Valley sports fans have endured heartbreak, dysfunction and the psychological effects of blunt-force trauma.
We’ve never seen anything like Sunday.
The Cardinals lost to the hapless Titans. They squandered a 21-3 lead to one of the worst teams in the NFL. It should’ve been a raucous victory. Instead, it was the kind of defeat that can eviscerate a fan base and an entire season.
The turnaround was sickening.
“They were literally a play away from quitting,” Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray said.
Get-right games are like comfort food in the NFL, nourishing the body and the mind and restoring peace to a stressed-out fan base. That’s what Arizona badly needed, and that’s just what the Cardinals were cooking up in the first half.
They scored three touchdowns in their first four possessions. They unveiled explosive plays and deep shots down the field. Twenty minutes in, and the offense had scored more than 20 points in a game for the first time this season.
And then something went terribly wrong during digestion. The Cardinals threw up all over themselves. It will take a while to clean up this mess.
They squandered a scoring drive when Hjalte Froholdt snapped the ball prematurely, and it doinked off Kyler Murray’s facemask for a turnover. They gave up a touchdown after a Dadrion Taylor-Demerson interception, when the defensive back fumbled the ball into the end zone and the Titans recovered for a touchdown.
Worst of all: Emari Demarcado wasted an electrifying 72-yard touchdown run by dropping the ball before crossing the goal line, committing the Cardinal sin of premature celebrations. Even worse, he seemed to power down around the 10-yard line.
It would not be unusual for a serious NFL franchise to cut a player for such an egregious error at such an important time. But the Cardinals are dealing with a shortage of talent at that position, following injuries to James Conner and Trey Benson.
There were also unfortunate hiccups. Murray glitched near his goal-line once again, holding the ball way too long in a clean pocket; flirting dangerously with a safety, only to be flagged for intentional grounding when he discarded the ball like a hot potato.
“Obviously, very disappointing,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said. “Felt like we had multiple chances to put away the game in all three phases, and we did not do that.”
It was a disgusting display of generosity. The Cardinals had numerous opportunities to win this game going away. But their lack of killer instinct is appalling, and with a final chance to secure a victory on offense, coordinator Drew Petzing went into a shell, calling three consecutive running plays and conceding a punt.
When asked if he felt robbed of a chance to secure the game with his arm, Murray said he always trusts the play call. But he sat alone at his locker for an eternity on Sunday, and there’s no question this defeat will leave a mark.
“This might be No. 1,” he said.
The crowd booed mercilessly, and this time, the Cardinals could not come up with a defensive stand. The Titans rallied for a walk-off field goal, and the Cardinals had lost a third consecutive game in the most shocking way possible.
It felt like the worst loss since the Monday Night meltdown against the Bears, when Dennis Green delivered a memorable postgame rant. There were no such fireworks from Gannon, who remained calm and measured. But real adversity has landed in Arizona. And like Gannon told his stunned players:
The clock is ticking.
