Rapid reactions: Cardinals bounced by Panthers in overtime

Arizona came back from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit in Carolina but more Chad Ryland magic was not enough in the Cardinals’ 36-30 overtime loss to the Panthers.

The defeat moves Arizona to 7-8 on the year. The loss — paired with the Los Angeles Rams’ Week 16 win — means the Cardinals are officially eliminated from playoff contention.

Penalties proved to be a problem yet again for Arizona as it gave up 11 penalties which totaled to 82 yards.

James Conner was one of the lone bright spots for the Cardinals. The running back recorded 117 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. He was also Arizona’s leading receiver with four catches for 49 yards, but he left the game in the third quarter with a knee injury and did not return.

Arizona Sports hosts and reporters gave their biggest takeaways from the Cardinals’ loss:

Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta Mornings: The charade is over.

The Arizona Cardinals stayed in playoff contention by stacking wins against bad football teams and aided the mediocrity of their own division. There’s no pretending anymore. A disgusting performance Sunday in a 36-30 overtime loss in Charlotte ends another maddening season.

This loss is on everyone. It starts with the coaching staff which didn’t have this team ready to play in a must-win situation. The defense got pushed around and allowed 36 points and 392 yards (243 on the ground) to a bad Carolina offense. The offense dinked and dunked its way to 382 yards but we got a puzzling game plan that “featured” a total of four targets to tight end Trey McBride. There was also horrific clock management at the end of regulation, but that got washed away by Chad Ryland’s heroics on a 58-yard field goal to force overtime.

The Cardinals killed themselves with 11 penalties for 82 yards.

But let’s focus on the two elephants in the room. Over the last five weeks, Kyler Murray has done almost nothing to reassure anyone that he’s the answer at quarterback for the future of this team. He had his weekly inexplicable interception in the fourth quarter and the Cardinals’ first turnover was a botched handoff between Murray and Michael Carter that led to a Carolina touchdown. It’s the end of Murray’s sixth year as a starter and he still makes bad rookie mistakes in end-game situations (like the pick, taking a delay-of-game penalty and taking a bad sack on third down). He looks as skittish as ever and his body language Sunday on the sideline was the physical embodiment of defeat.

This is the third time in Murray’s six years as the Cardinals’ leader that he’s shrunk down the stretch of a season.

Marvin Harrison Jr. is a below-average receiver at this point. He’s not physical. He doesn’t get separation. He still makes bad mistakes (false start on the first play of the game) and he doesn’t come back to the ball forcefully enough or make contested catches. Did I leave anything out? Throw out the numbers. Right now, the eye test tells you way more.

Zombie football is here for the next two weeks … you might be better served reading up on draft prospects than watching the last two games of the season.

Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: With the season on the line, the Cardinals unleashed a toxic tease of penalties and injuries, a leaky defense and a confused offense, and just enough hope at the end of it all to make us think the dream could live for one more week. It was one of the most frustrating weekends of Cardinals football in recent times, and that’s saying something.

It all went so poorly it’s hard to know where to start. The penalties? A once-disciplined team has veered into sloppy territory too often as of late even though a couple of the calls were highly suspect. The injuries were a factor of course; the Cards were down to their two backup tackles and a fourth-string running back. The defense gave up 30 points in regulation to the fifth-worst scoring offense in the NFL. The offense managed to tie the game on a Chad Ryland miracle but too many mistakes: delays, balls that should have been caught, the interception, the sacks. The chorus of fans who don’t believe in Kyler Murray is growing by the day. And even if you’re not in that camp yet, your faith in Murray to be at his best when the season matters most is fragile. Another year of Murray isn’t going to inspire much confidence.

Some will point to the Cardinals’ year-to-year improvement and believe better days are coming. Maybe one day I’ll get there. But a team that was 6-4 and leading the division has gone 1-4 since. The Cardinals were exposed. Their chance was squandered. I’m not in the mood to celebrate any of the modest gains they’ve made this year.

Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf & Luke: What happened to this team during the bye week? I don’t think anybody looked at the Cardinals as a Super Bowl contender when they were 6-4, but they were evolving into a gritty team that didn’t beat themselves. They were the least penalized group in the NFL, Kyler Murray wasn’t throwing interceptions, the defense was giving them a chance to win every week and attention to detail was becoming part of their identity. They had a winning record and the inside track to take the division. Their losses were justifiable, coming against elite teams like the Lions, Bills and Packers.

