Being competitive no longer satisfying for Arizona Cardinals

After two respectable showings by the squad, the next step in the progression of the Arizona Cardinals needs to be a victory

Heading into the current campaign, many of the NFL’s prognosticators were predicting doom and gloom for the Arizona Cardinals. Many people were of the belief, yours truly being one of them, that the club was heading in the wrong direction. It now appears that the Cardinals may be on track to prove all of the naysayers wrong.

But despite the positive vibes that are surrounding the squad following their first two performances, one significant negative does exist. Try as they may, the Cards have been unable to win a game thus far in 2019. There are those who have referred to Arizona’s pair of impressive outings as moral victories, but the team and it’s fans now want more.

For three quarters of this year’s season-opener against the Detroit Lions, the Cardinals killjoys appeared to be correct in their assessment of Kliff Kingsbury‘s group. The visiting Lions had built a 24-6 fourth-quarter lead over Big Red, and all hope seemed to be lost. But then, suddenly, Cards quarterback Kyler Murray began to perform like the first-overall pick of the draft is supposed to.

Murray and the offense staged a rally that would ultimately come up just a tad short. The best that Arizona could salvage was a 27-27 overtime tie with Detroit. Not winning was obviously disappointing, but the franchise came out of week one with a good feeling nevertheless.

The Cardinals week two assignment was a much more difficult one. Kingsbury’s crew traveled east to face the Baltimore Ravens, and were made 13-point underdogs by the oddsmakers. A blowout of the Cards by Lamar Jackson and company was not out of the question.

That obviously didn’t happen. The Ravens came out on top, but it wasn’t by much. Arizona fell short by a score of 23-17, but were literally one play away from pulling off a huge upset.

It’s now time for the Cardinals to progress to the next level. Moral victories were perfectly fine for the first two contests of the season. Next on the Cards agenda, however, needs to be a triumph over the Carolina Panthers this coming Sunday.