The Arizona Cardinals experience a bitter humiliation in the playoffs. Against the Los Angeles Rams, the team around quarterback Kyler Murray is not competitive and is completely dismantled.

Los Angeles/Munich – It had all looked so good.

Entering the season, the Arizona Cardinals were one of the hottest teams in the NFL. Eight wins in nine games, quarterback Kyler Murray was considered one of the top candidates for the MVP award.

A few weeks later, the picture is completely different. After the bitter 11:34 defeat against the Los Angeles Rams and the resulting playoff exit, superstar J.J. Watt summed up the season in three words: “massive failure – embarrassing”. The outright failure of his team, which was also embarrassing, could not be described in any other way, the defensive end continued.

Rams completely outplay Cardinals

The Cards lost four of their last five games in the regular season, and this negative series was crowned by their humiliation in the Wild Card Round. Already at half-time the Cards were trailing 0:21, shortly after the break Cooper Kupp even increased the Rams’ lead to 28:0.

Playmaker Murray played a not insignificant role in the disappointing performance of the guests. There was no sign of his former MVP ambitions in his first play-off game. He completed 19 of 34 passes for a meagre 137 yards. He only used his actually good skills in the run game after the break, and the O-line constantly put him in trouble with their weak performance.

Murray throws terrible interception

The 24-year-old failed to score a touchdown, but was forced into two interceptions. One of them was particularly bitter – and costly. In the middle of the second quarter, the Rams defence put so much pressure on the signal caller in his own end zone that he blindly threw the ball forward to avoid a safety.

The ball was neither particularly long nor particularly fast, and it spun into the arms of Rams cornerback David Long. With a run of just three yards, Long quickly made it the shortest pick-six in playoff history.

“I feel like we were dominant out there,” Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald gloated afterwards: “And I feel like the opposing quarterback didn’t feel comfortable at all.”

An assessment with which he might well be right. “I put myself through a lot, dreaming about this moment. Then when you play the way I did in your first playoff game, it’s disappointing,” Murray expressed his feelings.

Disastrous stats for Arizona

The Cardinals didn’t get anything going at SoFi Stadium, which is set to host the Super Bowl in a few weeks. It didn’t help the team that J.J. Watt returned from his shoulder injury two months earlier than expected. It also didn’t help the team that running backs James Conner and Chase Edmonds were on the field together for the first time since Week 15.

None of the first four drives generated a single first down, and by the end of the first quarter, the scoreboard showed -3 yards – the second worst by a team in the playoffs in the past 35 years.

Eight consecutive drives ended with zero first downs, a fumble or an interception. Not since the Oakland Raiders in 1980 has a franchise had to endure that.

At one point, Rams receiver Odell Beckham Jr. had more passing yards than Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.

Kingsbury and Murray served – Baker injured

That the game was mutating into a disaster was something even defeated head coach Kliff Kingsbury had to acknowledge. “We didn’t do anything right in the first two quarters,” he summed up. “The Rams handled the game and the atmosphere well. Especially early in the game, we were out of sync on offense in some things that could have made a difference in the game. We never got into a rhythm and they had some big plays. “

The Arizona defense also had anything but a good day. The D-Line made one mistake after another, especially rookie cornerback Marco Wilson had a lot of trouble stopping Rams superstar OBJ the whole game.

The defence also suffered a massive setback in the third quarter when safety Budda Baker was left motionless on the ground after a collision with Rams running back Cam Akers. The veteran was immediately treated, carted off the field after a lengthy injury layoff and taken to the hospital.

Does the head coach have to go?

For the Cardinals, the season is over after the playoff exit. What remains is mostly the memory of a game that even Kyler Murray will probably think about for a long time: “Losing is one thing, but when you can’t even manage to be competitive, it’s another thing.”

And the defeat could also cost Head Coach Kingsbury dearly. The 42-year-old must fear for his job, according to coinciding US media reports. His team’s performances in recent games have been too weak.