The brutal truth about the Arizona Cardinals’ disappointing 2025 season

The brutal truth about the Arizona Cardinals’ disappointing 2025 season

It’s a big red Monday morning that quite honestly Wolf was never supposed to play out like this. You go into this season, whatever your expectations were for the Arizona Cardinals, the overall expectations just in general, remove emotion one way or the other out of it, uh, was that they were going to be around a 500 team and the thought was at least contending for a playoff spot. I believe the Vegas overunder was eight and a half at the start of the year. So that that’s right there. You’re going to win eight or nine games. Vegas is usually spot on. Usually Vegas is within like a half game or maybe a game and a half. They’re going to be way off on the Cardinals and instead the Cardinals were the second team mathematically eliminated from playoff contention this season. The Giants were the first. Somehow Tennessee wasn’t the first even with their record just because of the way the teams around them and their division uh played out. But the Cardinals were the second team mathematically eliminated. I don’t even remember the last time that happened with this team. So, here we are. It’s, you know, we’re starting December and they are done. Done. You can’t even say, well, if they go on a run, they’re done. Yeah. You know, once again, um we’ve all been talking about one possession games and one possession losses, specifically the fact that they have um seven seven poss seven losses of course where they lost by four or less points. Think about that. That is just I don’t I don’t want to think about it. It it is just incredible. You know, if they won half those games, typically you’re going to win half of those close games like that for the most part. If they won half those games right now, they’d have six wins. If if they got kooky and won four of those seven, oh my goodness, which is still almost half, you know, think about it. They’d have seven wins on the season. And man, it just has not gone their way, basians. And I can tell you right now, for the most part, this is a pattern we have seen. And for me, generally speaking, there are three reasons, three reasons why you typically lose one possession games. Number one, lack of playmakers. You just don’t have enough talent on the field. And I’m not talking about talent asn’t wide receivers and running backs. I’m talking about every position that is on the field offensively and defensively. Just don’t have enough guys that are talented making plays. Ladies and gentlemen, an offensive guard can actually make a play. He can make a play because of his talent. So, it don’t think of just wide receivers and that. I’m talking about guys make a great block, spring a running back in a tight situation. You know, it’s funny you say that cuz like I I try to think of guys who have made a big play and a big moment this season. You know, game on the line who steps up and makes a play. And the two that really come to mind are Buddha Baker in week one ripping that ball away in the end zone. I mean, they could have lost to New Orleans in week one and Kas at the end of the Carolina game. That’s right. The sack and that’s it. I mean, all all of these other close one-score games. It It’s not like nobody made plays all game. Obviously, you played Green Bay close, you played the Colts close, you played Tampa close yesterday, you played Seattle close, San Francisco the first time around, but nobody’s making a play with the game on the line. Yes. Yes. Lack of playmakers where you just don’t have the talent to make plays happen when it matters the most. That’s that’s one area. Number two is in-game coaching decisions. Decisions a coach will make that impact possessions. Not talking about play calling, ladies and gentlemen. You know the way I feel about it. Are there offensive coordinators that will call a bad play from time to time? Yes. Are there defensive coordinators that’ll miss? Yes. It happens from time to time, yet at the same time, for the most part, do your job. Execute the play. Don’t get whipped. And maybe the play will work. So, don’t get me started on that. But I’m talking about fourth and one decisions. Uh when do you go for it? When do you not? That’s a big time possession decision that is made in a football game. And yesterday it reared its head, did it not? I think of the Cardinals missing players yesterday. I I think there there’s been no doubt about that. Yet at the same time, some coaching decisions have also cost the Arizona Cardinals games. Yeah, I mean to talk about that fourth down play for just a second and again I know you’re trying to be aggressive but just think it out for a second. Set aside the analytics sheet. You know there’s anytime you you you question a fourth down call, there’s the analytics