Jonathan Gannon Explains How Rams Dominated Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals again allowed 40+ points to a divisional opponent -- Jonathan Gannon says this is what happened.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon during action against the Los Angeles Rams in the first half at State Farm Stadium on Dec 7, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. | Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals' latest loss might have been their most eye-opening of the season.

Which is saying something.

The Cardinals' 45-17 drubbing to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 13 came as a surprise to everyone involved. While L.A. surely were heavy favorites, Arizona's early 7-0 lead gave hope the Rams would have some trouble at State Farm Stadium.

Early in the fourth quarter, the bird nest was emptied as Los Angeles rattled off 35 unanswered points after the score was knotted at 10-10.

What happened? Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon detailed how things got away against the Rams.

How Rams Dominated Cardinals

"Disappointing (that) we didn’t play our best ball. That’s a really good football team. We needed a better collective effort to win the game, which we obviously did not do. Learn from it, move on and go to Houston," he opened with on Monday.

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Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford continued his MVP-level play with 22 completions on 31 attempts for 281 yards and three touchdowns on the day.

“He's playing at an elite level right now," Gannon said of Stafford.

"The contested catches, you'd like to make a couple of those. When we're in big box zone, those are the ones – (there were a) couple big box zones (and) he made some big-time throws in there. You'd like to see those checked down where they don't go for explosives, and you have to affect them a little bit more than we did.”

Arizona couldn't stop the Rams on the ground, either, as Los Angeles rushed for 249 yards on a whopping 6.9 yards per carry.

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) against the Arizona Cardinals in the first half at State Farm Stadium on Dec 7, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. | Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“You have to stop the run, and you can't get the ball thrown over your head. So, a mixed down (with) the blend of how that looks, we have to play with better technique, be more gap sound, knock back the line of scrimmage, tackle better and fit better," Gannon said.

"Then in the passing game, like I said, we have to make a couple of those contested catches with those one-on-one balls, and then we have to make sure the balls goes where it’s supposed to go by the strength or stress of the call.”

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The Rams were hardly in any obvious passing downs, and with Sean McVay's advanced offensive scheme and play-calling, the Cardinals' defense felt like they were at a disadvantage for practically the entire game.

That impacted Arizona's ability to reach the quarterback, as the Cardinals' defense netted zero sacks and just two quarterback hits on Stafford throughout the afternoon.

“I think that's a huge reason of it. What I call a mixed down is run or pass, and each play caller is a little bit different, but when you have to play both it's really hard to generate a lot of rush. When you get it to known pass, which we did a couple times – I think we had a free runner and then we got off another time (but) you can play the game on your terms a little bit," Gannon continued.

"Take them for example. The first drive for us, we didn't have a third down and scored right, our offense. Then kind of in the second drive where we put a field goal on the board, we converted the one third down to 'Mike' (WR Michael Wilson) I think, (or) maybe another one or two third downs maybe. But my point is you're staying ahead of the sticks and it's third-and-manageable. You don't even get it to third down so they can't pin their ears back and rush. We never really got to pin our ears back and rush.”