The Arizona Cardinals fell to 1-3 on Sunday after losing to the Washington Commanders 42-14 at State Farm Stadium.

Upon returning to Arizona as the Commanders’ offensive coordinator, Kliff Kingsbury and former Arizona State Sun Devil Jayden Daniels picked apart the Cardinals’ defense.

As a team, Washington racked up 449 yards of offense and scored on all but two drives throughout the afternoon.

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

Our reactions to the Cardinals’ loss to the Commanders in Week 4:

Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta mornings: Going back to the 2022 season, I mentioned that I would like to see what Kyler Murray looked like in a non-Kliff Kingsbury offense and what Kliff’s offense looked like with another starting QB.

I got a really good look at both on Sunday, and I didn’t like what I saw when I looked through the Cardinals lens. Kingsbury’s Washington Commanders offense dominated the day in a 42-14 win over the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Once again, the Cardinals offense scored a touchdown on the first possession of the game – a smooth nine-play, 55-yard drive that ended in a Murray scoring strike against Marvin Harrison Jr. And that’s pretty much where the highlights ended for the boys in red.

Washington answered with a nine-play, 70-yard touchdown drive of its own, putting the Cardinals defense on its heels, and they never really found their footing after that. Back to Murray. The last two weeks have been enough to shake my faith in him as the solution for this quarterback team. Last week against Detroit, a resurgent defense gave Murray and the offense plenty of opportunities to make plays and win the game. He didn’t create those plays.

On Sunday, while I don’t think Murray got any help from the sideline in terms of play-calling or pass-blocking due to a porous offensive line, he didn’t do anything that indicated he could be the difference. He was inaccurate, unsure in the pocket and only ran the ball once. This was Murray’s 12th start in Drew Petzing’s offense, so forgive me if I’m running out of “it’s timely” sentiment. His counterpart, Jayden Daniels, was playing in his fourth NFL game under a brand new head coach and a coordinator (Kingsbury) who was thought to be a fish out of water in the NFL. Yet it was Daniels who was by far the best quarterback on the field.

We are essentially a quarter of the way through the season and Murray has delivered one special performance. Quarterbacks who are brilliant 25 percent of the time don’t usually win Super Bowls.

Back to the play-calling aspect: With Washington up 14-7 and about nine minutes left in the second quarter, the Cardinals faced a 3rd-and-1 on their own 37-yard line. The running game, powered by James Conner, averaged 5.8 yards per carry at the time. Petzing made a pass play and Murray couldn’t connect with Michael Wilson. They punted the ball on fourth down. Washington didn’t score on the ensuing possession — Daniels’ only bad pass of the game was picked off by Garrett Williams on a first down at midfield — but the Cardinals’ offense looked out of sync the rest of the game. This was a very discouraging performance in all phases by the Cardinals, who fell to 1-3, but especially at the QB position.

Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: What is Kyler Murray without Kliff Kingsbury? That was always one of the big takeaways from the 2024 season. How good can Murray be? How explosive and elite will the offense be? Our expectations were high and became even higher after his “perfect” game against the Rams. Sunday turned the question on its head: What is Kliff without Kyler? And while one game doesn’t prove anything and doesn’t even come close to answering the question, that was the thought I couldn’t get out of my head.

Freed from the burden of being the leader of the entire operation and with a quarterback with similar but different skills, Kliff took out his new toy and let it eat. We will long remember Sunday as the “Kliff” game. Jayden Daniels looked great, the offense destroyed the Cardinals and Kliff wore his rehabilitation like an expensive Swiss watch for all the world to see. The cardinals were a more than willing accomplice.

The defense was the embodiment of our worst fears. Third downs conversions like clockwork. Marvin Harrison Jr went long, mind-boggling, stretching without seeing the ball at all. Murray had very little time to throw and did very little outside of the opening drive that you would call memorable. This game produced a rarity; because for one of the few times in the Jonathan Gannon era, the cardinals were ashamed. Yes, there have been losses, but not many of the kind that shouldn’t have happened. So now we find out what this coach/QB combination is made of and how they respond.

Tyler Drake, Cardinals reporter and co-host of the Cardinals Corner podcast: Bah. That’s about the best way to sum up that terrible loss to the Cardinals. Not only were they run out of their own building, but at the hands of Jayden Daniels and Kliff Kingsbury. Jonathan Gannon was right to the point when talking about all the positives. They were too few and far between to ever have a chance at this one. This is a huge loss in the mirror for Arizona. The Cardinals’ response will be telling for the rest of the season.

Kellan Olson, co-host of Arizona Sports op Night: Several fears within preseason expectations wanted to come true in this football match.

The first and foremost concern is that the defense will be too bad for Arizona to have a competitive season. Jayden Daniels had all day to throw, and when his progressions weren’t open, he still had enough room to slide around the pocket and run a few yards. The point is that his progression was open. A lot of. Throw in a poor run defense performance for good measure. This was an excellent opportunity against a rookie quarterback and the defense made him feel comfortable all afternoon. Check back next week, Darius Robinson.

The second concern is that this crime cannot be elitist. While Sunday was another meh performance from Kyler Murray, when we all agree meh isn’t good enough for him, his receivers routinely failed to create space. Additionally, Arizona’s offensive line was outmatched in pass protection and the run game was inconsistent. Trey McBride’s absence obviously matters, but certainly not that much.

Yes, in weeks 1 and 3 we played in promising fashion against two very good teams. But part of being a good team is finishing. Arizona will have to do that in a close match against quality competition, while avoiding another blowout result like this to quickly instill some confidence that a win total of more than six is ​​on the way.

Kevin Zimmerman, editor-in-chief of ArizonaSports.com: There were certainly play questions created by Arizona’s Drew Petzing. While working across from former Cardinals star Kliff Kingsbury, the lens looked through the magnifying glass of a third-grader who purposely turned the sunlight into quite a dumpster fire.

But guess what? The Cardinals had zero answers on both sides of the ball, and at some point it has to come down to wondering if this team is losing because it didn’t spend money and gave back too much of the roster with four victories last season. That’s the big question here. Do the Cardinals have top-20 talent? Top 25?

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