crowd. And I don’t mean the ones that believe in analytics because there’s obviously a lot of validity to that. But the ones that like that’s all they just look at the chart. The chart will coach for you. You don’t need a player. Just look at the chart. Duh. If you get that first down, you’re at your own 40. You didn’t win the game. If you don’t get the first down, you’re down two scores. And that’s exactly what happened. You know what I mean? Is is the risk versus the reward. Is it worth it? You don’t get the first, Tampa kicks a field goal. Oh, hey, Tampa won by that exact field goal. Yes. If you get the first, you’re still 60 yards away from scoring. So, I just I think there’s time and place. And we I could sit here and nitpick every coach in the NFL with the with the benefit of hindsight. I’m not trying to do that. But just to your point, I just think there’s a time and a place to be aggressive. You got to be selectively aggressive. Yes. And it obviously didn’t work yesterday. Yeah. Can I also say this basian, you’re you’re three and eight. You’re three and eight. Maybe that factored in as well. The fact that you are three and eight. You know, we’re just Hey, we’re having a rough time here. We’re three and eight. Are you kidding me? even though there’s 10 minutes and 46 seconds on the clock. Um, we’re going to go for it here and that’s exactly what they did. It did not work. Um, but can I also say sometimes too that that kind of decision in game will often times be frowned upon by even players that are in the locker room because you know what it looks like to them? Desperation. Like we’re we’re just going for it. We’re just going for it because we’re three and eight. That’s why we’re going for it as opposed to saying, “Hey, what do you say we punt the ball here? Our defense has been playing really, really well. Let’s punt the ball here. We got good field position at the 39. We should be able to get it inside the 10 somewhere there. We’ll punt the ball and see what happens.” You know, um it it rire of desperation is what it did. And I wonder, you know, once again, it’s not like these guys pick up on that, but I wonder in hindsight if they’d think differently if it happened again. It did feel like something that you do when you’re three and eight and you’re like, “Ah, let’s just, you know, go for it, whatever.” Um, but they’ve been pretty consistent in their words, the coaching staff of saying, “No, you know, our record’s not going to dictate our in-game play calling decisions or our decision- making uh process.” So you put this in your email, you know, just sort of a comparison between Jacobe Brassette and Baker Mayfield yesterday and there’s been a lot of talk today. I know Bickley had a piece, you know, how much of this can you really blame on Jacobe Brassette? Now Jacobe Brassette has one win since he took over as a starter if you want to pin if you want to go record pinned entirely on quarterbacks. Um, you know, everybody’s going to take heat after this season obviously because there’s no guarantee they even win a fourth game right now with the way the schedule looks ahead of them. I think they will, but big deal. Four wins was not the goal at the start of the year. But how do you assess Jacobe Brassette now compared to the first maybe one or two games where he came in where sometimes a backup quarterback can kind of sneak sneak up on the league. He’s been playing now for a while. He has been playing. Yeah. You know that four game sample size basinonians once again you you take four games and you string it together and that to me is where you can start evaluating teams you can start evaluating units whether it’s offense or defense after four weeks and you can evaluate players I think as well after four weeks that’s a large enough sample size to start connecting some dots and saying what are we seeing here with Jacobe Brassette And this guy um has played exceptionally well in my opinion. Uh just just yesterday is a great example of this. 29 of 40. 29 of 40. This is a guy that was under duress. A guy that pulled the ball down and actually made some plays with his legs. Though you can see he’s struggling the whole time for the most part. Pressured on 52% of his drop backs. 