At 10-4, the Cardinals can’t say the same about their offense right now, but they will still make the playoffs even if they are caught by the Rams. The NFC West remains the best division in the NFL, with a good chance to put three teams in the playoffs. On Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Atlanta Falcons, their fourth victory in the last five games. At 8-6, the 49ers are currently the sixth seed.
Of all of those teams — of all the teams in the NFL, perhaps — the biggest enigma is the Cardinals, whose level of play has sagged in recent weeks, calling into question how much of a threat they will be in the postseason. They allowed the Lions — the Lions! — to go on a 15-play opening drive that took 8:50 off the clock. They gave up 248 yards in the first half. Kyler Murray, who admitted the team lacked “juice” on Sunday, was shaky, missing throws high and wide, and could not escape from the Lions when he tried to run. His quarterback rating is 78.7 with three touchdowns and five interceptions in the four games since he injured his ankle late in the Week 8 loss to the Packers.
Against the Lions, the offense gained just 84 yards in the first half. The absence of DeAndre Hopkins surely has something to do with the lack of explosion, but in the fourth quarter, when the Cardinals were trailing by three touchdowns, they were oddly somnolent, letting precious seconds drift off the clock when they had the ball. Over the last two weeks, the offense has managed just three touchdowns and they are 2 of 8 in the red zone. Only the Cowboys, whose offense still looked out of sync even against the Giants’ COVID-depleted defense, gave air to as many questions in a victory as the Cardinals did.
It feels familiar to last season, when the Cardinals started strong, only to fade in the second half of the season and miss the playoffs. That won’t happen this season, but with games against the Colts (bad news for the struggling Cardinals run defense), Cowboys and Seahawks remaining, going into the postseason on an upswing is no given and continuing struggles, particularly for the offense, will raise questions about Kliff Kingsbury’s ability to push a team into a deep playoff run.
“This is nowhere near where we were last year, and we’re not going to allow it to be,” Murray said.
What might help save the Cardinals from their slide? The Rams are one of the teams struggling with a wave of players with COVID-19. Last week, they had more than 25 players out, and their game against the Seahawks was one of those postponed to Tuesday, along with the Washington-Philadelphia game because the Football Team had more than 20 players on the COVID list.