Rapid reactions: Cardinals’ offense falters in loss to Vikings

The Arizona Cardinals have dropped two in a row and are now 6-6 after a 23-22 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

At first, the Cardinals kept the Vikings’ offense at bay, holding them to just six points throughout the first half and most of the third quarter before they ultimately blew a two-score lead.

With the Seattle Seahawks’ win over the New York Jets on Sunday, the Cardinals now sit second in the NFC West by a full game. The Cardinals and Seahawks are slated to meet again next week. 

Arizona Sports hosts and reporters gave their biggest takeaways from the Cardinals’ loss:

Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta Mornings: There are a lot of fingers to point in the Cardinals’ latest loss — a 23-22 gut-punch loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Again, most of those fingers are pointing squarely at members of the offense.

That unit has shown over the last two weeks that it simply isn’t good enough for them to be considered a serious playoff contender. Yes, they did get into the end zone when Kyler Murray hit Marvin Harrison Jr. with a 15-yard touchdown pass with 4:37 to go in the third quarter, breaking a streak of 18 straight TD-less possessions. Arizona rolled up 406 yards of offense but settled for six field goal attempts from Chad Ryland (he missed one). You can’t win that way against good teams on the road.

You wanna point a finger of blame at Murray? Feel free. He deserves it. He had three absolutely crippling plays in this game — all coming in crucial situations. After Minnesota closed to within six points after a Sam Darnold-to-Johnny Mundt touchdown pass, Murray threw an inexplicably bad interception on a desperation throw on 3rd-and-7 from the Arizona 45-yard line. Fox color analyst Greg Olsen said it was the equivalent of a really bad punt (would’ve been a 23-yarder), but even a shanked punt doesn’t instill energy the way a turnover does. Minnesota took that pick and turned it into a field goal to cut the lead to three.

Murray responded on the next drive, efficiently driving the Cardinals down to the Minnesota 5-yard line. On first-and-goal, Tip Reiman got flagged for a false start. OK, first and goal at the 10. Still a great position to be in. Murray took an awful intentional grounding penalty ON FIRST DOWN, completely hampering the drive that ended in a Ryland field goal to give the Cardinals a 22-16 lead. Then, of course there was Murray’s pick on the final drive on a desperate, uninspiring fourth-down throw.

Even after the Vikings scored to take the lead with 1:17 to go, Murray had the ball and was armed with three timeouts. He never came close to pushing the Cardinals into winning field goal range. Murray was the second-best QB on the field for the second straight week, getting outplayed by Geno Smith last week and Darnold on this Sunday.

You want to point a finger at Jonathan Gannon? OK. When the Cardinals finally did get into the end zone in the third quarter, Gannon opted to kick the extra point to go up 19-6. Ryland made the kick but put the Cardinals in the situation to be beaten by two touchdowns and extra points. That’s basically what happened. 

I thought the defense was, again, good enough to win. But they had a 4th-and-5 opportunity to get off the field and win the game with 2:10 to go. Nick Rallis dialed up a blitz that didn’t get home and Darnold hit Justin Jefferson on a 12-yard pass. They scored the go-ahead touchdown two plays later.

Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: Nothing separates football teams like the month of December. It filters out the phonies and reveals who belongs.

It’s too early for any such declarations of this team and this year but so far, the Cardinals aren’t off to a great start. Seven times the Cardinals got inside the 30-yard line of the Vikings. It went like this: field goal, missed field goal, field goal, field goal, field goal, touchdown, field goal. The Cards were 1-6 in the red zone. That’s certainly one way to lose a game you should have won. Having a first-and-goal from the five-yard line with four minutes to go and going straight backwards is another. It’s a shame because so much of Sunday went well.

Their defense harassed Sam Darnold all day and at times was squeezing the life out of one of the best crowds in the NFL. Their second first round pick Darius Robinson finally made his debut. The offense moved the ball efficiently, racking up yards and time just not points. And if you were daring enough to take a peek at the scoreboard you would have seen the Seahawks losing by two touchdowns to the awful Jets. Combined with Arizona State’s Territorial Cup thrashing, we were once again poised for a perfect football weekend. It was all too good to be true. 

The penalties were suffocating. Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. continue to run hot and cold. The defense finally broke after all that bending. The coaching felt conservative, as if their faith in the defense tricked them into thinking they could play it safe. It’s disconcerting that the Cardinals have five games left, and they’re still searching for a consistent way to tap into all the talent they have on offense. Winning next week vs. Seattle is a non-negotiable. Winning the next three (Seahawks, Panthers, Patriots) is non-negotiable. At least it is in my book.

We’ll find out soon enough if this team has what it takes when the calendar matters the most.

Mitch Vareldzis, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night: Everything lined up for this to be the bounce back game for the Cardinals.

Darius Robinson made his highly anticipated debut. The defense perhaps had their best performance of the season in terms of stats and scheme. Kyler Murray was efficient and protective of the football. All of that was great for three quarters.

In similar fashion to how the 49ers unraveled against the Cardinals back in Week 5, Minnesota’s offense was able to find rhythm in the fourth quarter and never looked back. 

Murray made two critical errors unlike what we’ve seen from him this season. That ‘duck’ of an interception to former Cardinal Byron Murphy, and an intentional grounding penalty with goal to go when they desperately could have used a touchdown. But what will be talked about the most, without question, is the decision to take the field goal to make it a six-point game, instead of aggressively going for a touchdown.

It is easier to defend a 4th down attempt for a touchdown if you miss and then lose, as opposed to the alternative (kicking the field goal and going up six). At least you can say “we tried to put the nail in the coffin and go up two scores” as opposed to “we trusted our defense to hold in a one score game.” It is a poor understanding of game flow and not understanding how the Vikings have played this season.

The Vikings just secured their 6th comeback victory this season, which is in the top five of the NFL. They had just come off another scoring drive. Make the aggressive call and go for the touchdown. Make it impossible for them to come back. So now here we are, the Cardinals at 6-6, officially behind the Seahawks after their comeback victory over the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Jets. And guess who the Cardinals play next? (Seahawks if you don’t want to look it up).

We are officially in must-win territory. If Arizona drops this upcoming game at home to Seattle, you’re now in the tie breaker scenario zone, and that’s not how I want to spend my month of December. A true missed opportunity today and one that’s harder to forgive and forget this late in the year.

Tyler Drake, Arizona Sports Cardinals beat writer and Cardinals Corner co-host: Yikes.

Arizona’s defense for a second time in as many weeks put the Cardinals in a prime position to take home a win over a legit Vikings squad. The unit a lot of us expected to be a liability has been anything but lately.

Instead, that title belongs to the offense, which again didn’t play up to the standard many envisioned from the unit. Whether it be the mountain of penalties or the questionable play-calling, the Cardinals offense deserves a lot of the blame in this one.

On top of the ugly loss, the Cardinals now find themselves a full game back for the NFC West lead after the Seahawks’ win over the New York Jets. When it rains, it pours. Next week’s home tilt already had massive divisional and playoff implications before Sunday’s loss. Now, it’s really do-or-die time for head coach Jonathan Gannon and Co.

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