The Cardinals are not who we thought they were

What was your favorite part of Bruce Arians’ Cardinals dynasty? Was it the one playoff win that required a deflected pass off Packers cornerback Damarious Randall’s helmet and into Michael Floyd’s hands?

Was it the excitement of three consecutive winning seasons that was so foreign in these parts that it felt like the top of the world? Maybe it was that preseason Super Bowl coronation this August that is now being blamed on the media when once it was embraced by the team and its coach.

“We are not panicking,” Arians said after Sunday’s 17-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at University of Phoenix Stadium. “We’re going to show up for work tomorrow because we have a game Thursday night against a very good team in San Francisco. We don’t have time to dwell on this one. We don’t even have time to watch the film.”

The postgame quotes after Sunday’s loss don’t matter. They sound the same as last week. They sound hollow. If the Cardinals’ issues were correctable, as Arians promised last week, why haven’t they been corrected?

Is it possible that in the span of 10 months, the Cardinals went from a Super Bowl contender to a team that just isn’t that good? Is it possible that those roster tweaks that had gone so well for GM Steve Keim in the past aren’t clicking this time around? Is it possible that some personnel losses subtracted an undervalued element from the locker room when Rashad Johnson, Jerraud Powers and Lyle Sendlein went out the door?

Is it possible that the oft-discussed window of opportunity is closing fast on the Cardinals?

Fair or not, these are the questions that accompany a 1-3 football team that has lost to notable QBs Jimmy Garoppolo, Tyrod Taylor and Case Keenum. Four games is not a large sample size, but it’s all you get in the NFL when you play a 16-game season.

Sunday’s game was agonizing to watch for so many reasons. It was dull, but you expect that from a Rams roster that features a nasty defensive line and a pedestrian quarterback like Keenum. That wasn’t supposed to be the case with these explosive Cardinals, who had seemingly borrowed the title of the greatest show on turf from the Kurt Warner-led Rams.

Instead, Michael Floyd was dropping balls early, the secondary was blowing assignments, the special teams gave up a 47-yard punt return and tacked on 15 more yards with a penalty, the Cardinals had 10 players on the field late in the first quarter of a drive, Arizona committed five turnovers and the passing offense was AWOL for the third time this season.

Come to think of it, this looked exactly like the 2016 version of the Arizona Cardinals. It’s hard to remember a time when the Valley was so duped by hype.

“We made a living winning close games for a long time and this year, right now, we are not making the plays to win them,” Arians said Sunday. “That’s the difference in the season.”

It won’t get any easier for the Cardinals on a short week. Quarterback Carson Palmer is going through concussion protocols after his head was slammed to the turf by defensive tackle Aaron Donald one play before the Rams began their game-winning drive. Listening to Arians after the game, it sure didn’t sound like Palmer will play against the 49ers, which would leave Drew Stanton holding the keys.

The Cardinals are staring at the real possibility of a 1-4 record. They have lost as many games at home this season as they have in any of Arians’ previous three here, and they have already matched last season’s loss total.

After so much rhetoric this week, you expected so much more on Sunday. You expected desperation from a team’s whose chances of securing home field for the playoffs are dwindling, but maybe that’s the wrong way to view this unforeseen demise. Maybe the Cardinals should stop thinking about Super Bowls, or even the playoffs. Maybe they should heed that old quote from Jim Mora and just figure out how to win a game Thursday in San Francisco.

“I’m hungry. I want to win,” linebacker Chandler Jones said. “The quicker we can get to that game the better.”

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