What Went Right/Wrong in Cardinals Loss to Vikings

In a game that felt winnable throughout, here are the things that went right and wrong for the Arizona Cardinals vs the Minnesota Vikings.

Author:
Richie Bradshaw
Publish date:
Oct 30, 2022 6:31 PM EDT

In this story:

Arizona Cardinals

Minnesota Vikings

The Arizona Cardinals dropped a close game to the Minnesota Vikings to the tune of 34-26. The game felt within reach several times while also feeling too far away simultaneously. This has felt like a theme for the 2022 season, unfortunately.

The coaching remains inept and the mistakes prove too costly, but the individual performances we see continue to make us believe in second chances... and third, fourth, fifth... It's becoming toxic.

What happened in this game that ultimately proved to not be good enough for the Cardinals' fourth win of the 2022 season? Let's break it all down...

What went right

All hail the king, Nuk Hopkins

For all intents and purposes, DeAndre Hopkins is back to his old, dominant self. It started with his ten-catch, 103-yard season debut against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football. It continued today with a 12-catch, 159-yard performance vs the Vikings including his first touchdown of the 2022 season.

It's almost as if he never left.

Hopkins' return couldn't have been timelier, as he returned the exact week that Marquise Brown would go down with a potential season-ending injury (there is still a glimmer of hope for a late-season return). In his first two seasons with the Cardinals, the man dubbed Nuk had shown tons of chemistry with Kyler Murray, and even with missing the first six games of 2022 to suspension, he has come into the season showing no signs of rust.

Kyler's belief in Hopkins will be pivotal moving forward to ensure that the offense remains potent and puts up points.

Individual performances aplenty

There were plenty of other Cardinals players who enjoyed success on the field and in the box score vs the Vikings. Rondale Moore had his breakout game of the 2022 season with a seven-catch 92-yard performance including his first touchdown of the season. Moore also tallied 12 more yards on the ground on two carries, giving him 104 scrimmage yards for the game.

Isaiah Simmons keeps progressing towards excellence with another strong performance. Simmons notched five tackles including a strip sack in which he recovered his own fumble. After recording a pick-six vs the Saints last week, perhaps Simmons is hitting his stride as a player.

J.J. Watt was one of the stars of the game for the Cardinals with a two-sack performance that places him at 4.5 on the season. Watt was one of the strongest components on the Cardinals' defensive line and his performance helped keep them in this game.

What went wrong

Defensive ineptitude

Unfortunately, individual performances don't win games. Despite a plethora of good performances, the entirety of them combined for a losing effort and plenty of flaws to focus on.

For starters, the run game for the Vikings faced very little resistance. Dalvin Cook eclipsed the century mark and scored on the ground while averaging 5.6 YPC on the day. Alexander Mattison also scored a touchdown and had 8.0 YPC. Even Kirk Cousins got in on the fun with a touchdown of his own.

Through the air, the Cardinals played better than most weeks, but they still allowed two touchdowns and did not record any interceptions. Justin Jefferson did his thing catching six of his eight targets for 98 yards.

All in all, the defense allowed five touchdowns and there were few times when it felt like they showed any resistance.

New week; same decision-making

At some point, Kyler Murray needs to rise above his prowess to force balls and make poor decisions. When that will happen is up in the air.

Murray managed to throw a season-high 326-yards while completing 70.5% of his passes, but his misses felt wildly inappropriate and proved costly. Two interceptions and four sacks were had at Murray's expense, but he deserves some hefty blame for them at the same time. When you're being paid the way Murray is, you can't have as many lapses in judgment as he seems to have on a weekly basis.

Kliff Kingsbury's coaching continues to get him in the doghouse, as well. While only losing by a single possession may not seem that bad, these are situations the Cardinals find themselves in every single week and the coaching of Kingsbury is at the forefront of these problems. It has gotten to a point where it feels like the players have to play better than the game plan they're given and that is about as big a failure as a coaching staff can have.

Until Kingsbury and his staff are able to create a winning coaching strategy the Cardinals will continue to have to play above their game planning and that has worked few times in 2022. This season is beginning to feel like a lost one for Arizona and fans cries for a new head coach are getting deafening by the week.

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