That sound you heard from the direction of California Sunday night was the Cardinals exhaling. No, David Johnson hasn't had his MRI yet, but there is optimism that the knee injury he suffered Sunday will cost him only that record of 100 yards from scrimmage in every game and nothing further. If his ligaments are intact — and Bruce Arians seemed to think they were — then he will recover in plenty of time for training camp. And at this point, that's all that matters.

So in that regard, Sunday's 44-6 beatdown of the Rams isn't like the beatdown of the Eagles last season, which won a division but had an ugly hangover because of the Tyrann Mathieu ACL tear. Nobody wants any of that.

Johnson wasn't moping or looking like disaster had struck after the game, so take that for what it's worth.

You also take for what it's worth the pounding of the Rams. Jared Goff is nowhere near ready to play quarterback, and certainly not behind that line he had today or with the receivers he has. Still, the Cardinals held the Rams to a crazy 2.1-yards per play today — that's nothing — and had a sack party in the backfield.

Momentum doesn't carry over from one season to the next. I firmly believe that (just as the NFC title loss didn't carry over.) But confidence can. And this team has a lot of confidence going into the offseason.

Of course, there are a lot of things that need to be figured out in the offseason. But that's to talk about for the next few months.

-- The Cardinals will pick 13th overall in the draft.

-- Arians confirmed earlier reports that offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin is set to have three head coaching interviews in the coming days. ESPN reported those teams as the Bills, Rams and Jaguars. Goodwin joked the other day of getting a couple of calls from CFL teams, but it was always expected that Goodwin would be getting interviews after interviewing with the Buccaneers last offseason.

Obviously, the Rooney Rule makes an impact with Goodwin, an African-American. But you can't get a job without interviewing, and at some point, someone is going to decide Goodwin is the right man for the job.

-- By the way, a major point in Goodwin's favor — the amount of points the offense generated the last three games with his deep-in-the-depth-chart offensive line. Props to those players, but Goody can coach up an offensive line.

-- Carson Palmer was wearing a glove on his left hand after cutting it on Christmas day and getting four stiches. Palmer joked he was saving orphans from a burning building. Whatever the reason, he said it didn't bother him.

-- Safety D.J. Swearinger again made a strong argument for the Cardinals wanting him to stay. A couple of big hits, a couple of nice tackles, a sack, an interception that was lost on a questionable Kevin Minter roughing-the-passer penalty.

-- Chandler Catanzaro with a nice finish: 3-for-3 on field goals, 5-for-5 on extra points.

-- Justin Bethel told me recently his foot — which has been injured basically since last year and never fully healed after he hurt it again in the offseason and needed surgery — is finally feeling better. So to see him play his best two games as a cornerback the last two weeks, including a 68-yard pick-6, is gratifying. Especially after Arians called him out after the Miami game.

-- We'll finish on this note: The Cardinals finished the season with a plus-56 point-differential. That's something that usually translates into a playoff berth, not 7-8-1. In the NFC, only Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle are better. (AFC South winner Houston was minus-49!) But that's how this season went. We move on to 2017.