The loss the Arizona Cardinals suffered to the St. Louis Rams on Sunday was difficult. Yes, the Rams led from start to finish, but Cardinals fans are used to the team winning this kind of game. They have done it many times.
Carson Palmer felt they would get the win. "I thought we felt we could win the game the entire game, even after we turned it over on downs on the last drive," he said.
But the Cardinals couldn't pull it off and there were plenty of reasons why.
"We can't play situational football the way we did in that game and win very many ball games," said head coach Bruce Arians on Monday. "Though, all we've got to do is complete a pass and get a kick and we win the game anyway.
"Those types of games we've won for two years. This is the first one that we've lost like that and it's a little hard to swallow because of the fact that we've won so many in the fourth quarter here the last two years. We just kind of anticipated we'd make the play to win this one and we didn't get it done."
He is right. Let's go back over the last couple of seasons.
In 2013, the Cardinals trailed in the fourth quarter against the Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks. They made plays late to win the game. They blew a fourth quarter lead against the Tennessee Titans, but won the game in overtime.
Last season, they rallied in the fourth quarter four different times to win the game. In Week 1, it took a fourth quarter John Brown touchdown to give the Cardinals a win. Ted Ginn returned a punt for a touchdown in the fourth quarter the next week in New York. They rallied to beat the Eagles on another John Brown touchdown and Brown got the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter (followed by two defensive touchdowns) against the Rams after Carson Palmer left with his season-ending knee injury.
That makes seven fourth quarter rallies and one overtime win.
They almost did it again. If Carson Palmer completes one of those two passes in the Cardinals final possession and Chandler Catanzaro makes a sixth field goal, the Cardinals win. Heck, the Cardinals win if David Johnson just doesn't drop the easy throw in the end zone in the first half. That was four points off the board.
The bad news is the Cardinals lost. It was a tough loss -- a bad loss because it was a divisional game at home. The good news is the Cardinals have made us all (and themselves) accustomed to pulling out games.
Yes, it was hard to swallow, but because of their previous and frequent success, there is definitely more than enough confidence the team will overcome this and move forward.