The Cardinals walked into Levi’s Stadium staring at a blowout.
With 11:10 left in the third quarter, San Francisco had just finished another march to open the second half, stretching the lead to 23-6. ESPN had the 49ers at a 98.6% win probability, and it looked for a moment like Arizona was headed for another one of those games that gets out of hand and stays there.
Instead, the Cardinals kept swinging.
That’s the part worth carrying out of a 36-30 loss in Week 3. Arizona dropped to 1-2, and the defeat also pushed the team’s NFC West losing streak to eight straight games.
But unlike the Week 2 loss to Seattle, this one came with some fight attached to it. The Cardinals were punched early, punched again, and still found a way to make it interesting late.
First-year head coach Mike LaFleur noticed the difference.
“The one thing I'll say about all the phases is they battled. There's no question in my mind that they battled.
That's a very good football team that we just played,” LaFleur said after the game. Arizona even got within two points with under three minutes remaining before San Francisco finished the job.
“There's no moral victories in any of this, like at all. But there's things we can take from this, but we got to move forward.
We got to get better. We got to improve the stuff that we're not doing well.”
That last part is the ugly truth for the Cardinals. The issues are broad, and they don’t disappear just because the final score was closer than it looked midway through the third quarter. But when you’re stacking consecutive games against legitimate Super Bowl contenders, the grading curve gets brutal.
LaFleur has already started framing this season as a process, not a quick fix. And before Sunday, he pointed back to his own time in San Francisco under Kyle Shanahan as an example of how long these things can take.
“It took time. I hate to even bring it back because it sucked in real time, but (when I was there) we started 0-9 our first year.
Won one, got to 1-9 and then went to 1-10. Then won five in a row to end it and finished 6-10 that first year.
It was almost like throwing a parade that we won six games and the next year we go 4-12,” he said.
“It took some time from a standard perspective of getting the right people on the bus.”
That’s the tension in Arizona right now. Fans are tired of resets and new coaches and starting over, but the reality is still the reality. This is a first-year staff trying to build something, and it’s going to look messy along the way.
The Cardinals’ defensive problems remain obvious. So do the lingering questions on offense. And in a league that punishes slow starts, patience only goes so far.
Still, this one felt different at the end. The standings still say 1-2.
The losses still count. But after being left for dead against a top opponent, Arizona at least showed it could stay alive long enough to make the finish matter.
Maybe - just maybe - there was a sliver of hope in today’s loss.
In Other News...
Cardinals Fans Got An Awkward Viral Officiating Moment They Cant Ignore
The Cardinals Week 3 loss to the 49ers already had enough attention attached to it, but one strange sidelight from Levis Stadium is now living on its own. In a game San Francisco won 36-30, a viral photo captured an NFL official making awkward contact with an Arizona player while spotting the ball, turning an otherwise routine sequence into the kind of clip fans cant stop replaying.
The image quickly spread across social media, where the moment drew far more conversation than the play itself. The player involved was never identified, leaving the scene as an unresolved and uncomfortable footnote to a tight divisional game, one Cardinals fans are likely to remember for reasons that have nothing to do with the final score. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Let Upset Bid Slip Away For One Frustrating Reason
The Cardinals had a real shot to turn Sunday into one of those early-season wins that can change the tone of a locker room, but their trip to San Francisco slipped away in a game defined by self-inflicted damage. Arizona fell 36-30 to the 49ers in Week 3, and the frustrating part was how often the Cardinals helped make life harder on themselves with penalties and missed tackles at key moments.
Jacoby Brissett gave Arizona enough to stay in the fight, finishing 38 of 52 for 280 yards and two touchdowns, even if the offense took too long to get rolling. There were positive signs, too, including Simi Fehokos recovery of a muffed punt, but those flashes were drowned out by 10 penalties for 86 yards and the kind of tackling breakdowns that can erase a strong stretch in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Showed Fight But Two Familiar Problems Still Loom Large
The Cardinals came out of Sundays loss to San Francisco with a few things to feel better about, even if the result was the same familiar kind of frustration. Their rushing game looked livelier, with Jeremiyah Love giving the offense a real boost on the ground and adding a receiving touchdown, which at least showed Arizona can still create balance when it is not chasing the game.
But the bigger issues that have shadowed this team were still there in full view. Arizona had trouble keeping Brock Purdy under control, gave up too much through the air and never consistently generated pressure of its own, and the 10 penalties only added to the mess. Even after a late onside kick recovery kept the game alive, the Cardinals could not quite erase the sense that the margin for error remains thin while those problems linger. [Read more 🡒]