Missed Field Goal Dooms Cardinals at New England

Arizona Sports News online

AP Photo/Elise Amendola

This one wasn’t for the time capsule. 

The Cardinals found many ways in which to lose at New England 20-17. 

Working in reverse order-

‘-A personnel foul penalty on rookie Isaiah Simmons, giving the Patriots 15 more yards in the eventual game-winning field goal by Nick Folk as time expired.

-A 47 yard missed field goal by Zane Gonzalez with less than two minutes to go into a tie game

-A Kyler Murray tipped ball that was intercepted by New England

-The Cardinals (rightly IMO) going for a touchdown rather than a field goal on the final play of the first half, only to see Kenyan Drake snuffed out before crossing the goal line. 

Games usually come down to four or five key plays. There you go.

Murray didn’t flash his legs nearly as much as we’ve seen through the first 10 games of the season. Was he trying to protect himself from the big hits he took against Seattle? There was no Fred Astaire in his steps on Sunday.

He finished with 31 yards rushing on just five carries. Drake scored twice for the Cardinals, who fell to 6-5. They’ve dropped three of their last four and are a miracle catch by DeAndre Hopkins against Buffalo, from losing four straight. 

The bigger question about the Cardinals is, are they good enough to make the playoffs? We will find out next week when they host the LA Rams in the first of two late-season meetings.