Arizona Cardinals: Disappointing Season Ends on a Two-Game Win Streak

The Arizona Cardinals made it two-straight wins to conclude the regular season today with a dominant 44-6 win against the Los Angeles Rams.

Who would’ve thought their slow start to the season would have been a season-long trend for the Arizona Cardinals?

It started with their 1-3 unforeseen record through the first four games of the 2016 campaign. Their season opener at home against the Tom Brady-less New England Patriots should have ended in their first win of the season, but instead resulted in a 23-21 loss. Chandler Catanzaro missed a 47-yard field goal that would have put the Cards up just one with :38 left on the clock.

They bounced back the following week, clobbering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 40-7. After that ugly loss in Week 1, it was reassuring the see the Cardinals back to their normal, winning ways.

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The two weeks after that really began to shape the rest of the season. They lost the next two games against teams they should have easily beaten. They lost in Buffalo to the Bills, 33-18, and at home against the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 17-13. After the win in Arizona, the Rams would go on to lose ten games in eleven tries.

The Cardinals used the next two match-ups to their advantage, as they walked all over the San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets. Carson Palmer and the offense scored 61 points in those two weeks, while the defense held the Niners and Jets to a combined 24.

After a rough patch in the early stages of the regular season, the Cardinals seemed to be hitting their stride after two dominant wins. Sure, it came against weak teams, but it was impressive and satisfying nonetheless.

In Week 7, a Sunday Night date with Seattle, the Cardinals tied their NFC West rivals in one of the weirdest games ever. The final score was 6-6, thanks to both team’s kickers failing to hit chip shots to win the game. So there it was again. After an impressive showing the week before, the Cardinals seemed to go back to square one after another head-scratcher.

After that, the Cards were 3-3-1 and now needing to make up some ground in the race for a third-straight playoff season. At the half-way mark of the season, the Cardinals were edged (again) by the Carolina Panthers, losing 30-20. The last two times the Cards have made the playoffs, Cam Newton’s Panthers have knocked them out.

The Cardinals had some life in them after Week 8, but it certainly didn’t feel right. It wasn’t as dominant as previous years, and most importantly, they were now under the .500-mark thanks to a lame 3-4-1 record.

Arizona then got caught up in a strange pattern that would ultimately make them pretenders in the NFC. It came to the tune of a win followed by two losses, in which the Cardinals did that twice over the next six weeks.

After a Week 15 loss against the New Orleans Saints, the Cardinals were now 5-8-1 and eliminated from the playoffs. It was practically the same talented roster they’ve boasted the last few years, but the results weren’t there. Sure, their Week 16 win on the road in Seattle was fun, especially because of how well they played. But it meant nothing.

Same with their win in the final game of the regular season today, when they crushed the Rams 44-6. Two wins in the last two weeks of the season should have meant something more for this team, like momentum heading into the playoffs. Instead it was for pride and determining where they would be when the draft rolls around in April.

It seemed to pass us by in a blur, but the Cardinals season is now officially over. It was disappointing considering what this team has done in the past and what they could have done this season.

Next: Arizona Cardinals: Arians Set to Return in 2017

Now it’s up to general manager Steve Keim, who will go back to the drawing board this off-season in hopes of constructing another playoff-bound team for next fall.

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