Fitzgerald’s day overshadowed by Broncos takeover and another Cardinals home loss
The Cardinals honored Larry Fitzgerald, but a loss to the Broncos and a takeover by opposing fans highlighted the franchise's ongoing struggles.
Watch: Larry Fitzgerald inducted into Cardinals' Ring of Honor | 14 seconds
It wasn’t the score that was so depressing. It was the scene.
It was the Cardinals honoring Larry Fitzgerald on a day when orange-clad Broncos fans overtook State Farm Stadium.
It was sad. It was awful. But it accurately reflected the current state of our NFL franchise. It was a sign of the times.
The Cardinals lost to the Broncos 30-16 on Sunday, in a game full of punts, penalties and overzealous officials. The ugliest kind of game to watch.
The Broncos’ offense was supposed to be the perfect gift for a rejuvenated Cardinals defense, a unit that embarrassed the Rams during a road win in Los Angeles. Instead, the opposite was true.
The Cardinals’ defense was the perfect salve for the Broncos and their beleaguered quarterback, Bo Nix.
Denver’s popgun attack dropped three giant plays on the Cardinals. Nix scrambled 62 yards for a touchdown. It wasn’t as bad as slow-footed Steve Bono ripping off a 76-yard touchdown run against the Cardinals in 1995, a play so absurd that it still lives in NFL infamy. But it was bad.
The Broncos also turned a screen pass into a 52-yard touchdown, where Sean Payton made Nick Rallis pay dearly for his newfound blitz mentality in ways that Sean McVay could not. And then a 47-yard pass to Marvin Mims Jr. led to another Denver touchdown.
The Denver offense had been so bad that former Broncos’ legend Mark Schlereth said he’s never seen anything like it. Against the Cardinals, the Broncos produced three explosive plays that produced 161 yards.
On offense, the Cardinals again struggled in the red zone. While Bam Knight ran the ball extremely well, he needed far more carries than seven. That’s bad strategy. He also dropped an exquisite pass from Jacoby Brissett in the end zone. Can’t have that.
The only star, as usual, was Trey McBride, who produced 10 catches for 111 yards on National Tight Ends Day. He is producing at a record-toppling pace, and you only hope his Ring of Honor ceremony down the road will be conducted in a roaring venue, before a partisan crowd.
During the week, there was growing hope that Fitzgerald’s Ring of Honor celebration would provide the perfect incentive and environment for the Cardinals to end their obnoxious home losing streak.
The celebration of Fitzgerald was not only long overdue, it delivered a powerful juxtaposition. Earlier in the week, an ESPN piece reported that Marvin Harrison Jr. had grown unhappy with the Cardinals and that he was “concerned with the quarterback situation.”
How gross that Harrison Jr. – an underperforming young player with $35.3 million in guaranteed money – would feel entitled and important enough to show deep concern about the succession plan at another position. And it’s a great time to remind everyone that Fitzgerald caught touchdown passes from 16 different quarterbacks in Arizona and never once asked to be traded.
As usual, Fitzgerald was pitch-perfect in his halftime speech. Unfortunately, it was the prelude to another failure in Glendale, a team that is a very respectable 2-2 on the road in 2026 and yet a team that now lost 10 consecutive home games.
That’s unacceptable. Especially on a day when Fitzgerald should’ve been seeing red and not orange.
Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7.
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Comments
9 Comments
You don't even need season ticket holders. Bidwill's business plan is providing transplant with a way to see their home team every once in a while. Games are stuffed with away fans. Away fans buy beer as well. It's quite a nice business plan for Bidwill. By not trying/caring, you make sure your core customer base almost aways has a great time.
Does anyone remember how over the summer the talking heads on this station got offended by McBride accurately pointing out that this team has no fans? I remember Vince saying (quite hypocritically) that he was there sitting in stands back when they were in Tempe (hypocritically because why isn't he there now, if they have so many fans?).
After the Lions game - where it was mostly Lions fans - I told my group that the Larry game would be my last game. Today, I thought there would be a few more fans for Larry. There were even fewer than the Lions game. I told them two weeks ago this was my last game, and it is. Years and years of this, and I'm done. I've already made plans for next home game.
"That’s unacceptable". I keep seeing and hearing that over and over, seemingly ad infinitum (and ad nauseam). But it's not exactly true.
It's perfectly acceptable.
As long as people keep tailgating, buying tickets and Cardinals gear, that's what's acceptable to the Bidwills. Separate those suckers from their hard-earned money and not give anything in return.
Unacceptable? What's unacceptable is being a fan of a franchise with no hope of ever being a contender.