Kyler Murray and the Cardinals suffered a hard defeat after leading for the majority of the game today. Jonathan Gannon spoke after the game and dug into the disappointing loss, as the 6-6 Cardinals have to turn the page after suffering back-to-back away losses. The Cardinals are no longer tied with the Seahawks for first place in the NFC West, with the Seahawks pulling out a win against the Jets today, the Cardinals sit in second tied with the Rams.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Despite the game not ending in favor of the Cardinals, the heavy blitz defense performed strongly, sacking Sam Darnold five times. Nick Rallis described Darnold earlier this week as “playing phenomenal” when preparing for the duel, Rallis said Darnold has many offensive weapons and options to capitalize in both the passing and rushing game. Darnold was nothing less than phenomenal in the dome, going 21 for 31 for 235 yards, the Vikings trailed by six points and faced a fourth-and-five with 2:10 to go, but Darnold found Jefferson for 12 yards in the middle of the Cardinals’ zone before taking a hit. The play kept the drive alive, and Darnold hit Jones for the win.
Why Cardinals coach Nick Rallis says this QB is “playing phenomenal”
After the game, Jonathan Gannon addressed the disappointment due to the lack of execution to close out the game, explaining that pre-snap penalties had a large impact and those are uncharacteristic of the offense to struggle with penalties near the endzone this season, Gannon wants to clean it up and looks forward to the upcoming division game against the Seahawks on Dec 8.
When discussing penalties, “We fouled too much today because that’s a low flag crew…” Gannon said. “To have what whatever we had I think almost 100 yards in penalties, we are shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit… we got to get that cleaned up.”
Kyler Murray also spoke about disappointment in failure to close out the Vikings and said, “…they came back to bite us”, … penalties…that beats you, it’s bad football in the red zone against a good team, good defense, … it kills you.” Murray took accountability for plays that contributed to the loss, reinforcing the trust he has in Jonathan Gannon’s’ decisions when running the offense. Nevertheless, the Cardinals will need to go back to the drawing board and figure out ways to get the ball into the endzone.
Final. pic.twitter.com/v0Rf6B9Dc9
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) December 1, 2024
The Cardinals played it safe and scored many field goals resulting in only one touchdown with multiple offensive penalties, a heartbreaking loss that will result in a harder division battle than the Cardinals expected a couple of weeks ago. Can the Cardinals get back to the top NFC West spot, now trailing the Seahawks a game and a half? The two rivals go head-to-head again in Week 14 stay tuned and check back for more sports news.
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Jacqline Rhodes is a writer for Burn City Sports. You can follow her on X via @JackieRhodes_
