The Cardinals rushed for 222 yards and a 7.4 yards per carry average. Most of their runs went outside the tackles. We already know that DLaw received one of the higher grades on the defense, so what does that tell you about Parsons side of the defense?
At crunch time, the defense busted a coverage and gave up a third of the Cardinals total passing yards on one play, followed by a passing TD that put the game mostly out of reach due to the time left.
We were down by 2 TDs on our final drive that started on our own 25. 12 plays later, we are on the Arizona 5 with almost no chance to win without recovering an onside kick. For some reason, we run the ball twice and are further back than we were. On third down, Dak makes a throw that was intercepted, good coverage, but a desperation throw. I would argue he should have thrown it away and tried again on fourth down, but this game was lost way before this. Due to the OL, Mike called a much too conservative game. One would expect that if we were leading, but we were trailing the entire game.
Our offense starting field positions were 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 16, 36, 25. After an 80 yard drive and a chance to cut the lead to 5 points, we went for it on 4th and 3 instead of taking the FG.
I find it shocking that so many are blaming anyone or any unit for this loss other than Dan Quinn and the defense.
The Cardinals scored on all 5 possessions in the first half without any help from a turnover. Rushing for 222 yards made life pretty darn easy for the Cardinals and their QB. The defense forced only one 3 and out, followed by a game changing punt return by Turpin that was called back by a holding 10 yards from the line of scrimmage before Turpin even fielded the punt 52 yards away.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, but most of it should be on the defense.
