half.

The Cardinals had 136-yards of offense on the two drives and did a good job of mixing Josh Rosen passes and Johnson carries.  The first quarter score was the first touchdown the Chiefs gave up on their opponents first drive of the game this season.  The third quarter score was the first for the Cardinals in the third quarter this season for the Cardinals.

The other nine drives

The Cardinals had 45 plays for 124-yards outside of the scoring drives.  That will not cut it.  You won’t see many wins in the NFL with numbers like that.

A lot of issues reared their ugly heads again.  Poor offensive line play, even some poor play calling.  You can only run the ball up the middle so much without the other team stacking the box knowing what’s coming.

The Cardinals had chances to take a lead down just 20-14 in the fourth quarter.  But they couldn’t muster anything.  They had two drives for a total of 32-yards with chances to take a lead.

Rosen’s interception thrown to Chiefs defensive lineman Justin Houston was the killer.  Just two plays into the drive he threw the bad pick.

After those failed drives in the fourth, the Chiefs were able to punch one more score into the end zone to put the game essentially out of reach for the Cardinals.  Once again, close but close doesn’t count in the NFL.