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    • What we learned about cardinals who suffered a somber loss to the commanders
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    What we learned about cardinals who suffered a somber loss to the commanders

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    On one side of State Farm Stadium, disgusted home fans turned away en masse and made their way to the exit early. On the other side, delighted visitors broke out into chants and cheers, celebrating another step towards the rebirth of their franchise.

    Throughout it all, the Cardinals’ coaching staff began a postmortem, discussing the last three disastrous hours through their headsets. The final moments of a 42-14 loss to the Commanders were still playing out before their eyes, but the coaches had to process it all to understand how the day had gone so wrong.

    “It was a good conversation,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said. “Where everyone looks in the mirror and says, ‘Hey, we have to do better, we have to figure this out together.’”

    That was the type of day for the Cardinals as they fell to 1-3 on the season. Here’s what we learned from the loss:

    MCMANAMAN: Loss for commanders is the beginning of the end

    The season is in serious trouble

    Forget for a moment how Sunday’s loss came about. We’ll get back to that, because it was bad. But regardless of the circumstances, the Cardinals desperately needed a win.

    After the loss, Kyler tried to warn Murray against that thought.

    “It’s one game,” he said. “The season is not over yet.”

    However, it was a crucial match. There are trips to San Francisco and Green Bay in the next two weeks. The most likely outcome is that the Cardinals strike in mid-October with a 1-5 record.

    Eventually the schedule becomes lighter. In the second half, they will face teams like the Bears, Patriots and Panthers. But two weeks ago, this looked like a team that could make a playoff push. For that to be the case, they had to come through this gauntlet with a decent record at the start of the season. Losing the commanders made that task much more difficult.

    NO ANSWERS: Daniels, Commanders dominated the Cardinals

    The Cardinals offense didn’t do its job

    The optimistic outlook for this Cardinals season rested squarely on the shoulders of the offense. And within two weeks that version became reality. They scored 69 points in those first two games, which put them in second place in the league.

    Since then they have gained 13 and 14 points respectively. It’s the lowest scoring two-game stretch the Cardinals have had with a healthy Murray since his rookie season. Making matters worse, this latest effort came against Washington, which came in with a defense widely considered one of the league’s worst.

    Last week the culprit was clear: the Cardinals couldn’t run the ball, making their offense one-dimensional. This week they were effective on the ground, but still couldn’t unleash a deep passing attack, even against a poor secondary. Their longest play of the game lasted just 22 yards.

    “We just haven’t done a good job of creating explosive plays,” receiver Michael Wilson said.

    The cardinals had few explanations for this battle. But given the makeup of this roster — with a $230 million quarterback, a star running back and a No. 4 overall pick wide receiver — their production wasn’t enough.

    Marvin Harrison Jr. and the trustees didn’t do enough

    In their first three games, the Commanders allowed 83 yards to Chris Godwin, 127 yards to Malik Nabers and 118 yards to Ja’Maar Chase. Their defense could be exploited by high-end pass catchers, especially deep downfield.

    Considering the Cardinals prefer to use Harrison as a deep threat, it seemed like a perfect fit. Instead, neither he nor the other Cardinals pass catchers were able to impact the game.

    Harrison led the way, but still finished with just five catches for 45 yards on six targets. Murray also struggled to find his receivers, but the reality was they weren’t getting open often enough. The Cardinals attempted to pass over 20 air yards just once, and it was a good route to a well-covered Wilson.

    In the passing game, the end product was similar to Week 1 in Buffalo, when the Cardinals were forced to hold it all. But after that game, players and coaches believed the Bills’ defensive game plan. On Sunday they could only point the finger at themselves.

    “Player execution,” Harrison said. “That’s what it comes down to. Eleven-on-11, as a player you have to win one-on-one.

    The Cardinals secondary hasn’t been good enough

    Entering the season, there were legitimate concerns about the Cardinals’ pass rush. They made few moves to address the unit in the offseason and had one of the worst groups in the league on paper.

    But while that group hasn’t been particularly effective (they recorded no sacks on Sunday), the Cardinals’ biggest defensive problem has been their secondary.

    Take Sunday as an example. According to Pro Football Focus, the Cardinals pressured Jayden Daniels on 12 of 36 dropbacks. But on those twelve passes, Daniels went 10-for-10 for 96 yards. So far this season, the Cardinals are allowing 10.8 yards per attempt when creating pressure. That’s a terrible number, and it ties into their secondary’s inability to cover receivers downfield.

    It’s not just veteran receivers dominating the Cardinals either. On Sunday, they allowed 85 yards to Olamide Zaccheaus, who averaged 20.3 yards per game for his career.

    Cardinals hurt themselves with play calling

    Early in the game – when it was still competitive – the Cardinals faced four third-and-1 or fourth-and-1 plays. They passed the ball on three of the four plays.

    It worked once: when Murray hit Harrison on a corner route in the back of the end zone to break up the first drive. The next two times were not as productive. On the Cardinals’ third drive, Murray tried to hit Wilson on a third-and-1 dig route, but the pass was broken up. On their fourth drive, he couldn’t find an open receiver — the Cardinals turned on a man-beater, but the Commanders surprised them by dropping into the zone — and Murray was sacked for a turnover on downs.

    Considering James Conner averaged 5.8 yards on 18 carries, the commitment to passing in short-yardage situations was a surprising move that hampered multiple drives. Afterwards, Gannon defended the decisions, saying they were the “best play” every time.

    They didn’t have much competition for the title of “best game” on Sunday.

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