Good news: The Arizona Cardinals lost by fewer than 58 points to the Seattle Seahawks Thursday night.
The Cards still lost, and it was still pretty ugly.
In the 34-22 loss, Carson Palmer got absolutely crushed. He was sacked seven times, and blame for those sacks can be spread across the whole O-line, but left tackle Bradley Sowell deserves special attention for doing his best Levi Brown impression (sucking).
Palmer threw two interceptions throughout the game, and then there's the rushing game, which went for 30 yards. Yeah, 30 yards. Rashard Mendenhall got 13 carries for 22 yards.
That's the easy way to never win any football games. Earlier this week, after the Cardinals loss to San Francisco, we pointed out the stats of the opposing tight ends in the Cards' three losses: Jared Cook from St. Louis had seven catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns. New Orleans' Jimmy Graham hauled in nine, for 134 yards, and two touchdowns. The 49ers' Vernon Davis caught eight passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns.
The Cards would work extra hard to shut down Seattle's Zach Miller, right? Not really. He had five catches for 40 yards and a touchdown.
There was a point in the third quarter where the Cardinals were down by just four points, but running back Marshawn Lynch went into what's commonly referred to as "beast mode," wherein he makes an ass of a whole lot of people who try to tackle him.
Lynch got 91 yards on 21 carries, and one touchdown.
It's kind of a miracle that the Cardinals kind of hung in this game for a while -- credit goes to the defense for that -- and it's certainly better than last year's 58-0 loss.
The Cardinals are now 3-4 on the year, and it's never to early to say, "Maybe next year."
Send feedback and tips to the author.
Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.
