The Arizona Cardinals are no longer undefeated, and they did not go down gracefully.
Kevin Kolb spent more time playing assault victim that he did playing quarterback, the Cardinals' run game continues to be essentially non-existent, resulting in a 17-3 loss in St. Louis.
Kolb was sacked nine times, two of those resulting in his helmet coming off, and one of them ending with Kolb's mouth bloodied.
When he actually had time to throw, which was pretty rare, he did fine -- he completed 28 of 50 passes, with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
Of course, Kolb throwing the football 50 times is what happens when your leading rusher gains 33 yards on 14 carries. One of those carries by Ryan Williams was for 12 yards.
On the other side, it was pretty much the opposite -- quarterback Sam Bradford sucked, while running backs Steven Jackson and Daryl Richardson had success.
Bradford completed just seven of his 21 pass attempts, although two of those seven completions were for touchdowns. Jackson ran for 76 yards on 18 carries, and Richardson got 35 yards in nine rushing attempts.
The Rams scored on the first drive of the game, as Bradford completed three of four passes, including a 7-yard touchdown pass.
The Cardinals' only points came on their first drive, as Jay Feely hit a 35-yard field goal.
With the Cardinals' offensive line hardly touching the Rams' linemen as they went after Kolb, it made things incredibly difficult.
It's kind of hard for Kolb to repeatedly throw for first downs in second-and-19 situations, or third-and-15, especially when he knows he's going to get clobbered any second.
The Cardinals' tackles were even called for holding on plays where they still gave up the sacks.
Toward the end of the game, it looked like maybe the Cardinals could have done what they did last week against the Miami Dolphins -- have the offensive line hold blocks for just a couple friggin' plays, and let Kolb make the plays.
That didn't quite happen. The ending was somewhat fitting, too. Patrick Peterson got a pretty nice punt return to set the Cardinals up at the Rams' 45 yard-line for their last chance, down 14 points with 1:41 to go. On the very first play, Kolb was nailed as he was about to throw, and fumbled the football. The Rams recovered the ball, and were able to end the game on kneel-downs.
After five games, the Cardinals have finally been defeated.
