Cardinals prove themselves to be pretenders with ugly loss to lowly Lions

Out with a torn MCL in his knee, the hope is that Hopkins could return in time for the NFC Championship Game or Super Bowl. Unfortunately, this iteration of the Cardinals doesn’t seem destined to earn a spot in either round.

It’s really about Murray’s reliance on Hopkins than anything else. While Christian Kirk and A.J. Green have more targets this season, that’s primarily due to Nuke’s previous injury issues and the fact that Murray also sat out three games with an injury of his own. A better barometer of whether Murray relies on Hopkins too much would be a season ago.

Hopkins was targeted 160 times in 2020 for a target share of 27.8%. To put this into perspective, the NFL’s leading receiver in that of Cooper Kupp represents 31% of the Los Angeles Rams’ target shares in 2021. Imagine Matthew Stafford having to go to war without Kupp in the mix in Southern California.

Arizona Cardinals’ struggles in the trenches

Heading into Week 15’s outing against the Lions, Arizona had yielded north of 100 rushing yards seven times. That includes 150-plus yards twice.

• Week 2: Minnesota Vikings (177 yards)
• Week 10: Carolina Panthers (166 yards)
• Week 3: Jacksonville Jaguars (159 yards)
• Week 5: San Francisco 49ers (151 yards)

With the exception of San Francisco, all of these teams have one thing in common. They currently boast losing records.

How will this unit perform in the NFC playoffs against a team like the 49ers, Cowboys, Packers or Buccaneers? All four teams have top-end rushing attacks. And as you already know, stopping the run is paramount when it comes to controlling the clock in the postseason. In short, struggles in this area will keep Murray and the Cardinals offense off the field.

Arizona Cardinals to face difficult postseason task

At 10-4, it’s safe to assume Arizona will earn a spot in the NFC playoffs. The team actually had a chance to clinch an appearance Sunday against Detroit.

The question now becomes matchups and how these Cardinals finish up the regular season. They must close up shop with games against the Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks. Indy is coming off a strong win over the New England Patriots, while Dallas continues to battle with Arizona for a top seed in the NFC.

Sure, the Seahawks are not really in playoff contention, but NFC West rivalry games are always hard-fought. It won’t be an easy home outing come Week 18.

Arizona swept San Francisco during the regular season — winning by a combined margin of 48-27. However, the current iteration of these 49ers are much different than when the Cardinals faced them back in Week 5 and Week 9.

The Cardinals already dropped a home outing to the Green Bay Packers by the score of 24-21. They’ve also split with the Los Angeles Rams.

Right now, it’s going to be all about matchups. Unfortunately, the Arizona Cardinals have now lost two consecutive games with a difficult stretch to close out the regular season. Right now, they have to be seen as pretenders in the NFC.