Doubts creep in as Cardinals get routed by Carolina Panthers

The Arizona Cardinals hardly resembled a playoff contender during their embarrassing 34-10 defeat to the Carolina Panthers.

For nine consecutive weeks, the Arizona Cardinals were the only club in the National Football League who had failed to lay an egg during the 2021 campaign. It finally happened, however, when Kliff Kingsbury’s squad squeezed out a jumbo-sized one at home against the Carolina Panthers in Week 10.

It’s hard to fathom how the Cards fell by a score of 34-10 to the mediocre Panthers, a team led by an unheralded quarterback named P.J. Walker. Veteran Cam Newton also managed to do damage to a pathetic Arizona defense, despite the fact that the 32-year-old had returned to the organization just three days ago.

Speaking of the Cardinals defensive unit, fans should be genuinely concerned with the group’s awful performance on Sunday. Just when it seemed that coordinator Vance Joseph had righted the ship, his crew failed to show up against a less than frightening offense.

How concerned should fans of the Arizona Cardinals be with the blowout loss?

Actually, the fact that starting signal-caller Colt McCoy played as bad as he did versus the Panthers should not come as a huge surprise. It’s plain to see why the 35-year-old could best be described as a “journeyman backup”.

Speaking of “passers”, could someone please explain how Chris Streveler is still taking up a spot on the Cardinals roster? You need to be able to throw the football more than five yards downfield at the professional level, and Streveler just isn’t capable of that.

Cornerback Marco Wilson was a major contributor to the Carolina loss. The rookie was constantly was picked on by the Panthers and was a huge liability for the first time this season.

Being that he practiced this past Friday, perhaps quarterback Kyler Murray should’ve been in the lineup against the Panthers. Maybe Kingsbury had too much confidence in McCoy after last week’s outing and believed that the Cards could get by without Murray for the second game in a row.

The same goes for wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who is doing the franchise no good by sitting on the sideline in street clothes. If the five-time Pro Bowler isn’t 100 percent healthy, he can still help the Redbirds by at least acting like a decoy on the field.

Arizona (8-2) lost the number-one seed in the NFC, thanks to Green Bay Packers’ 17-0 shutout of the Seattle Seahawks. The Packers are 8-2 as well but own the tiebreaker thanks to their week-eight triumph over the Cardinals.

The Dallas Cowboys improved to 7-2 after a 43-3 shellacking of the Atlanta Falcons. The 7-2 Los Angeles Rams will go on the road to meet the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night. The Cards were helped by the Washington Football Team, who earned a 29-19 upset of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-3).

Arizona will be away from home next Sunday when they meet the Seahawks (3-6) at Lumen Field.