Four winners and four losers from the Arizona Cardinals 23-21 loss to the Oakland Raiders

It took 55 minutes for the Arizona Cardinals to get a lead and less than five minutes to lose it.

That’s the story of the Arizona Cardinals season. A lot of work to get where you want to be but only short spurts of that competence and consistency.

That’s why this week’s winners and losers article does have a couple of winners, but a whole lot more losers.

Winners

David Johnson - Take away the late drop and he out together his best rushing game of the season and did well in the passing game when he had one chance outside of the drop. When your team only completes nine passes on the day, there’s not going to be much in the way of good things to say. That’s why Johnson’s big day on the ground and the fact he was almost able to put the game away, Ricky Seals-Jones holding penalty killed that, makes him a winner.

Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk - They’re getting closer and closer to being a more than competent duo. Fitz of course is Fitz, but he’s not getting a ton of opportunities, only four targets, two were on target and both went for touchdowns. Kirk on the other hand had four targets, all on target, with three catches for 77 yards and a touchdown. He had one drop that hurt early, but more than atoned with the touchdown. When your top two receivers combine for five catches for 100 yards and three touchdowns on only nine completions, they did their job.

Andy Lee - This is getting to be a joke, but the Cardinals are getting their money’s worth. Lee averaged 52.3 yards per punt, only had one touchback and flipped field position all day. The problem was…

Losers

Josh Rosen - A career high three touchdowns, was sullied by completing only six additional passes on 20 attempts. 9/20 is not good. Two of those incompletions were to the Raiders, both on bad, bad misses. The reason he ends up here is not because of the play though, instead it’s because for a second time this season, Steve Wilks showed he doesn’t trust the rookie yet. Instead of giving him a chance to make a play and get a first down, he waved the white flag and lost… again. That’s why…

Steve Wilks - I get having faith in your defense, but your defense had not caused a turnover in the game. They’d been gashed on the ground and they were on the field for over 21 minutes in the second half. You play to win the game… Wilks has not figured out yet how to do that. For that matter, neither has Rosen.

Steve Keim - It was a pupu platter of bad decisions on display. Andre Smith, the tight end room, the rotation at cornerback, no one able to fill gaps in the run game. It’s gotten to the point where when you say, well they had five rookies on the field, that’s not a positive because a lot of them aren’t ready to be out there but they are the best option at this point.

Fans - This season has been miserable, you saw the second half of the schedule and hoped to see two wins, feeling like one was as certain as could be in a season like this against the Raiders. Now, there’s a realistic possibility that the Cardinals are going to have their worst season in the franchises history since the move to the desert. They could win just two games for the first time since 1959. I had season tickets at Sun Devil Stadium. If you told me it could get worse I’d have never believed it. Hopefully it’s one down year and a quick turnaround. Cause the product on the field, fans deserve better.