Three phases: Cardinals drop to 1-3 with a loss to the Rams

“What the hell is going on out here?” — Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi won a lot of football games as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. But that didn’t stop him from asking that question aloud on the sidelines of a game against the Minnesota Vikings in December of 1967.

Bruce Arians, the head coach of the 2016 Arizona Cardinals, might have Lombardi’s famous quote rattling around in his head after a 17-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday that dropped his team’s record to 1-3.

The Cardinals lost three games all last season.

This year, consistency has been a common theme in the losses. Consistency in making mistakes, that is. And, in all phases of the game, too.

Here’s a quick look at the Cardinals’ latest loss on offense, defense and special teams.

Offense

The Cardinals amassed 420 yards on offense in the game, but that figure is a mirage. Arizona is struggling to score points, and those struggles were evidenced in the red zone.

In three trips inside the Rams’ 20-yard line, the Cardinals scored just one touchdown and on two other occasions settled for field goals. The first field goal came after a holding penalty on Jermaine Gresham nullified a touchdown run by Chris Johnson. The second Chandler Catanzaro field goal came after Arizona had a 1st-and-goal at the Los Angeles 4-yard line. David Johnson got one yard on a run on first down, then the Cardinals tried two passes — both fell incomplete.

Arizona also committed three turnovers in Rams’ territory. In the second quarter, Carson Palmer tried a deep ball to John Brown in the end zone that Trumaine Johnson intercepted to thwart a drive. In the third quarter, Aaron Donald forced a Carson Palmer fumble on a 2nd-and-9 at the 26-yard-line that was recovered by Eugene Sims. Early in the fourth quarter, David Johnson coughed up the football on the Rams’ 41-yard line.

The Cardinals have turned the ball over 10 times in the last two weeks after not having any in the first two weeks of the season.

Arizona ran the ball decently — the Johnson & Johnson running back combo averaged more than five yards per carry against the Rams, amassing 117 yards on 23 carries.

The passing game still looks broken. There were fewer apparent communication breakdowns Sunday but dropped passes (looking at you, Michael Floyd) still were a factor.

Oh yeah, the Cardinals still don’t have a point in 60 minutes of first-quarter football on the season.

Defense

I’ll start with this — any time the Arizona Cardinals allow 17 points to an opponent in a home game, they should win the game.

Everybody knows what the Rams’ strength on offense was coming into the game. Although Todd Gurley hasn’t been great in 2016 (came in averaging 2.9 yards per carry), he’s the focal point of what the Rams want to do.

Arizona completely shut Gurley down, holding him to 33 yards on 17 carries. His longest run on the day was five yards.

When you shut down Gurley to that extent, you’d think you’d have a pretty good chance to win the game, right? It’s ideal — you make quarterback Case Keenum beat you. And, of course, Case Keenum beat the Cardinals.

The placeholder for Jared Goff completed 18-of-30 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns. Keenum utilized Gurley and tight end Lance Kendricks effectively in the passing game, getting them the ball 10 times for 101 yards.

Brian Quick killed the Cardinals with his second career two-touchdown game. His first came on a short pass and a missed tackle by Marcus Cooper. Safety Tony Jefferson overran the play and the combo of miscues allowed Quick to rumble 65 yards into the end zone. His second, a 4-yarder from Keenum with 2:36 left in the fourth quarter, effectively iced the contest.

Special Teams

Ugh.

There weren’t any bad snaps — so kudos to new long snapper Aaron Brewer.

New punter Ryan Quigley put up very Drew Butler-like numbers, averaging 42.3 yards on four punts. But the bigger number — and this isn’t all on Quigley — is a 25.5-yard net average. His fourth and final punt was arguably the biggest play of the game. The always-dangerous Tavon Austin returned Quigley’s punt 47 yards to the Cardinals’ 34-yard line. Ifeanyi Momah made things worse by grabbing Austin’s facemask on the tackle (it was a desperation move, and may have saved a touchdown in real time), but it set up the Rams on the Cardinals’ 19-yard line. Five plays later, Keenum found Austin on the touchdown pass.

The Cardinals again struggled on kickoff returns. Andre Ellington averaged 19 yards per attempt — if the blocking in front of him (or whoever may do that job in the future) doesn’t get better, Arizona will face the strategy Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots employed in Week 1 — pinning the ball inside the Cards’ 5-yard line and daring the returner to come out. Rams’ kicker Greg Zuerlein did that twice, and Arizona’s averaging starting field position was its own 19.5-yard line on those two occasions.

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