If you would have told me Beanie Wells would rush for 138 yards and three touchdowns and Larry Fitzgerald would catch eight passes for 102, I would have told you the Cardinals losing streak would be over.
In the NFL, looks can be deceiving and so is assuming the Cards have the killer instinct to put teams away.
For the third consecutive week, Ken Whisenhunt’s team was unable to land the knockout punch and now find themselves tied with Seattle and looking up at San Francisco in the NFC West. I believe this team is close to breaking through, but to think of what might have been through the first four weeks, certainly can’t make this any less painful.
“A lot of it is our own mistakes,” Whisenhunt said. “We know there’s a lot of football left. We have to push forward. We got to continue to work and work past this. It’s tough lessons, but that’s what the NFL is all about.”
You can start with penalties. Eleven to be exact for 118 yards.
The Red Birds offensive line continued to struggle, as did Kevin Kolb who was sacked four times including the last on a second-and-one inside Giants’ territory which may have ultimately sealed Arizona’s fate.
“We tried to throw a screen,” Whisenhunt explained. “We should have just gotten rid of it. That wasn’t even pressure, that was just a four-man rush.”
“It’s disappointing,” a dejected Kolb told reporters after the game. “It’s all of us as a collective group. It has to change, it has to get better.”
It also didn’t help the Cards scored just six points (two field goals, one interception) on three trips inside the red zone in the first half. You can’t settle for field goals when you’re playing at home and trying to fix your offensive issues.
Sunday the Arizona offense wasn’t the only issue. Eli Manning picked apart Ray Horton’s depleted secondary to the tune of 27-40 for 321 yards and two touchdowns.
If the Cards made a big play, the Giants made one a little bigger, outscoring the Red Birds 21-7 in the fourth quarter.
“The margin of error is small,” Fitzgerald said.
It certainly is.
Especially when you’re 1-3.
