Connect with us
Burn+

Arizona Cardinals

Jonathan Gannon ‘gotta find some answers’ following Cardinals 3rd consecutive loss

© Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon didn’t hide is disgruntlement with the team’s performance following the Cardinals’ 30-18 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

The defeat made it the third game in-a-row that Arizona (6-7,2-2) has dropped. Gannon said his team didn’t play its “best ball” at Sunday’s postgame press conference.

“I gotta find some answers to get us going a little bit cause we haven’t played great here the last couple weeks, so that falls on me,” Gannon said.

Where Gannon can start to look for solutions is with the team’s offense.

In the last three games, the Cardinals have averaged 6.3 points in the first half, scoring only one touchdown through all of those contests’ opening quarters. The lone touchdown came early in Arizona’s most recent loss, seeing quarterback Kyler Murray find wide receiver Michael Wilson for a 41-yard touchdown less than four minutes into the game.

What looked like a turnaround from Arizona’s previous weeks quickly was negated by two Murray interceptions in the first quarter that resulted in touchdowns. Those costly mistakes put the Cardinals down 17-7 with three quarters left to play — a deficit they could never overcome.

“I thought he stuck in there and made some big time throws, but you just gotta protect the ball a little bit better,” Gannon said. “And that’s not just him, that’s all 11. So there will be a lot of corrections off those plays.”

 

Murray’s early interception woes would come to a halt after the first quarter. He finished the game with 25-38 completed passes (65.7%) for 259 yards and two touchdowns. His second score was a two-yard shovel pass to veteran running back James Conner.

“We just gotta play a little more cleaner and score a couple more points,” Gannon said.

Murray and the offense put the defense in some tough spots with the early turnovers; however, the defense can’t be absolved from its inability to stop Seattle’s (8-5,3-2) run-game.

Seahawks backup running back Zach Charbonnet rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries in usual starter Kenneth Walker III‘s absence due to ankle and calf injuries. Charbonnet’s best run was a 51-yard dash to the end zone following the second of Murray’s opening quarter interceptions.

“The run game, wasn’t great — they popped a long one there, that put us down 24-10,” Gannon said. “That 50-yarder, that hurt.”

What hurts more than anything is the Cardinals drastic fall in the division.

Arizona was playing for first place in the NFC West. After dropping the second of two matchups with Seattle and a big win for the Los Angeles Rams (7-6,2-1), the Cardinals find themselves in second to last in the division.

With four games remaining in the regular season, it’ll be a tough road back to the top of the NFC West, but that road isn’t closed.

“They’ll come back ready to work (Monday),” Gannon said. “I just told them, we put ourselves in a little bit of a hole now. But all you can do is attack tomorrow, learn tomorrow, have a good weak of practice, and again, I have to do a better job of setting them up to win a football game. So that’s what we’ll do.”

*Get the BEST Phoenix sports insider information, and exclusive content. SIGN UP HERE to unlock our premium content!*

Reporter Jordyn Bennett covers the Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix area sports and sports related topics. You can follow him on his X account, @j_bennett_live

Related Topics

Burn City Radio

More in Arizona Cardinals