The Arizona Cardinals got clobbered 38-7 by the San Francisco 49ers yesterday, but there's a silver lining: what's been an atrocious season for the Cards is now over -- with the team finishing in last place in the worst division in the NFL.
As has been the narrative all season, the Cards were awful in the loss, with the offense -- in this case led by rookie quarterback John Skelton -- looking awful, and the defense playing horrific.
Skelton connected with Larry Fitzgerald for a 10-yard touchdown pass in the
first half for the team's only points, which was the only Cardinals
highlight of the entire game.
Skelton, who was replaced in the second half by Richard Bartel,
completed 14 of 25 passes for 92 yards. He had one interception and one
touchdown earning him a QB rating of 60.8, which sucks but is about par
for the course for Cards quarterbacks this season.
Bartel played a little better than Skelton, but not much.
Bartel completed 16 of 28 passes for 150 yards. He threw no touchdowns and was intercepted once for a passer rating of 57.1.
The Cards' defense was fairly average in the first half, which is better
than awful -- which has been the standard for much of the season.
The Cards' D only allowed 10 points in the first half, a manageable
deficit for the offense going into the second half down three. The
defense stopped the Niners on six of seven third down tries. But then
the second half happened -- where the Cards' offense did absolutely
nothing and defense was powerless to stop San Fran's offensive surge.
The Niners scored 28 unanswered points in the second half -- 21 of which were scored in the third quarter.
San Francisco cornerback Tarell Brown put the final nail in the Cards'
coffin by picking off Bartel for a 62-yard touchdown return. Bartel, who
made his NFL debut yesterday, made a half-assed effort to try and stop
the return of the interception he threw, but just gave up near the
20-yard line allowing Brown to prance into the endzone untouched.
As the saying goes, Cards fans, there's always next year.
