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If you are a fan, you always want your team to win. That's natural, even in the preseason.
But the way the Arizona Cardinals almost got a win in Minnesota in a preseason game? It is funny, but it doesn't do anything for you.
The Arizona Cardinals lost their second preseason game 30-28 to the Minnesota Vikings, thanks to a two-yard touchdown pass from Teddy Bridgewater to Rodney Smith with 18 seconds left in the game.
But it looked like the Cardinals might win...in the strangest of fashions.
Ryan Lindley took the Cardinals down to the five-yard line...sort of. He threw two incomplete passes and Bradley Sowell was flagged for a false start. They were looking at third and 15, but a personal foul penalty made it first down.
On the next play, Lindley tries to find Kevin Ozier deep down the left sideline and Ozier loses his footing. But the referees flag the defender for pass interference (it didn't look like a penalty at all), putting the ball at the five-yard line.
With the extra life, you would have been looking for Lindley to make a play.
The sequence was overthrowing a wide open Darren Fells in the flat, which would have been a touchdown on first down. On second down, Lindley throws the ball out the back of the end zone. On third down, he tries to find Dan Buckner in the back of the end zone. It falls incomplete, but he overlooked a wide open Walt Powell at the goalline to make a tougher throw.
On fourth down, he fumbled the snap, but when the linemen began to pile up, John Estes batted the ball to the left and running back Zach Bauman scooped up the ball and ran in for a touchdown. Not a single official signaled touchdown, but because of what happened, it was ruled a score. After a review, the touchdown is confirmed.
Lindley was officially 0/4 on the drive. Two other incompletions were called back on defensive penalties. He fumbled, but somehow a touchdown was scored.
Now if this were the regular season, you take a win like that. All the wins count. But in the preseason? Not so much.
What you want to see is some player making a play, doing something to stand out.
That didn't happen.
It was by dumb luck they took the lead.
And were it not for a Teddy Bridgewater comeback drive, it would have been an empty win. A win that doesn't count and that was had on a fluke.
Instead of that insane ending in a Cardinals win, we have a different narrative -- a first round quarterback that led two comeback touchdown drives, including one in the final minute of the game.
If you haven't noticed, something that creates buzz in the NFL is having talented young quarterbacks. People pay attention to Johnny Manziel. They paid attention to Andrew Luck.
A late-round project in Logan Thomas created a lot of buzz just a week ago for the Cardinals.
Bridgewater is a player fans want to see. He was 16/20 for 177 yards and two touchdowns. Both touchdowns gave the Vikings the lead in the fourth quarter.
That's good for the NFL.
You know what's not good for the NFL? A preseason win on an offensive touchdown scored on a fumbled snap.
Instead, NFL gets the promise of a young quarterback that stages a comeback. It's a quarterback league, and when they are good, they move the dial of fan interest.
In the preseason, if that fumble play becomes the deciding play, no one wins, even when your team wins the game.
When a first round QB leads a comeback in the preseason, everyone wins in the NFL.
