The Arizona Cardinals finished up one of their most heartbreaking losses of the season falling to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by the score of 30-27 in an entertaining shootout.
Both offenses combined for over 870 total yards in an offensive display of fireworks. Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray continued to stake his claim for NFL Rookie of the Year with a dominant 324-yard, three-touchdown performance, Cardinals wide receiver Christian Kirk caught six balls for a career-high 138 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
While the Cardinals offense did their best to out-shoot a dangerous Tampa Bay offense, it was not enough. The Cardinals had some moments in all aspects of the game that prevented them from securing the victory.
Here are the good, the bad and the ugly moments from the Cardinals vs. the Buccaneers matchup:
The good: Fireworks in Raymond James Stadium
As stated earlier, the Cardinals passing offense had a day to remember.
Kyler Murray accounted for 368 yards of total offense while engineering two drives that accounted for 75 and 96 yards. He also finished with a 69.8 out of 100 QBR.
The Cardinals torched a Buccaneers defense that came into the league with the No. 31 ranked pass defense. Christian Kirk completely victimized Buccaneers cornerbacks Ryan Smith and Sean Murphy-Bunting on his touchdowns of 69 and 33 yards.
Three Cardinals receivers had 70 or more receiving yards in Christian Kirk, Larry Fitzgerald and the surprising second-round rookie in Andy Isabella who is coming off of his second consecutive game of at least 70 receiving yards.
This is easily the best performance that the Cardinals have had on the road this year.
The bad: A beautiful game…a beautifully sloppy game
While the Cardinals looked dynamic on offense, it wasn’t all pretty.
The Cardinals were just 1-of-10 on third down, including a sequence where the Bucs and the Cardinals combined for four straight punts.
The passing game was great but the rushing attack left a lot to be desired. The Buccaneers came into Sunday’s matchup with the No.1 ranked rushing defense. The odds were definitely against the Cardinals running game but they were completely shut down.
Cardinals running back Kenyan Drake had a very slight amount of success going for ten rushes on only 35 yards with his longest being a 17-yard scamper with 6:31 in the fourth quarter.
However, the true story would be about the next man:
The ugly: The decline of David Johnson?
While Kenyan Drake had a modicum of success, Cardinals running back David Johnson was absolutely nonexistent rushing for only two yards on five carries including an uncharacteristic fumble in the third quarter at the Tampa Bay 19-yard line. The fumble would be his first since Week 13 of last season against the Detroit Lions.
While Johnson is still a great receiver out of the backfield, his rushing numbers have not been great averaging only 3.7 yards per carry. Johnson has yet to have a 100-yard rushing game and had three games where he has had under 20 rushing yards.
The matchup against the Bucs was a tough one but Johnson has clearly not been as effective of a runner since his breakout 2016 season where he led the league in scrimmage yards with 2,113. He has dealt with some nagging injuries this year playing in only eight games and rushed only one time against the New York Giants in Week 7 due to a recurring ankle injury.
The Cardinals rewarded Johnson with a three-year, $39 million contract with more than $31 million guaranteed with hopes that he could replicate the same success that he did in 2016.
That success has not translated well and if the Cardinals plan to move on, they may have to wait until 2021 when his dead cap hit is around $3 million.
Although this was a tough game, we may have seen the last of David Johnson’s prime.
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