The Arizona Cardinals have had their toughest stretch of the season. They have lost three games in a row and are 3-5 after a 7-0 start to the year.
They have clinched a playoff berth but lost their lead in the NFC West with two games remaining in the regular season.
Looking at social media and what Cardinals fans are saying and how they are reacting, one might think this was the 2018 season. Many are ready to fire everyone.
That, of course, is extreme, but there is certainly a panicked feeling among the fanbase after seeing 7-0 and Super Bowl aspirations turn into 10-5 and potentially seeing five straight losses to end the season and a sixth as they bumped from the playoffs in the wild card round.
However, the team is not panicking and they shouldn’t be.
The reality is they are a playoff team for the first time since 2015. They can still win the division and finish the regular season with as many as 12 wins, the second-most wins in a season in franchise history.
Quarterback Kyler Murray spoke about it on Wednesday.
“We’re 10-5, we’re in the playoffs, but the only thing that matters is this next game,” he said. “If you go back and look everybody has been through this. This is not something that teams that have won Super Bowls haven’t gone through. It’s the NFL.”
The rough patch has come because of mistakes mostly. They are getting penalized more than they have before. They are not scoring touchdowns in the red zone. The theme has consistently been that they are beating themselves.
“You lose when you don’t do things right,” he said. “If you make it hard on yourself, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’re going to get beat. When you’re playing well, and it feels like everything is going right for you, that’s just what happens.”
He isn’t worried and doesn’t think there is any real panic setting.
“Me personally, I’m not panicking. I don’t think anybody on this team is panicking,” he said, and noted they are far from the first team heading to the playoffs having suffered three straight losses. “Yes, we’ve lost three in a row. The Rams lost three in a row. Everybody was counting them out. It’s not a thing where it doesn’t happen. This is the NFL, it’s not easy.”
The Rams lost three in a row and figured things out. Now, they have won four in a row and suddenly look like they could roll all the way to the Super Bowl.
It starts this week against the Dallas Cowboys. They have to get back to not beating themselves.
“When you do things right and you don’t hurt yourself, you don’t beat yourself,” he said. “I like us in those situations if we just put our best foot forward and play clean football. If you play clean football, you have a chance at the end of the day.”
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