Arizona Cardinals not quite ready for top quality opponents
By Jim Koch
Last Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Saints and Thursday night’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers is proof that the Arizona Cardinals are not ready to be a part of the NFL’s elite
Heading into this past weekend, the Arizona Cardinals were on a roll. Three consecutive victories by the organization had NFL enthusiasts taking notice. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that the Cards could actually do something special in Kliff Kingsbury‘s first season as their head coach.
Unfortunately, any aspirations that Arizona may have had for 2019 were crushed this past Sunday and with the loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night. Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints let Kingsbury’s crew hang around for awhile during the contest, giving both the Cardinals and their fans false hope. But when the smoke finally cleared, the squad from the desert found themselves completely outclassed by a much more talented football team.
Brees, the Saints 12-time Pro Bowl quarterback, was returning from a five-week absence. An injured thumb had kept the New Orleans legend on the sidelines, but he had recovered sufficiently enough to carve up the Cards secondary. Any strides that the Arizona defense had made the prior week against the New York Giants were destroyed by the ultra-talented Brees.
On the other hand, Cardinals rookie passer Kyler Murray struggled mightily. The first-overall pick of this year’s draft had shined versus questionable competition. But when facing an extremely stout Saints defense, Murray was brought down to earth in a hurry.
The matchup between the Cards and New Orleans basically came down to one thing. When given opportunities, Murray and his teammates failed to take advantage. It takes an almost flawless performance to defeat a premier franchise like the Saints on the road, but Arizona was simply not up to the challenge.
In a nutshell, the Cardinals are not yet ready to butt heads with the best that the league has to offer with the last two games as prime evidence. Kingsbury’s group has already proven that they can emerge victorious over weak opponents. With some additions to the roster next offseason, perhaps the Cards will be handle the NFL’s upper echelon as well.