Rapid Reactions: Blunders cost Cardinals in loss to Titans

There’s no such thing as an easy win in the NFL, but the Arizona Cardinals just squandered a wonderful opportunity to score a win over the Tennessee Titans.

Leading 21-6 at halftime, mistakes proved costly as the Titans took advantage of multiple fumbles in the second half by the Cardinals for a 22-21 win.

It’s the third straight week the Cardinals lost on a game-winning field goal as time expired.

But the game should have never gotten to that point.

Here’s what our Arizona Sports hosts have to say about the loss:

Rapid Reactions: Cardinals lose to Titans

Kellan Olson, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night

When the Cardinals lost last week, head coach Jonathan Gannon said the team’s pass-heavy mindset was a result of not wanting to fight Seattle in a phone booth, the type of style we thought was Arizona’s to a T. This week, Arizona essentially chose to decline opportunities to win the game itself, putting that in the hands of the Titans, who would do so.

So that is a team with no identity and no belief.

That’s all there is to say. It’s now blame game season. Take your aim. Instead of focusing on those at fault for Sunday’s meltdown, I’ll zoom out for the big picture.

I’ll go with the front office for having absolutely zero foresight evaluating an offense with a papier-mâché foundation, supported by a reeling offensive line and zero skill position players showing consistency besides tight end Trey McBride.

The all-out maneuver on defense was logical and supported at the time, but the front office is the group seeing this team every day behind the scenes that should know its potential limitations. In a crucial year of evaluating Kyler Murray, we are going to have to freaking shrug again because he should be nowhere close to the top of this list.

Look across the league at organizations like Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and others that routinely nail the NFL Draft. Despite a change in regimes, the Cardinals suck at it yet again. Yes, it is beyond unfair to criticize taking Walter Nolen in the first round when we haven’t seen him play yet and there’s plenty of time for members of the 2024 class to turn it around. But the lack of strong contributions from youth continue to handicap the Cardinals year after year. It’s exhausting.

Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf & Luke

You don’t want my reaction after that.

John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo

Disappointing. Heartbreaking. Inexcusable. You just cannot have a three-score lead at home against the worst team in the NFL and lose that game. Can’t do it.

The Cardinals fell to 2-3 and this season has fallen way short of expectations so far. You have to wonder if this is a loss that they can recover from.

Drew Petzing’s offense, after a hot start with three touchdowns in four drives, stopped moving the ball and allowed Tennessee to hang around long enough to shock them.

As bad as it was with Emari Demercado’s unforgivable/atrocious gaff at the goal line for a touchback — a play that would have been a 72-yard TD and given Arizona a 28-6 lead — the Cardinals had a chance to run out the clock. But Mr. Vanilla (Petzing) did not want to throw the ball to Trey McBride or Marvin Harrison Jr.

Instead he ran the ball on five of six plays and punted the ball back to Tennessee and gave them two minutes to get into field goal range. Unacceptable.

Instead of winning the game, the Cardinals offense played to not lose. Let’s remember the Cardinals up 21-12 went three-and-out on the possession before that, with Murray getting sacked on that drive.

This is an unbearable loss.

Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, with what may have been a game-clinching INT with 4:39 left, fumbled the ball and Calvin Ridley recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown that brought the Titans within two, 21-19.

It was as fluke a play as you will ever see, I get it. But you can’t have that game be close in the fourth quarter. You can’t go punt, punt, punt, fumble, punt, fumble, punt, punt on your last eight drives. That loses people their jobs.

Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta:

To quote the late, great Jack Buck, “I can’t believe what I just saw.”

I’ve seen roughly 95% of the games the Arizona Cardinals have played since 1988 and this 22-21 debacle of a loss to the worst team in the NFL is easily the worst Cardinals loss I’ve witnessed.

There might not be anything more frustrating than a team that refuses to learn lessons.

In the first two weeks of the season, the Cardinals had to hold on for dear life in wins over the Saints and Panthers. Their opposition Sunday, the Tennessee Titans, were absolutely dead in the water and the Cardinals offered them multiple lifejackets.

