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The Arizona Cardinals (2-7) entered a game with the hapless Oakland Raiders (1-8), in a game that the Cardinals were actually favored to win.
How about that, huh?
Given the poor teams’ respective records and the impact of a loss on the NFL Draft standings, there was a bit of humor ahead of the game as to how bad both of these teams have been this season. In a game called by some....the Tank Bowl.
You wanted a real matchup?
— Schlasser (@UrinatingTree) November 18, 2018
Well the previous Tank Bowl was just a matinee matchup.#Raiders vs #Cardinals
TANK BOWL VII!
THE BATTLE FOR BOSA REACHES A CRITICAL MARKER!
PREPARE YOURSELVES! pic.twitter.com/jUBztlLwxz
To start out in a #SaluteToService, Fitz got to catch passes not from yet a new quarterback, but someone who was just as important nonetheless:
WR @larryfitzgerald playing catch with a member of the @usarmy before our #SaluteToService Game! pic.twitter.com/CQQ8jQV2Xy
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 18, 2018
The game couldn’t have started worse. Penalties, pressure and then Rosen threw an interception under pressure with Korey Cunningham starting for the injured D.J. Humphries and it was still not a great throw:
Josh Rosen’s first pass intercepted. Let’s hope thats not an omen today for #AZCardinals
— Mark McClune (@MarkMcClune) November 18, 2018
Some of Josh Rosen's interceptions have been nice plays by the defense. This one was just a terrible read and throw by the QB.
— Adam Green (@theAdamGreen) November 18, 2018
The Raiders turned it into a score. However, the Cardinals determined to turn the game around, and it was with a solid drive running the ball with David Johnson and a TD to....who else?
.@josh3rosen to @LarryFitzgerald for SIX!
— NFL (@NFL) November 18, 2018
: CBS #BeRedSeeRed pic.twitter.com/Z4MadO6RJc
That seemed to start to turn the game around. Chander Jones got going with another sack:
Another game.
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 18, 2018
Another sack for @chanjones55! pic.twitter.com/esPlWqfDhr
And then Christian Kirk on an adjustment from Josh Rosen got loose for a HUGE touchdown on his 22nd birthday, no less.
Birthday Boy giving us a gift.@ChristianDavon2 blowing out his candles today + blowing by defenders. pic.twitter.com/YU9ElqCBYY
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 18, 2018
Josh Rosen audibled into a quick pass to Christian Kirk, who slipped a couple tackles and raced for a 59-yard score.
— Adam Green (@theAdamGreen) November 18, 2018
#Cardinals rookie WR Christian Kirk takes a bubble-screen 59-yards for the touchdown.
— Dion Caputi (@nfldraftupdate) November 18, 2018
Kirk's 3rd score of the season.
Explosive after the catch, I compared Kirk to Golden Tate coming out of the draft in spring. Think he plays a similar game.
YAC receiver.
But, unfortunately, it came crashing down with a second, not great, interception thrown by Josh Rosen:
Only way Cardinals lose this game is if they do what 49ers did a few weeks ago, turn the ball over 5 times. And there's No. 2
— scott bordow (@sbordow) November 18, 2018
The Raiders run game started to take over, and Oakland ended up rushing for over 150 yards on the day behind the legs of Raiders RB Doug Martin:
Doug Martin looking pretty good. Again.
— Michael Fabiano (@Michael_Fabiano) November 18, 2018
Cardinals getting gouged by run. Poor backside gap
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) November 18, 2018
Carr TD 2
Carr throws a 5-yard TD pass to LaFell.
— Darren Urban (@Cardschatter) November 18, 2018
Two Rosen interceptions have led to two Raiders TD.
LaFell beats Peterson. TD Raiders.
— Jess Root (@senorjessroot) November 18, 2018
Then came the 3rd quarter doldrums...a terrible possession ending in 3rd and 31 (that’s right, 3rd and 31!) for the Cardinals after multiple poor penalties and a sack of Rosen back near his own goal-line.
Oof.
On that offensive possession for Arizona: False start, Aboushi gives up sack, holding penalty on Gresham. Result, Raiders take over at their 45
— scott bordow (@sbordow) November 18, 2018
Wheels fell off on that drive. Cards ended up 3rd & 33 & Rosen came up limping.
— Mark McClune (@MarkMcClune) November 18, 2018
Not a good offensive possession: false start, holding, sack...first three times lining up. Cardinals forced to punt#OAKvsAZ
— Craig Grialou (@CraigAZSports) November 18, 2018
A third false start by a third Cardinals O-lineman
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) November 18, 2018
OOF.
Rosen overthrew a few passes as well due to the constant pressure, and some even if there wasn’t some pressure there.
Hurst forced a high pass there from Rosen.
— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) November 18, 2018
But the Raiders? Still bad. Still pretty bad. They didn’t know what was going on for a play.
Calling back-to-back timeouts #OAKvsAZ #BeRedSeeRed
— British [2-8]Gang (@BritishBirdgang) November 18, 2018
Two minute offensiveness happened before the half, for both teams.
And two-minute offense one minute of offensiveness. Cardinals punting.
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) November 18, 2018
But hey, at least there were some laughs to be had! In between the malaise of the offense that is...
When Mike Glennon gets a false start penalty while on the sidelines... pic.twitter.com/86u5iKM09s
— Weird Flex But (@AZ_ArmchairGM) November 18, 2018
Promising drive: Sherfield 6-yard catch, Johnson 17-yard screen, ends with Rosen dropping a shotgun snap and Cole called for false start#OAKvsAZ
— Craig Grialou (@CraigAZSports) November 18, 2018
Third time Hall was close to a sack today. He’s slicing through this ARI OL.
— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) November 18, 2018
ttps://twitter.com/kentsomers/status/1064284242052493312
Carr
The Cardinals came out of the half and did much of what they had done in the second quarter.
...Not much.
Please make a play on defense.
— Wendy (@suazobyf) November 18, 2018
Save the "I don't think Nelson would have caught it" part of this tweet for future use
— Jarrett Carlen (@JarrettGC) November 18, 2018
Olsen Pierre just walked into the locker room#OAKvsAZ
— Craig Grialou (@CraigAZSports) November 18, 2018
Second time this year for Munyer on D. https://t.co/BXqEcOi7ez
— Darren Urban (@Cardschatter) November 18, 2018
And what do you know? It paid off for once!
Raiders test Daniel Munyer in the center of the line and you just can't do that.
— Darren Urban (@Cardschatter) November 18, 2018
(Munyer had some help on the stuff.)
Cardinals hold inside the 5, Raiders hit the field goal for a 20-14 lead.
Cardinals hurt themselves on penalties this drive, but Bethea & Boston led a big stop on third down in the red zone.
— Katherine Fitzgerald (@kfitz134) November 18, 2018
Raiders net their second field goal & lead 20-14, with 0:22 left in third quarter. They took 7:39 off the clock
Does Josh Rosen have another 4th quarter comeback in him like against San Francisco?
— scott bordow (@sbordow) November 18, 2018
Worth noting that with 20 points, the Raiders have already scored more than the Cardinals did in all but one game this season (28, at SF).
— Adam Green (@theAdamGreen) November 18, 2018
The game got....sloppy in the 4th....
This is some grade-a 2002 football being played in Arizona.
— Dieter Kurtenbach (@dkurtenbach) November 18, 2018
You're a one-win football team. Go for it
— scott bordow (@sbordow) November 18, 2018
Bc you're Gruden?
— spidr2ybanana (@spidr2ybanana) November 18, 2018
Thank you, @Spidr2ybanana (Gruden’s favorite play) for the Gruden analysis.
Gruden and Carr didn’t get along all game.
And it was caught on camera...
Jon Gruden's exchange with Derek Carr here is certainly something pic.twitter.com/TUp32y1Z1c
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 18, 2018
Did the Cardinals make Gruden pay for his conservatism?
Well it started with a DJ spinning a beat...
David Johnson with a huge run to give the Cardinals some life.
— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) November 18, 2018
Rosen followed it up by delivering in a big way...first to Christian Kirk...
Christian Kirk with the toe tap on the sideline!
— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) November 18, 2018
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/ILANCcONMk
And then to Fitz...
Living legend Larry Fitzgerald with his second touchdown of the day!#BeRedSeeRed pic.twitter.com/IFmNVt90DW
— FanDuel (@FanDuel) November 18, 2018
Josh Rosen to Larry Fitzgerald for a 5-yard TD. Great drive after Raiders punted on 4th-and-1 from the AZ 38.
— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) November 18, 2018
Christian Kirk has a huge catch on the sideline, & Larry Fitzgerald has a touchdown on the next play.
— Katherine Fitzgerald (@kfitz134) November 18, 2018
Matt McCrane gets the PAT, and Cardinals take the lead, 21-20 with 5:02 left
Larry Larry Larry!
Andy Lee had a heck of a day punting, by the way...one punt that got downed by Trent Sherfield at the 2 was a thing of beauty.
If you do nothing else today, go vote for @AndyLee4 for Pro Bowl.
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 18, 2018
Guy is a beast.https://t.co/DF6DSEOQNR
AZ tried to put the game away twice and couldn’t do it....mostly due to terrible tight end play. And dumb mistakes.
Two 15-yard penalties that killed AZ’s chances to seal the game for good.
What a dumb play by Gresham. A killer. Cardinals O is going to fail twice to put this away
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) November 18, 2018
Ricky Seals-Jones holding, Gresham issues.
— Blake Allen Murphy (@blakemurphy7) November 18, 2018
You could legit convince me that outside of Rosen, Fitz, DJ and Kirk there's not a single player on the Cardinals offense worth bringing back in 2019.
But the Raiders got one more shot.....despite it being a ton of really sloppy play...
The end of this game is two teams desperately trying to lose
— PITT IS RANKED (@IAmSpilly) November 19, 2018
And when it came down to it?
They couldn’t finish the game, let up some big gains and blitzed at the end and it burned them as despite Oakland almost blowing it, they spiked the ball and Raiders K Daniel Carlson kicked a game-winner to sink the Cards.
All Daniel Carlson does is hit game-winning field goals
— Matthew Coller (@MatthewColler) November 19, 2018
Carlson kick is good. Raiders beat Cardinals. Incredible
— scott bordow (@sbordow) November 19, 2018
Carlson hits from 35 yards.
— British [2-8]Gang (@BritishBirdgang) November 19, 2018
Raiders win 23-21.
I have no words.#OAKvsAZ #BeRedSeeRed
Happy Gruden was on the sideline...despite a LOT of ups and downs throughout the game which were well worth watching.
Another FG. Carr wins Gruden over. pic.twitter.com/pmbzFKfdgU
— Grant Boone (@grantboone) November 18, 2018
It was....not a good loss, no positives to take away.
There’s a lot of negative fan reaction, as well deserved but there’s no reason to post some of those tweets here. A simple search for “Cardinals” “Wilks” “Keim” will serve you well but I’ll close with this from our own site manager:
Honestly, there's not much left to say... It's okay to admit a mistake and move on. This is the worst Arizona Cardinals team I can remember
— Seth (@SCoxFB) November 19, 2018
Not much left to say indeed.
You can can follow @blakemurphy7 on Twitter and listen to the Revenge of the Birds podcast at the link below: