Budda Baker on if he thought Cardinals fought to end: ‘No, I don’t’

It’s not like the Arizona Cardinals haven’t been down bad before in 2022.

Their 4-7 season thus far began with a 44-21 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Since that Sept. 11 game, losses have come in the form of missed chances rather than blowouts. None have gone downhill to that extent until Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City.

Arizona trailed 17-10 at halftime and, if you take away an interception on a tipped pass from quarterback Colt McCoy, it could’ve been even closer. But San Francisco came out with obvious intention to smack the Cardinals physically with the run game at the high-altitude venue, Estadio Azteca.

Scheme or preparation, it worked.

The Niners scored three second-half touchdowns to make it a laugher.

Safety Budda Baker was asked by 12 Sports’ Cam Cox whether he thought his Arizona team fought all the way until the end.

“No, I don’t. But that’s — I just, I don’t know,” Baker said.

While the mild-mannered Baker made it clear he didn’t want to go down the road of criticizing teammates, HBO’s behind-the-scenes “Hard Knocks” scene in which he gave an impassioned locker room speech following a loss earlier in the year would lead us to believe he’s hurting — and bad.

It would be especially painful for the captain, we can imagine, if he felt like his team quit.

🚨MUST LISTEN🚨
I asked Budda Baker if he thought everybody played hard till the end… his response "No. I don't."@12SportsAZ #SFvsAZ pic.twitter.com/GXEd2yEmQR

— Cameron Cox (@CamCox12) November 22, 2022

“It’s very tough to say,” Baker continued after the admission of his feelings. “At the end of the day, we’re all grown men. You know, women lie, men lie, that film never lies. So whatever that film says is what it is.”

Baker led the Cardinals with 10 tackles and added a pass defensed.

The Niners rolled to 159 rushing yards on 5.7 yards per carry.

“There’s not much to say at all. They kicked — they beat us real bad,” Baker said. “They had a great game plan, we felt like we had a great game plan.

“First couple of series went well, then they just kind of took the tops off a little bit. Kudos to the San Francisco 49ers, but for us, it wasn’t good enough at all.”

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