Up 21-6 in the first half, the Cardinals got really conservative right before halftime. With 49 seconds left in the second quarter, they got the ball back after a Tennessee turnover on downs at the Titans’ 49 with two timeouts. The Titans sacked Kyle Murray on first down for a loss of eight yards. The Cardinals didn’t use a timeout. Seventeen seconds ticked off the clock before the next snap, which was an incomplete pass intended to Marvin Harrison Jr. On third-and-long, Drew Petzing called a run play from Emari Demercado, who gained 10 yards, and the Cardinals punted. They never used a timeout.

For a team that squawked about needing to score more points leading into this game, that lack of aggressiveness (even after a first-down loss) was an advertisement for the absolute BLEEP-show that was coming in the second half.

A 7:52 possession that ended in no points after Hjalte Froholdt snapped the ball into Murray’s facemask. Emari Demercado breaking off a 71-yard run, during which he coasted started at the 15-yard line and let the ball go before he crossed the goal line. Congrats on going viral, Emari. An interception by Rabbit Taylor-Demerson that somehow leads to a Pop Warner-quality touchdown for Tennessee. A run on third-and-8 with 2:12 to go after all the momentum had shifted to Tennessee’s side?

This team has nothing resembling killer instinct, and these are the results. Disgusting.

Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo

It’s the kind of loss that causes you to question everything. Is the roster good enough? Have they drafted well enough? Are they coaching well enough? Is the quarterback good enough?

It’s the kind of loss that robs you of faith and belief. The kind that makes you think – makes you feel in your bones – they can’t, they won’t, that it’s a never proposition with the Cards.

It is the worst loss of the Jonathan Gannon era, besting last year’s elimination game in Carolina.

Coach Gannon is right; it’s never about one play. Before and after the Emari Demercado fumble there were plenty of opportunities to win this game. BUT win or lose….the Demercado fumble would have stolen the joy out of any hollow celebration over a win.

It was the defining moment of this game; the thing you’ll always remember.

It simply cannot happen, under any circumstances, ever.

Will it define the season? That depends on what happens next.

Tyler Drake, co-host of Cardinals Corner

Just when it looked like the Cardinals took all that reevaluating to heart, they found another way to lose. And this one might be up there with worst one yet.

That’s not just my words, quarterback Kyler Murray feels the same.

Arizona did just about everything right in the first half. It didn’t waste time like in previous weeks, scoring on three of their first four offensive possessions.

Murray was slinging it all over the yard and taking the chances many of us wanted to see.

Harrison looked like he took a lot away from his bounce-back effort late last week and the run game actually showed some efficiency.

I haven’t even gotten to Josh Sweat and the defense, which held Tennessee to just six points in the first half.

Just about everything was going right until it wasn’t.

The second half looked a lot like what we have seen through most of the season: sloppy, inconsistent and lethargic play. And when the game came down to a make-or-break third down conversion, the Cardinals opted to try to chew up more clock as opposed to trying to salt away the game for good with one last Murray attempt.

For all the good the offense showed in the first half, the second half left a nasty aftertaste that is going to linger much more than last week’s showing against a divisional foe.

But it’s the two mental lapses that ruined Arizona’s chances on Sunday.

If Demercado doesn’t drop the ball before crossing the plane for a long 75-yard touchdown, the game is over. If Rabbit controls the interception he reeled in, this game is likely over.

As Murray said about Demercado’s fumble, those moments give the opposition life, and even for the then-winless Titans, that’s sometimes all a team needs.

And guess what? The 4-1 Colts are next up.

So much for setting the stage with some easy wins early on in 2025!

Related

Cardinals blow winnable game vs. Titans, Emari Demercado a big culpritEmari Demercado: 'There's really no excuse' for TD-erasing fumble in Titans lossCardinals' Tip Reiman carted off field with ankle injury vs. Titans, Cody Simon also outJosh Sweat has been worth every penny (and more) for CardinalsMarvin Harrison Jr., Cardinals offense strike fast, fall flat in Titans lossBudda Baker explains cryptic tweet during Jacoby Brissett’s holdout