You would think a team with one of the greatest quarterback prospects ever and a current top 10 quarterback would be good, right? You would think the oldest team in the NFL would have one of the better histories in the league, OR at the very least have a decent history, right? You would think that a professional sports team would at least have some level of competence, right? But that's your problem, your thinking, and that's not what the Cardinals organization likes to do. Once again, the Arizona Cardinals have me in complete disbelief at how a team could possibly be this atrocious on a field.
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| Picture Taken From State Farm Stadium Pictures (10/5/25) |
Okay, let's rewind for a second so I can calm down. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, the Arizona Cardinals are...a football team, to say the least, and recently, in week 5 of the NFL season, they went up against the Tennessee Titans. This was supposed to be an easy win for the Cardinals, and by all accounts should have been. The Cardinals, coming into this game, were a 2-2 team who, while not beating major teams for their 2 wins, went toe to toe with two playoff contending teams(Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers). On the other hand, the Titans have 0 wins this season. In fact, they haven't won a game since November 2024. As of writing this, it is October 2025. Pair that with the additional information that they're a rebuilding team that recently lost their star talent with a rookie as their starting quarterback, and the Titans were in no way expected to even contend in this game. If they simply kept the game close, it would be a win for them.
Things looked grim at first for the Titans. The Cardinals opening drive had Marvin Harrison Jr. catch a deep ball from Murray, which led to a touchdown shortly after. The Cardinals proceeded to score two more times. However, the Titans did manage to gain a touchdown as well. It is now halftime, and the score is now 21 to 6 in favor of the Cardinals.
While the 3rd quarter didn't have much noise from either team, the next one would make up for that. It is now the final quarter of the game, during a drive, Murray hands the ball off to their running back, who takes the ball for around 50 yards. wide open field, no titan in sight to stop him, if there was any hope for a titans win, it was now gone... or at least it should've been. Arizona's running back drops the ball at the one-yard line due to early celebration. It was this moment that prompted the self-destruction of the Cardinals organization for the rest of this game.
The cardinals couldn't stop messing up. At first, they give up a deep ball to Ridley, which ultimately led to a Tony Pollard scoring the very next drive, touchdown Titans. After that, the Cardinals couldn't convert their downs. Titans now have the ball. They used this opportunity to, A, gain about 20-25 yards with Pollard, and B, throw a 25-yard pass to a Titans receiver who brought it to the endzone, touchdown Titans.
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| Image Source: The Daily Herald |
However, the Cardinals are still up at this point. While it is a closer game, they are still up in points and the ball with two minutes left. All they would have to do is run out the time, and they would have won. But as I stated previously, that makes too much sense. Instead, these geniuses go through all of the downs in a matter of about a minute. For context, each down has about a 45-second window. This leaves Tennessee with 53 seconds left to score. First drive, the Titans have Arizona stop them. The crowd roars with excitement and thinks maybe they can still win the game. Despite the complete embarrassment that happened up to this point, as long as they have another spectacular defensive drive like they just had, the fans can go home happy because at the end of the day, they one. However, this is the Arizona Cardinals, and two good things can't happen in a row.
Ward throws a prayer to Ridley, which is answered, to put Tennessee in field goal range with 3 seconds left. Their kicker, who had missed a majority of his previous kicks, drills the ball threw the goal post. Titans score, game over. In the span of ten minutes, the Titans score 16 unanswered points to win 22-21 against the Cardinals.
Now, jokes aside, this was genuinely an enjoyable game to watch. I haven't been this engaged with my family while watching sports in a while. Even though it took an absolute disaster of a game from my favorite team for this joy to come out, I'm glad I got to make some memories with my family. The Cardinals are always going to be disappointing. It's a given, like death and taxes, and when they are, they're frustratingly hilarious. At the very least, we still have the best jerseys in the league.
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