The 2014-15 Cardinals season apparently got renewed for a 2021-22 version.
You don’t have to be old enough to remember how the 2014 season went for the Arizona Cardinals. That team started 9-1, but quickly got derailed by injuries and the Cards limped to a painful 11-5 finish with an embarrassing playoff loss on the road. In that game, the Cardinals produced an NFL record worst 78 yards of total offense.
The end of the Cardinals 2021-22 season wasn’t much better. In fact, we’d argue it was pretty much the same thing.
The Los Angeles Rams blew out the Arizona Cardinals 34-11 Monday night in L.A. to knock Arizona out of the NFL playoffs and end the Cardinals season that has mirrored the 2014 season for quite some time.
What was once a promising 7-0 team (heck, even the 10-2 team was still the best record in the NFL), the Cardinals fell apart in the back half of the season, losing five of the last six (including tonight’s playoff defeat). There were plenty of injuries along the way this year to top wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and defensive lineman J.J. Watt to name a few.
The only difference between the 2014 team and this year’s team was at quarterback. Although Kyler Murray missed three games midseason due to injury, he did not prove himself to be much better than Ryan Lindley (who infamously had to replace Carson Palmer and backup Drew Stanton in that ill-fated 2014 campaign).
Playing in the first postseason game of his NFL career, Murray finished the game 19 of 34 for 137 yards and two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown). Head coach Kliff Kingsbury told reporters earlier in the week he thought Murray would have the best game of his career. Murray was awful Monday night and probably should’ve been benched. He gave the Cardinals no chance to win the game.
How bad was the offense Monday night? 0 for 9 on third downs kind of bad. In fact, according to ESPN writer Bill Barnwell, the Cardinals are the third NFL team in the past 20 years to go an entire playoff game without converting on third down.
It gets worse.
The Elias Sports Bureau tweeted out that the Cardinals had eight consecutive drives resulting in either zero first downs, a fumble or interception — the longest such streak to open a playoff game since the Raiders did it in 1981. The Cardinals were 41 years worth of miserable on offense Monday night.
It’s not clear where the team goes from here. It has completely collapsed in the 2nd half of the season for two straight years.
The owner isn’t going anywhere — and he loves the general manager who in turn loves the head coach — so they’re both not going anywhere. Kyler Murray is still on his rookie contract, so you have ostensibly the top four men in the organization solidly remaining in place for the 2022 season.
The only bright spot we can point to is the fact that 2015 season immediately followed the 2014 disaster — and 2015 was the best season in franchise history.
Here’s to hoping history repeats itself.
In the meantime, go watch the Suns because they’re the best team in basketball.
