Theo Mackie on Cardinals’ ’embarrassing’ loss to Tennessee Titans
Theo Mackie discusses the collapse of the Arizona Cardinals in their last-second loss to the Tennessee Titans on Oct. 5, 2025.
The Arizona Cardinals entered the season with high expectations after several years of rebuilding.A Week 5 loss to the Tennessee Titans has left the team with a 2-3 record and a difficult schedule ahead.If the season ends without a playoff appearance, owner Michael Bidwill may consider changes to the team’s leadership and key players.
Twenty-four days before his organization hit another low point in a history full of them, Michael Bidwill made his expectations abundantly clear.
“We’re really built to make our move,” the Arizona Cardinals owner said then, back when early-season hope flowed freely.
As summer turned to fall, that was the pervading belief inside the Cardinals’ facility. They were three years into Jonathan Gannon’s tenure, with three offseasons of Monti Ossenfort reconstructing the roster. In year one, that leadership nexus stabilized the organization. In year two, they doubled their win total, keeping playoff hopes alive deep into December.
Now, in year three, they finally had a roster capable of turning those hopes into reality. Three marquee free agent signings arrived in March, followed by two pro-ready draftees in April. All five played defense, serving as the ideal complement to the pieces already in place: A quarterback, wide receiver and left tackle all previously drafted inside the top six. Franchise cornerstones at each of the sport’s most important positions.
The next era of Cardinals football had arrived.
That was three weeks ago. What now?
In Week 5, the Cardinals turned a 21-3 lead into a 22-21 defeat to the Tennessee Titans, who entered as the worst team in the NFL. How they managed that loss was farcical, the product of a stunning series of plays best set to Benny Hill music and then relegated from memory forever. Kyler Murray described it as “how to lose a game 101.”
But the mind-boggling minutiae matter less than the big picture.
Gannon stopped short of describing this as the worst he’s felt after a loss. “We’ve had some bad ones,” he said.
Murray was more definitive. “This might be number one,” he said.
Their dejection spoke to where this organization is now.
The Cardinals are 2-3 after starting their season against Spencer Rattler, Bryce Young, Mac Jones, Sam Darnold and Cam Ward. Up next: Eight straight opponents who currently have a record of .500 or above. This, for a team that has not beaten an opponent with a winning record in 349 days.
The Cardinals may be only one game out of a playoff spot because the season is young, but the Vegas odds tell the story. At +570, only three NFC teams have worse chances to make the playoffs.
To pull that off, they would likely need to finish at least 8-4, with half of those wins coming against teams currently over .500.
In the locker room, that is still, of course, the ambition.
“We have 12 games to go,” Paris Johnson Jr. said. “… The story on the Cardinals is not done yet. It’s not fully wrote. We’re not wrote off yet.”
Nothing in the first five games, though, suggests that the Cardinals’ story has a plot twist coming.
Their offense has not produced more than 21 points in a game, and their defense has allowed three consecutive game-winning field goals, becoming the first team since the NFL-AFL merger to manage that feat. They struggle to run the ball or pass downfield. They allow too many sacks and commit too many penalties. Their roster is depleted by injuries and underperformance.
So, what if the Cardinals can’t resurrect this season?
The past two offseasons around here have been pleasantly drama-free. The Cardinals haven’t needed to change their general manager, head coach, quarterback or either coordinator since 2023. Only Kansas City can say the same.
If the Cardinals fall short of that ambition — especially if it happens in sub-.500 fashion — Bidwill will, once again, find himself with crucial decisions to make.
He’ll have a general manager, in Ossenfort, who has drafted two proven high-level difference makers — Paris Johnson and Garrett Williams — in three seasons. A handful more could join that group by December, but the track record is on pace to be underwhelming.
Ossenfort also did not meaningfully address the offense entering this year, leaving holes at wide receiver and on the interior of the offensive line, both of which have proven impactful.
He’ll have a head coach, Gannon, who will have not reached the playoffs in three seasons. There are currently zero employed head coaches in the NFL who are in their fourth season without a playoff appearance to show for it.
He’ll have an offensive coordinator, Drew Petzing, whose unit has underwhelmed for two years running and who has not yet maximized Marvin Harrison Jr.’s skill set. Petzing’s offense is regularly marred by communication errors and playcalling timidity, like his decision to run on third-and-8 on the Cardinals’ last offensive play against the Titans.
He’ll have a defensive coordinator, Nick Rallis, who has been the most promising member of the group, with his creative schemes and playcalling, but whose unit has not yet reached a top-10 level this season.
And he’ll have a quarterback, Murray, who remains befuddling in his seventh season, with just one career playoff appearance. He’s capable of dazzling moments, like his zig-zagging 30-yard scramble against the Panthers. He’s also capable of inexplicable moments, like when he panicked in the pocket against the Titans, committing a blatant intentional grounding penalty by flipping a backhanded pass into the turf.
Each of those central organizational figures has strengths. Each has contributed to the best moments that this regime has experienced together. But if this season ends without a playoff appearance, the question will become: Which of them can help bring a Super Bowl to Arizona?
Because that, ultimately, is the ambition for any organization.
This season was meant to be the year in which the Cardinals took the most important step in that journey — from promising upstart to established contender. Instead, it’s looking like a year in which they take a disturbing step backward.
Bidwill, in his session with reporters last month, declined to outline what he needed to see this season to maintain the organization’s current direction. “I’m looking for this week by week,” he said.
Safe to say, the performance in Week 5 was not part of that vision.