Some of the eye black remaining on his face, wide receiver Hollywood Brown stood in front of his locker with a look of disappointment and pain.
The disappointment came from the Cardinals 37-14 defeat to the Rams on Sunday. The pain stemmed from a heel injury that Brown sustained earlier in the week.
Despite missing practice on Thursday and Friday, with wide receiver Michael Wilson already out, Brown didn't want to miss the game.
"It was really just to see if I'm able to do it," Brown said. "It's one of those things that you just need to toughen up, and I was able to. Didn't get the results we wanted, so it was unfortunate."
Through the first two games of quarterback Kyler Murray's return, there have been questions about the connection between K1 and his best friend. In two games against the Falcons and Texans, Brown had a combined 46 yards on three catches.
Murray and Brown both have said they won't force the connection and it'll take time. On paper, it looked like progress was made on Sunday after Brown finished as the Cardinals leading receiver with six receptions for 88 yards.
Brown didn't feel that way postgame.
"We got into like a throwing match at the end, so I don't really look at it like we had a good connection because we lost the game," Brown said. "It took a lot for me to even play in this game, so for us to not come out of this game with a win, it hurts."
With the Cardinals down by as many as 29 points, the offense was in obvious passing situations. Murray was 27-of-45 for 256 yards. Twelve of those attempts were directed towards Brown.
"When you get into those type of games, you drop back and you try to make something happen," Murray said. "At that point, you're pretty much playing backyard football. They're obviously pinning their ears back and we got to make something happen. That's pretty much what it comes down to at that point."
It was evident after the loss both Brown and his teammates were hurting in a myriad of ways. But they're not backing down and knew it was time to prepare for next week and a trip to Pittsburgh.
"We just need to come together as a unit," Brown said. "You never know how the NFL works, so trying to just get better individually and collectively and keep improving our game."
