Cardinals collapse under the lights and fall to Rams in NFC West battle

The Arizona Cardinals saw a golden opportunity slip out of their hands on Monday night as they suffered a tough loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Heading into their matchup against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night, the Arizona Cardinals had a great opportunity to prove that they deserve to be in the conversation about the best teams in the NFL.

Instead, the Cardinals’ doubters were just handed more fuel as the Rams were able to leave State Farms Stadium on Monday night with a 30-23 win.

With the loss, Arizona’s record now falls to 10-3 this season and they are no longer the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The Green Bay Packers are now sitting atop the NFC, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the No. 2 spot, followed by Arizona at No. 3.

Arizona Cardinals cannot overcome brutal turnovers in loss to Los Angeles Rams

For whatever reason, the Cardinals seem to turn the ball over at a much higher rate whenever they play on their home field this year, and Monday night was no different.

Arizona had a chance to go ahead 10-0 on their second offensive drive of the game. But instead of finding the end zone when they lined up on the Los Angeles four-yard line early in the first quarter, Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray had a pass intercepted and returned 31 yards the other way.

The Rams then took the momentum from that play and turned their next offensive drive into their first touchdown of the matchup to go ahead 7-3.

Later on in the game, the Cardinals found themselves trailing 20-13 after Los Angeles punched it in the end zone on their first drive of the second half. So in response, Murray threw his second interception of the night on the second play of Arizona’s first offensive drive of the third quarter.

Seven plays after that pick, the Rams added another seven points to their total, and increased their lead over the Cardinals to 27-13.

Arizona tried to claw back in the contest, but the deficit ended up just being too large to overcome. The Cardinals even recovered an onside kick late in the fourth quarter to give themselves a chance to tie up the game with a touchdown.

But a pair of penalties and some bad clock management on their final drive resulted in Arizona walking off of the field with their third loss of the season.

The Cardinals will attempt to get back on track next Sunday when they head out on the road to take on a Detroit Lions team that has only managed to win one game this season.