52% of his his drop backs, but 29 of 40 for 301 yards. Um, this is this this this loss is not on Jacobe Brassette. That’s what I know. And he also had a quarterback rating of 100.1. Yeah. Uh, you know, he outplayed Baker Mayfield. I I liked the signing when they got him because he’s he’s just steady. I think he’s one of the best backups in the league. He’s actually been better than I thought he’d be because when they signed him I thought it would be like okay you know he’s going to be a good mentor to Kyler at the time and you know you never know backup quarterback’s probably gonna have to play a game or two or maybe three and I feel like with Jacobe Brassette you have a chance to win all all two or three of those games. I mean, yesterday was his seventh start and he only they only have one win in those seven starts, but he has played well, especially when you consider the offensive line and and I only care about this stuff more so for what it means going forward. You know, is your quarterback next year, is it Jacobe Brassett and you’re drafting a guy to learn under Jacobe Brassette? Are you bringing back Kyler? He’s eligible to come off IR right now if if he’s deemed healthy enough. He’s missed the four games since that Dallas game when they put him on IR the next day. He’s missed Seattle, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Tampa. I mean, I haven’t heard a whole lot of talk of him coming back this season, but he could at some point. Is he still your guy next year? Does any of this matter if you can’t fix your offensive line? Because to your point, you know, we’re talking up Jacobe Brassette, and I can already hear the the people that are that are not on board with Jacobe saying, “Dude, they scored 17 points.” And that’s true. And he threw a bad interception. Yeah. But the second he snaps the ball, he’s about to get sacked every time. And by the way, that was the same for Kyler, too. They’re not blocking for the quarterbacks. Yeah. And he, you know, when you stop and think about it, look at the numbers Jacobe Brassad has posted. He’s thrown for almost 2200 yards right now. How many starts does this guy have? Seven starts. Rick should have picked him up for his fantasy football team because fantasy numbers are outstanding for Stop and think about that. Basinonians in seven games, 2200 yards. So if he started 14 games, he’d have over 4,000 yards. Yeah. 4,400 yards passing right now. This pace a full season,000. You got to be kidding me. Do you know how hard that is to actually do? And then you think about the fact that again he’s got a 97.4 quarterback rating. Anything close to a 100 is good. It’s not great, but it’s good. Solid. Really good. And he’s done that. 13 touchdowns to four picks. Now, yesterday was brutal there. He threw a really bad pick as far as I’m concerned. And he didn’t throw it exactly to a Tampa Bay Buccaneer. It got deflected into the air, but the read was really bad. He It should have been picked. Yeah, it should have been picked by the first guy. Really? So, the read was not good, but that rarely happens to Jacobe. Yeah. And I don’t think it’s realistic to go to your backup quarterback and say, “Okay, you’d be the best guy in the league. You’d be better than Mahomes and Drake May and Matthew Stafford.” like he’s he’s been I don’t know if you stacked all the quarterbacks right now that are starting games and you could somehow put them all you know set aside the rest of the team set aside the offensive line if you just plug them all into the Rams or whatever. He’s been a top half of the league quarterback for sure, which is kind of crazy considering now he’s made seven starts. Because of his age, you’re never going to look at him and say, “This this is our guy going forward.” They’re they’re they’re going to bring somebody else, I believe, in. Might be Kyler Murray. I have no idea. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but they’re going to bring somebody else in. Jacobe Brassette, I don’t think, is going to be the starter going forward, unless it’s a young gun. If they’re gonna draft somebody and bring him in to mentor, man, you couldn’t have a better mentor. That’s what the Patriots did with Drake May. Draft Drake May. Jacobe Brassette started the first few games for New England, then he took a backseat. Drake May took over and he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Yep. Thanks for watching Wolf and Luke. Tap to see more and click the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Wolf & Luke discuss the future of the Arizona Cardinals as the team continues its disappointing 2025 season.

Subscribe to the Arizona Sports daily newsletter: https://bit.ly/3QWcj1x

Read articles from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/

Download the Arizona Sports app: https://arizonasports.com/the-arizona-sports-98-7-fm-app/

Sign up for texts from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/text-alerts/

Listen live to Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/listen-live/

Watch live: arizonasports.com/watch-live

Follow the team: https://bit.ly/3R0PIAJ

ARIZONA SPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaSports/

X: https://x.com/azsports

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arizonasports987

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arizsports/

ARIZONA SPORTS PODCASTS: https://arizonasports.com/category/podcasts/

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports