Studs And Duds From Cardinals' Loss to Broncos
The Arizona Cardinals have lost their fourth game in a row, officially knocking them out of postseason contention after their 24-15 loss to the Cardinals.
Now sitting at 4-10, the Cardinals will now move forward in the final three weeks of the season with whatever pieces they can salvage moving forward.
Sunday provided just another example of things going from bad to worse for the team when Colt McCoy exited with a concussion in the early stages of the third quarter and didn't return.
Trace McSorley took over the offense and managed to lead the Cardinals to ten points (one FG drive, one TD drive) while also turning the ball over twice in the second half.
Arizona has seen better days. Are there any ahead? That remains to be seen.
For now, we'll take a look at some studs and duds from Denver:
Studs and Duds From Cardinals' Loss to Broncos
Studs
J.J. Watt- I mean, need we say more? Watt flashed some of that vintage Defensive Player of the Year form in Denver with five tackles, three sacks, one pass defensed and one forced fumble. Watt was a major reason the Broncos were held in check for so long until the floodgates opened.
Budda Baker- Per usual, Baker was all over the field, flying out of nowhere to fill run lanes and lay the boom on receivers who dared catch the ball. Baker also registered an interception while playing centerfield and has two pass deflections with seven tackles. Arizona has come to expect the best out of Baker on each week and he continues to deliver.
Matt Prater- Yeah, things were dull enough to put a kicker here. That shouldn't be of any offense to Prater, who knocked home attempts of 45, 50 and 55 yards on the day to keep the Cardinals in the mix. He continues to give Kingsbury confidence to garner some points from a drive.
Duds
For the sake of time, we'll keep this short.
Kliff Kingsbury- My guy, you're already down Kyler Murray. You call what appeared to be a designed run for a 36-year-old Colt McCoy, who is clearly not the type of guy you want running that play, and he winds up out of the game. Then, you have your only other active QB on the roster in Trace McSorley running more designed QB draws/powers. Make it make sense, please. McSorley is capable, absolutely. But you can't have your literal last straw on the depth chart running those designed plays like he's Cam Newton.
Marquise Brown- Any backup QB will hurt numbers, regardless of who the receiver is. Playing with McCoy/McSorley for the game should discount some of the blame, but you'd really hope Brown would have had more of an impact on Sunday. His mere 19 yards receiving fell short of guys such as Trey McBride and James Conner. Hollywood had the curtains closed today before the show even started.
Rush Defense- Either Latavius Murray found a time machine and regained his old form, or the Cardinals are bad at stopping the run. Vance Joseph preaches stopping the run as the first objective for Arizona each week, and with Brett Rypien at QB, that should have been obvious. Yet the Broncos ran rampant on the Cardinals at will - Murray tallied 130 yards and 1 TD while Marlon Mack averaged 7.4 yards per carry (five carries for 37 yards) and found the end zone as well. Where's the accountability?
Such a weird week of football.
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