Report Card: Grading Arizona Cardinals’ Collapse vs Jaguars

Execution: C

It is hard for a team who wins the turnover battle four to zero to end up losing the game, but that is exactly what happened on Sunday. Why? The Cardinals offense couldn't fight its way out of a paper bag.

Once again, the running game did not exist and eleven weeks into the season the offensive line has not figured out how to open any holes in the run game that even approach their effectiveness from 2024.

Brissett had a bit more success in the air distributing targets fairly well to McBride, Wilson, and Dortch and even though these three players had decent personal outings, the team as a whole could only find its way into the end zone two times.

This was with the defense playing one of their best games in weeks, picking off Trevor Lawrence three times and forcing a fumble.

Walter Nolen III continued his streak of good play with a big man touchdown on a one-handed grab after a Jalen Thompson sack sent the ball into the air.

The defense did its part, which makes the inability of the Cardinals to play complementary football exasperating. Enough good plays were made and the Jaguars made enough mistakes for Arizona to win this game, but poor execution on offense held them back.

Physicality: C

Again, this grade is a tale of two sides of the football.

Defensively, the Cardinals managed to sack three times and did a decent job in specially designed pressure packages at collapsing Jacksonville's pocket and making Lawrence uncomfortable. A direct result of this success was the three interceptions thrown by Lawrence in the afternoon.

Budda Baker had probably his best game of what has been a down season for him managing a half sack, pass defensed, and his first interception since the 2022 season.

Offensively, nothing looked easy other than throws to McBride who is clearly the most talented player on this roster on either side.

It was difficult to watch the offensive line attempt to get some push in the running game only to run up against Jacksonville's defensive front and get stood up and shoved backwards. One of the great strengths of last year's squad continues to be one of its greatest weaknesses this season.

Creativity: C-

Screens are not an inherently bad play call. The problem with screens is that they have to be called at the right time in a game to be effective. This is not something the Cardinals have been able to figure out for years, even going back to the Kingsbury era.

The same applies to halfback draws. A perfectly fine play when called at the right time, but offensive coordinator Drew Petzing consistently struggles to call the right plays at the right moment in a game leading to stalled drive after stalled drive and an, at best, inconsistent offense across the board.

The C- is mostly due to the play calling of Nick Rallis which was massively improved compared to the past few disappointing weeks.

His major success came in installing some new, creative pressure packages that led to two safety sacks and consistent pressure on the quarterback.

Discipline: C-

No, it wasn't another 17 penalty game for the Cardinals but the fact remains that the team who ended 2024 as the least penalized team in the league is now one of the least-discplined groups in football.

There were less egregious penalties, but a handful of brain errors like Michael Wilson spinning the ball in celebration after a major catch to get the Cardinals in scoring position wasted several seconds with no timeouts left.

Rather than spike the ball and give themselves two or more shots into the end zone to end the game either Brissett or Gannon made the decision to run a play, wasting over 12 seconds and leading to a field goal attempt that took the game into overtime.

Resilience: D

This is a much more subjective measure than the other grades with very little statistical backing, but from watching this game it seemed like the defense played hard and the offense gave up.

The reputation of Gannon-coached teams since he arrived in Arizona has been their resilience. Maybe they weren't the most talented groups (they weren't) but they played hard and played whistle to whistle.

It is highly likely that we, as fans, are reading too much into everything in this disappointing season but this was one of the first games this season where it truly felt like the Cardinals offense had given up.

Whether they are disappointed in their record or their head coach is just food for idle speculation, but the vibes are not high with this team and unless they find a spark and go on a crazy end-of-season run it seems unlikely that they will improve any time soon.