Arizona Cardinals fall in preseason finale 21-10 to Denver Broncos

While it is always great to get back to football, I don’t think anyone is going to miss preseason football.

For the preseason, the Arizona Cardinals were a fine 3-1, but more than that, they began to establish their identity, even in their 21-10 loss to the Denver Broncos in the preseason finale.

It happened again in their fourth and final preseason, the Cardinals forced another turnover, this time, defensive lineman Jacques Smith intercepted a pass, setting up a nice drive by... Mike Glennon? Yes, Glennon was on point and efficient, going 3-3 for 30 yards and a touchdown, a two-yard strike to ***checks notes*** Greg Little, as the Cardinals got out to a quick 7-0 lead.

Then, there wasn’t much for the Arizona Cardinals offensively.

No, the Cardinals offensively struggled after the touchdown drive.

After the 45 yard touchdown drive, through the end of the third quarter, the Cardinals offense gained 38 yards, had five punts and fumble.

Defensively, well this was the first game that it unraveled a little bit.

Paxton Lynch was efficient and effective in the second half, taking advantage of the Cardinals inability to get anything going on offense.

Lynch orchestrated two touchdown drives, the first an eight play 67 yarder that resulted in a Lynch to Jordan Leslie touchdown. Then, after a strip sack of Chad Kanoff, he got the Broncos on the board with a four play, 23 yard drive, with a touchdown pass to Matt LaCosse.

In the fourth quarter, after the Broncos Brandon McManus missed a 58-yard field goal, the Cardinals were able to nearly double their yardage output, and setup a 36-yard Matt McCrane field goal, that banged off the left upright and through to cut the Broncos lead to 21-10.

That was really it though.

We saw some really nice performances, as Ezekiel Turner, Trent Sherfield and Tim Scott all made their case for a roster spot.

However, for the game the Cardinals were outgained 347 yards to 162 yards, while committing their first turnover of the preseason.

We are on to the regular season, thank goodness.