Cardinals’ home finale loss to Falcons about sums up their season

GLENDALE — As they have throughout most of the Cardinals’ season, injuries took over the Arizona’s home finale against the Atlanta Falcons.

And while they can’t be the primary excuse to all of Arizona’s failures in 2025, injuries greatly impacted Sunday’s 26-19 loss to Atlanta.

The Cardinals have now lost seven straight and 12 of their last 13 as an offseason filled with expected change creeps closer and closer.

Arizona’s injuries started with pass rusher Josh Sweat’s ankle issue before ballooning to noncontact injuries for Garrett Williams and Walter Nolen III, which brought a silence over State Farm Stadium.

The league-leading 312 missed games by Cardinals players looks like it’s going to grow even more given the optics.

Despite the continual trips to the blue medical tent and locker room, the Cardinals still managed to keep things close heading into the fourth quarter — something they hadn’t been able to say in recent weeks.

The outcome, however, remained the same as it has the six weeks prior with another L added to the win-loss column.

“I thought we battled. I loved the resilience (and) thought we battled in there,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said postgame. “Ultimately, fell a little short. I thought kind of a key component of the game (was) we had some scoring drives. We moved it, but we had to settle for some field goals and they converted some touchdowns, so hats off to them. We’re going to come back tomorrow and keep battling and we’ll be onto Cincinnati.”

Down three points heading into the final quarter after watching a pair of Chad Ryland field goals miss their mark following three successful tries, the Cardinals offense mustered up just three more points the rest of the way.

Atlanta didn’t fare much better but did find the end zone behind a Cousins QB sneak before Ryland’s fourth successful field goal of the afternoon.

Save for an impressive and improbable touchdown catch from wide receiver Michael Wilson, the Cardinals’ primary weapons struggled to get much going on Sunday.

That includes tight end Trey McBride, who failed to record five catches in a game for the first time since last season. His impressive streak, which paces the NFL for tight ends, comes to an end at 16.

He had just 27 yards on four catches in the loss.

Marvin Harrison Jr. was nearly nonexistent in his return to action behind one catch for 14 yards.

Quarterback Jacoby Brissett again turned the rock over, with a fourth-quarter interception spelling the end to any kind of Cardinals comeback. He ended the game with 203 yards, a touchdown and interception on 51.6% passing.

“That guy made a great play,” Brissett said of the pick. “I have to do a better job. (I have to) give (Wilson) a better ball.”

Pair those numbers with the Ryland misses and injuries continuing to pile up, and the mountain was just too steep for the Cardinals to traverse.

Not even a reemergence of the run game, which finished with 132 yards on 23 carries and was led by Michael Carter, could give the Cardinals the extra boost they needed to snap a now seven-game losing streak.

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