Jonathan Gannon had a lot of questions as he walked off the field on Thursday night. Is the offense on the same page? What can they do to avoid a slow start?
There was certainly frustration from the head coach after dropping their second straight game on a walk-off field goal.
But the disappointment following the 23-20 loss to the Seahawks didn’t outweigh the motivation he felt to try and turn around the offense.
“This is a competitive job and everybody in there is ultra competitive and when you lose, it don’t feel good,” Gannon said. “You have to take some positives and build on that. The negatives, you need to figure out why they are happening and solve them. I don’t know if that’s ever happened (that) you lose two games in four days the way we’ve lost them.”
In 1975, the St. Louis Cardinals were nicknamed the “Cardiac Cards” since their games certainly had no shortage of excitement and tension. Now 50 years later, the 2025 Cardinals serve as the modern-day iteration with Weeks 1-4 going down to the wire. St. Louis began that season with a 2-2 record before piecing together six more wins en route to a division title.
That’s where the identity of this cardiac Cardinals team, meshed together with that motivation, kicks in.
“We are always one, two, three plays away and I think in any sport, that’s a lot better than just getting kicked around like a freaking soccer ball,” left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. said. “Every game we’ve had, win or lose, has always came down to the last play.”
The Cardinals were down 20-6 midway through the fourth quarter against the Seahawks before Kyler Murray found Marvin Harrison Jr. in the end zone on a highlight-reel score. After struggling last week and throughout the first half, the second-year wide receiver took a moment following the touchdown.
“For Marvin, he’s always been a winner,” Johnson said of his college teammate. “We talk in the O-Line room and joke like a spider pose, you know, like a dead spider that crawl underneath themselves. That’s not Marvin. It doesn’t surprise me to see him come out here, step on the field, and be the (No.) 18 we all know and love.”