That was five weeks ago. It feels like five years ago.

Now they’re losing must-win games to the Carolina Panthers. They’re taking penalties in bunches, Murray’s throwing interceptions, the defense is beat up and the offense looks disorganized in key moments. The winning record is gone and so is any shot at a playoff spot. Did I mention they just lost to Carolina?

Some of this can be explained away, at least to a certain extent. The defense really is dealing with an absurd number of injuries. That seems to finally be catching up with them. And were the eight penalties Arizona took in the first 16 minutes today all good calls by the officials? No. Some of them were embarrassingly bad calls actually — the kind that the league apologizes to you later. But not all of them. The bottom line is the Cardinals weren’t on the same page to start this game at all. And it cost them their season.

To be fair, Jonathan Gannon’s group did rally. And they probably would have escaped Carolina with a win if James Conner didn’t get injured early in the third quarter. But that means absolutely nothing when they update the standings. They gave the Panthers way too much life early, then needed everything to go perfectly to make up for it late. You know how that usually ends.

So now we have to zoom out and look at the big picture. My checklist for a “successful” season back in August was 8-9 wins, a contract extension for Budda Baker, progress from Murray in this offense – especially in big games – and clear development of the young players. Some of that is still in play, but there’s a gray area in there now too.

This is a very young team and a lot of the first- and second-year guys are making clear strides. That can’t just be ignored because we’re frustrated. But the offense is struggling outside of Conner and Trey McBride. Explosive plays are few and far between and they’re not winning the turnover battle much lately. Making the playoffs in 2024 isn’t a prerequisite for the Cardinals to be on the right trajectory, but falling apart down the stretch is something Arizona fans are justifiably sensitive to. And that’s what the last month has felt like.

Tyler Drake, Arizona Sports Cardinals beat writer and Cardinals Corner co-host: Quarterback Kyler Murray laughed at the notion that Sunday’s game was a trap game. Unfortunately for the signal caller, that’s exactly what it was in Charlotte. The Cardinals failed to rise up the moment and keep their name in the playoff picture behind things that have plagued Arizona for a good chunk of the season: Penalties, miscommunication and inconsistency.

Murray accounted for most of the last two factors mentioned. Whether it was his continued misconnection with Marvin Harrison Jr. or his costly fourth-quarter interception, the QB did not live up to his early season projections or price tag in Arizona’s biggest game of the year. I’ll be interested to hear his take on the loss.

Then there’s the defense, which watched Bryce Young and the Panthers offense score 36 points and chew up a boatload of rushing yards behind Chuba Hubbard.

The Cardinals — even with their failures since the bye week — still appear on schedule and have already surpassed expectations in Year 2 of the new regime. Remember, the over/under for wins in 2024 was 6.5. That was the baseline.

Still, the way this season is coming to a close, it feels like an opportunity to get ahead of schedule just slipped through the Cardinals’ wings.

As they say, better luck next year.

Mitch Vareldzis, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night: I am not going to sit here and attempt to wax poetic about this one.

Today sucked.

It sucked from the start and it sucked when it ended.

In a similar fashion to the Phoenix Suns in their recent games against the Pacers and Pistons, the urgency was severely lacking in a game the Cardinals ABSOLUTELY needed to win.

That is alarming given how much this coaching staff and the players have emphasized the philosophy of “one game at a time” and “not looking ahead”.

Good news! There is no further need to look ahead to anything beyond the first week of January. The season is over.

Now the only joy you can take from the rest of this season is individual success and playing spoiler to the Rams this upcoming Saturday.

So now that the season is done (at least for the purposes of my portion of the rapid reaction), here are my hopes for the offseason of the Cardinals.

Number 1: No more talk about culture.

You’re entering season three now with this regime. No one cares about the group of guys in the locker room anymore. They care about results. You need wins, or your culture is not as strong as you think.

Number 2: A deep and thorough evaluation of the QB situation.

Is Kyler Murray the guy going forward? Can he take you to the places you want to go? More importantly, is there another option on the market or in the draft that would be better than what you have right now?

Number 3: Spend the full salary cap, please!!!

I don’t care if it is poorly spent money at this point. It remains inexcusable that $20 million dollars was just left on the table and still not used as the trade deadline came and passed.

After that one, my head hurts. Let’s just hope Arizona State gives us a grand start to 2025 because this end to 2024 in Arizona sports has been less than memorable.

Click here to read article