Rating The Good, Bad and Ugly From Cardinals Loss to Jaguars

Evaluating all three levels of Arizona's overtime collapse to Jacksonville.

Nov 23, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) celebrates after making a catch during the fourth quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images | Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

GLENDALE -- The Arizona Cardinals' latest loss just might be their most head-scratching.

The Cardinals' 27-24 overtime defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars came down to the final play - though when all was said and done, Arizona dropped their eighth game within the last nine weeks.

The Jaguars had just a 27% win expectation midway through the fourth quarter before battling back and sending the Cardinals to 3-8 on the season.

As the dust continues to settle, let's evaluate the good, bad and ugly from Week 12:

The Good: Defense Forces 4 Turnovers

That feels a bit odd to say after the Cardinals gave up 27 points, though Arizona's four takeaways - one resulting in a touchdown themselves - showed the defensive side of the ball did more than their part in trying to get a win at State Farm Stadium.

Walter Nolen recovered a fumble for six while Budda Baker, Garrett Williams and Akeem Davis-Gaither all made incredibly diving plays to intercept Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence.

NFL teams were 50-0 with a +4 turnover margin - before today. The Cardinals changed that.

"When you win the takeaway battle 4-0, you should have a really good chance of winning," Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said afterwards.

Undoubtedly, though Arizona simply didn't do enough despite the tremendous day of generating turnovers.

READ: What We Learned From Cardinals' Loss to Jaguars

The Bad: Offensive Opportunities

We're far past the praising of Arizona's offense and how much different they look with Brissett under center.

The clock's hit midnight and the Cardinals have reverted back to a pumpkin - as the team simply didn't take advantage of any opportunities like we talked about in the the section above.

Jacoby Brissett was hit a total of 15 times with six official sacks on the day while the rushing attack produced just 55 net yards.

"Tough, man, we gotta find ways to finish. Defense gives us what, four turnovers or something like that? And a pick-six? That's on me man, we gotta find ways to finish drives with touchdowns," Brissett told reporters after the game.

The offense simply isn't playing up to par nor has it for weeks now.

The Ugly: End-Game Management

There's been many criticisms of Gannon that have stuck through his nearly three full seasons as head coach in Arizona - though end-game management and decision-making has been consistent.

That reared its ugly head on Sunday.

The Cardinals - with three timeouts above the two-minute warning - opted to punt the ball back to Jacksonville while trailing on their side of the 50.

That wasn't a terrible decision, and it ultimately worked as the Cardinals got the ball back thanks to a fourth-and-one stop. Sure.

But with the Cardinals driving and getting deep into Jaguars territory with a running clock, Arizona wasted roughly 20 seconds trying to get a snap off instead of spiking it.

#AZCardinals torched nearly 20 seconds of clock after the Michael Wilson reception at the end of the game.

Instead of spiking it, Cards opted to run a play. Pass falls incomplete and field goal unit comes out to send it to OT. pic.twitter.com/VZM5j17TjT

— Donnie Druin (@DonnieDruin) November 24, 2025

The pass fell incomplete to Michael Wilson, leaving just six seconds of clock left and forcing Gannon to trot out the field goal unit instead of having another opportunity to go for the win.

Then, in overtime, the Cardinals' 4th-and-4 play to keep their hopes alive was a deep shot in double coverage to Xavier Weaver - which you can read more about here.

All in all, a very forgettable day.