In recent years, the Arizona Cardinals have not been known for their success in the postseason. Despite having talented teams with the potential to go far, the Cardinals have only made three playoff appearances since 2010 and have only won one game. Bleacher Report recently ranked the worst postseason collapses, and the Cardinals were included twice in the list of eight.
David Kenyon made a point worth noting and added that it is also fully comprehensible.
Despite Carson Palmer’s injury, the Arizona Cardinals managed to achieve an impressive 8-1 record early on in the season. What is even more remarkable is that the team won all six games with Palmer as their quarterback. However, the tides turned when Palmer suffered a knee injury. Although they defeated the playoff-bound Detroit Lions in their first game without Palmer, the Cardinals struggled in the following six games, only winning two of them and scoring an average of just 12.2 points per game. As a result, they lost their lead in the NFC West after being defeated by the Seattle Seahawks twice.
Even worse, the Arizona team suffered from another setback when their backup quarterback, Drew Stanton, could not play due to a sprained MCL towards the end of December. This led to a disastrous performance in the Wild Card Round, as they could only accumulate a mere 78 yards behind their third-string quarterback, Ryan Lindley, resulting in a loss to the Carolina Panthers.
According to Kenyon, the Arizona Cardinals appeared to be making significant progress in their third year working together under Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray.
Arizona had a disappointing finish to their strong start in the 2021 season, marking another instance of a second-half collapse in head coach Kingsbury’s career. Despite quarterback Murray being sidelined for three weeks due to an injury, the team still managed to maintain a 10-2 record upon his return. This loss is particularly painful as it jeopardized their chances at securing home-field advantage in the playoffs.
Despite winning 11 games out of 17 during the regular season, the Cardinals experienced a significant downfall towards the end, resulting in four losses in their last five games. As a consequence, they had to settle for a wild-card berth with an overall record of 11-6. Their downward spiral hit its peak during a dreadful 34-11 defeat against the Los Angeles Rams, where they only managed to gain 183 yards. Falling behind 28-0, the Cardinals were unable to mount a comeback and subsequently missed a chance to advance further in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the 2023 Philadelphia Eagles claimed the top spot on the list.
Leave a Reply