For a fourth straight week, the Arizona Cardinals were on the losing end of a one-score game, falling 31-27 to the Indianapolis Colts.
Nearly pulling off the upset, the Cardinals offense appeared to take a step forward with backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett leading the charge in place of starter Kyler Murray.
His first 300-yard game since 2022 wouldn’t be enough, however, with the Colts offense taking it to the Cardinals defense in the second half to the tune of 17 points. That second-half performance included a pair of touchdown drives in the fourth quarter.
Arizona Sports hosts react to the Cardinals’ fourth straight loss of the year:
Rapid reactions: Cardinals’ upset bid falls short vs. Colts
Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta
Another week, another frustrating close loss for the Arizona Cardinals — this one a 31-27 defeat at the hands of the Colts.
The biggest takeaway from this game and through six weeks of the season is that this team has absolutely no idea how to win games.
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You can pin this one on the Cardinals defense, which failed to slow down the Colts in the second half of the game. The only Indianapolis possession that didn’t end in points was the last one where they were able to melt away the final minute of the game.
Arizona’s defense generated very little pressure on Colts QB Daniel Jones and were unable to stop Jonathan Taylor’s running.
Offensively, this was the best the Cardinals have looked all season long. This was the first game where Jonathan Gannon had his ideal offensive line together with Paris Johnson Jr., Evan Brown, Hjalte Froholdt, Will Hernandez and Jonah Williams together.
This was also the first time the Cards didn’t have Kyler Murray at quarterback. Jacoby Brissett got his first start as a member of the Cardinals and looked very good. He stood in the pocket, he threw the ball downfield, he spread it around and he got his wide receivers involved. His strengths on Sunday shined a light on Kyler Murray’s deficiencies, in my opinion. I think Brissett should get another start next week against the Packers.
I’m not sure how Indianapolis’ Chris Lammons wasn’t called for holding or pass interference on Brissett’s fourth down pass to Trey McBride in the end zone. Looked like a pretty clear penalty missed, but the Cardinals had plenty of other opportunities to making winning plays and failed to.
John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo
What a punch in the gut this game was. Arizona responded from one of the worst losses in franchise history, went on the road against a good team, had a fourth-quarter lead and came up short.
Usually, all that matters is the win or the loss. And yes, this loss is brutal because it is now a four-game losing streak for Arizona. They are now 2-4 with all six games being one-score games. And they have a good Packers team up next.
Their playoff chances take a huge hit if you figure you need 10 wins to get in. That means an 8-3 record down the stretch vs. the toughest schedule in the NFL. Maybe 9-7 could get you in, but that means a 7-4 record. But this game is a lot about what Jacoby Brissett brought to the table and that cannot be overlooked.
The Cardinals scored their most offensive points of the season in this one with 27. They had their first 300-yard passing game of the season with Brissett going 27-of-44 for 320 yards with two TDs and an INT. They had only two 300-yard passing games last season and none in 2023.
Brissett led scoring drives of 11 plays for 56 yards, 13 plays for 58 yards, 10 plays for 61 yards, 6 plays for 51 yards and 9 plays for 49 yards. After the Colts got the go-ahead score with 4:32 remaining, he took the Cardinals from their own 12 to the Colts’ nine-yard line where the drive stalled and the Colts took over following an incomplete end zone pass to Trey McBride. On the final drive Brissett hit McBride for nine yards, Carter for 14 yards, he ran for 14 yards and hit Michael Wilson for 30 yards.
Brissett was this close to a storybook return to Indy and a full-blown QB controversy in Arizona. Heck, we may have that already.
It seemed obvious to me the offense even without MHJ for most of the game was more in rhythm with Brissett than Murray even with the Cardinals having no real resemblance of a run game in this one. Brissett got others involved where Murray has struggled like Zay Jones (five catches for 79 yards) and Michael Wilson (4 for 44). My gut is that the Cardinals go right back to Murray once he is healthy, but at least Brissett gave them something to think about. He was good. He may not be the long-term answer, but the real question is, does he give Arizona a better chance to win than Kyler right now? I’ll leave that up to each of you to decide.
Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf & Luke
To me, there are two pretty distinct storylines coming out of that game.
The first is the loss. Despite how the last seven days felt, this team had playoff expectations coming into this season. That’s getting tougher by the week at 2-4. Today certainly qualifies as a moral victory — taking a strong Colts team down to the wire in their building when you’re playing without your QB1, WR1, RB1 or RB2 — but moral victories are largely useless at this point. And the fact Trey McBride sure looked like he was held in the end zone on the Cardinals’ final offensive play only makes it worse.
You never want to accept losing, but today’s result under these circumstances would at least be tolerable — if they had held on against Tennessee last week. But they didn’t. They gave that game to the Titans and now they just really have no margin for error.
The other story here is the offense. It looked undeniably different and better. The stats back that up and so does the eye test. The Cardinals attacked downfield a lot more, Jacoby Brissett stood in there and was willing to take hits to make throws, Trey McBride was utilized in the red zone and they pretty consistently moved the ball against a good defense.
Kyler Murray defenders will say that’s because Drew Petzing called better plays this week. If so, maybe that’s a good sign that this offense can still evolve. Those who want Kyler out will tell you it’s because Brissett sees the field better. I don’t really care what it is, they just need to identify it and lean into it. Because this is the first time they’ve looked dangerous with the ball in awhile.
That’s not to say everything’s solved on offense. Or that Brissett’s suddenly Patrick Mahomes. But today’s game suggests there could at least be some big picture answers out there somewhere. And that’s probably a good thing because the Cardinals are dangerously close to having to look at the big picture again.
Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo
Jonathan Gannon says it isn’t a thing: Kyler Murray is the quarterback. Everything we saw with our eyes on Sunday morning said it should be a thing. Jacoby Brissett operated the offense well, topping 300 passing yards and leading an offense to 400 total yards. The question of the quarterback has been short circuited for now by Gannon; I suppose on some level you have to respect his firmness on the matter. He could have given himself a nebulous out, but he didn’t.
But there is no question the way Brissett played scratched the itch a little didn’t it? If Kyler comes back and it’s right back to a struggle to crack 20 points or if he doesn’t return and Brissett plays well vs. Green Bay… the thing won’t go away. But that’s not the only problem here.
There’s the little matter of four straight losses by a combined nine points and a defense that, no matter how good they are Quarters 1 through 3, just aren’t up for the task in Quarter 4. They can’t finish. They haven’t been able to finish in each of these four losses. That weakness is just as much in need of a problem-solve as the offense. I was wondering (worried if we’re being honest) about their ability to recover from the disaster of last week and the fallout in the days since. No worries about that; they competed. But that currency only buys you so much. Counterfeit atta-boys pale in comparison to needed answers. They should be 4-2 right now with wins over the 49ers and Titans.
Instead, this season is sliding out of view.
Tyler Drake, co-host of Cardinals Corner
I’ll be the first one to admit it: I did not think the Cardinals had a snowball’s chance to keep things close this week, let alone sniff a win.
But Jacoby Brissett proved me wrong!
The backup took control of a sputtering offense and led Arizona to its most offensive points so far this season.
He kept Trey McBride well-fed through four quarters of work (eight catches, 72 yards and a score) and was able to get more out of Zay Jones (five catches on eight targets for a team-high 79 yards) than what we’ve seen all year after Harrison went down with a concussion early on.
Whether you think Murray is the answer to Arizona’s offense or not, Brissett made his case to at least warrant another start — even if Murray is healthy.
Will that be the case? I don’t think so given the loyalty the coaching staff has in the franchise signal caller.
But after given just a week of starting reps at practice, Brissett had this offense looking its best through six weeks.
As for the defense, it lived up to its billing for another week: Tough out the gates before falling flat in the final quarter.
For how stout this unit has looked this year, it’s a big reason why these games are going sideways late.
The going doesn’t get any easier next week, either, with the Green Bay Packers next on the schedule.
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