For a few minutes, it was exactly how Bruce Arians wanted it to be all along.
Carson Palmer, with a clean pocket, threw perfect chunk passes off play-action. David Johnson picked up six yards running just falling forward. The Cardinals scored a touchdown on the first possession for the first time this season. Arians was thrilled.
"I take a lot of pride in that stat of scoring first," Arians said.
The Cards couldn't get a stop, though. They couldn't get a stop all game when they really, really needed one. I take that back, they did to begin the second half — but then the offense had a three-and-out in their lone full possession of the third quarter.
That's frustrating, Arians and everyone else asked about it will say. But that's expected. There isn't any one part of the game (unless you go with David Johnson himself as a part of the game) that has been excellent.
Defensive tackle Corey Peters, the one-time Falcon, shook his head at the lack of consistency. He was talking about the defense, and there is certainly reason to look at the defense that way. But the offense and special teams haven't been able to find any either. That's why they can shred a defense for an easy 75-yard drive to start, and have just 109 yards total in the second half.
"We're 4-and-6, that's our reality," safety Tyrann Mathieu said. "We're too talented to be under .500."
-- Arians is beside himself about the receiving problems. Smokey Brown gets hurt again. Michael Floyd drew a pause and an "I don't know" from the coach, after a game in which he could have made a huge fourth-down catch and he did not. Floyd's season will go down as one of the greatest mysteries in recent Cardinals history.
-- Arians said the Cardinals used more maximum protection on pass plays Sunday than any time since he has been coach. The group was not perfect, but I did think they held up — at least until the end when the Falcons figured a pass was coming every down. I fully expect that group — from left tackle over, Humphries, Iupati, Shipley, Wetzel, John — to remain the starting five.
"I really would like to see it on film, just to critique the small stuff," Humphries said. "But I felt the way stuff was shuffled around and the wat we had to pull together in a short time, it was a good outing. But it wasn't good enough. Clearly."
-- Mathieu talked again about accountability in the locker room. I don't know if he has things in particular he is thinking of or if he just feels like, when you are losing, people need to go under the microscope. It may be the latter, because he said in the same breath they have to stick together. That will be tested these last five games.
-- Patrick Peterson hurt his knee. He said he got kicked by the cleat of Julio Jones on D.J. Swearinger's interception. We'll see what that means for him this week, although he said it was "painful."
-- Swearinger's reputation earned him that interception he made. Jones beat Patrick Peterson on the in-route but Jones was staring straight at Swearinger as Jones made his way across the middle. That moment of lost concentration — and that knowledge Swearinger lights up receivers going across the middle — caused the bobble and Swearinger was gift-wrapped an INT.
-- Unfortunately, Swearinger couldn't hold on to the interception later, which would have stalled a Falcons' TD drive. But the way it went Sunday, that might've been a band-aid. Not sure the Cards could've stopped the Falcons enough.
-- Well, the Cards and Peterson didn't let Jones beat them. So …
-- The series of plays before halftime was a well-executed as anything the Cardinals have done this season. The loss buries the plays, but after the Swearinger interception, the Cards had just 25 seconds at their own 37. A 17-yard pass to J.J. Nelson that may or may not have been incomplete. Rushing to the line to run a play and make sure it wasn't reviewed. Then Palmer hit Fitz, who in one motion slid to catch a 10-yard pass and called timeout, using only four seconds of the five left and allowing Chandler Catanzaro to boot the 54-yard field goal.
Yes, I'm looking for silver linings.
