Arizona Cardinals finish off season with poor showing

The Arizona Cardinals were outcoached once against against the Los Angeles Rams in a disappointing loss to end their 2020 season

When you think about it, the Arizona Cardinals were lucky to even be in this position in the first place. Given chance after chance to sneak into the 2020 playoffs.

In the end, they didn’t deserve to be there.  They were outcoached by Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVey. That’s now eight straight wins for the Rams over the Cardinals and the domination does not seem to be ending anytime soon.

The Rams were without their starting quarterback.  They were without a starting receiver. They were without a starting defensive lineman. They were without a major contributing running back.

None of it mattered on Sunday in their 18-7 loss.  Rams backup quarterback John Wolford wasn’t an all-world quarterback or anything near.  However what he was, was much better than what the Cardinals offered at backup in Chris Streveler.

Streveler had to play in place of Kyler Murray, who injured his ankle on the first drive of the game and didn’t return until the fourth quarter.  He clearly proved he is not the answer moving forward as the backup.

There will be questions why Brett Hundley wasn’t the backup this season, but that’s for another day.  For now, we have a lot of other questions that need to be answered.

How did they come unprepared for Wolford and his running the ball? After he was picked off by Jordan Hicks on his first pass, he played mistake-free football.

He ran for 56-yards on just six carries. He threw for 231-yards and made it look easy at times. Then again, that’s not anything new with the Cardinals defense.

Murray tried to give it a go late in the game but by then it was too late.  The Cardinals were down 18-7.  Murray looked decent on his first drive back, but a lack of pass interference on Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsay against Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins in the end zone coupled with a blocked Mike Nugent field goal spelled the end for them.

The Cardinals were uninspired, undisciplined, and unprepared much of the time in 2020.  Especially unprepared and uninspired in scoring just 19 points over their last two games.

There should and will be changes in the offseason.  It’s just a matter of which ones does Michael Bidwill feel are the most important and most impactful?