A decade of ups and downs for Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals look to finish out the decade with a winning record in 2019

Nothing will beat a trip to the Super Bowl at the end of the previous decade in 2009, following the 2008 season.  However for the Arizona Cardinals, they have a chance to finish the decade off with a sixth season of eight wins or more.

Granted, some franchises would look at that and laugh.  However many of the Cardinals seasons have been no laughing matter but downright sad.  Take last season for example.

Sure at times during their 3-13 season all we could do is laugh.  Quarterback Sam Bradford was his usual self, unreliable.  They had a new head coach, very nice guy, but not nearly good enough to make adjustments to win close games and not good enough to play even close to others.

Now they bring in a lot of youth, both on the field and on the sidelines.  They got the number one pick in Kyler Murray at quarterback and a young NFL rookie head coach in Kliff Kingsbury.

The decade didn’t start off so well though.  They were 5-11 in 2010, fresh off two playoff seasons, the last two of quarterback Kurt Warner‘s career.

They’ve had a couple of 8-8 seasons.  Each of those seasons we were left scratching our heads how they finished 8-8.  In 2011, they did so with a -36 point scoring differential.

In 2017, that may have been even more perplexing.  They finished an astounding -66 in scoring differential.  You can credit a strong defensive effort towards the end of the season.

Then there was the middle of the decade, starting with head coach Bruce Arians in 2013.  They got progressively better from 2013-2015.  There has been one constant through it all, receiver Larry Fitzgerald, now going into his 16th NFL season.

In 2013, they didn’t make the playoffs, missed by one game, finishing 10-6.  Then the following season starting quarterback Carson Palmer was only able to start six games due to injury, but went 6-0 and ended up 11-5 but losing in the NFC Wild Card game to the Carolina Panthers.

In 2015, the same Panthers ended their season in the playoffs again.  However this time, the Cardinals finished with the number two seed with a 13-3 regular season and then bowing out in the NFC Championship Game.  It has been the only playoff bye in Cardinals history.

Now we look forward to this season and then the next decade hopefully with Murray and Kingsbury.  The Cardinals went 70-73-1 from 2010-2018.

A winning season of 10-6 or better would put them with a winning record for the decade.  Don’t count on it but it could happen with a few breaks.  If this team goes 8-8 that would be a huge victory for this organization.