Well, that was just about the most heartbreaking ending the Arizona Cardinals have seen all season.

After a failed attempt at a game winning drive to try and sweep the Los Angeles Rams, the Cardinals emerge out of SoFi Stadium as losers in 13-9 fashion.

Unfortunately, classic mistakes that we’ve seen from the team this year were made and Arizona has another losing record. 

This is a loss that should rock the boat a bit – and I have some major criticisms.

But in fairness, there were some things to be happy about in the loss. 

With one game remaining for Arizona, the end is in sight and we have most of our takeaways finished for the season’s outlook.

We still learned more about this team following the close loss, and that’s what we’re here to discuss. 

Trey McBride is the best weapon on offense

James Conner has played at a Pro Bowl level this year. Marvin Harrison Jr has shown flashes of brilliance to be the Cards’ top receiver (more on him later). Kyler Murray is an athletic marvel who can make plays with his arm and his legs. 

But Trey McBride is the best player on the Cardinals’ offense. 

All season long, the third-year tight end has been one of the most reliable pass catchers across the NFL. Following tonight’s game, McBride is within range of the franchise single-season receptions record of 115, set by DeAndre Hopkins in 2020. 

Mr. Reliable at his finest. 

Although McBride may not be some game-breaking player with SportsCenter Top-10 highlights every week, his consistency and reliability cannot be measured in words. 

A struggling Cardinals offense would be lost without McBride out there. 

Rumors of Marvin Harrison Jr’s demise have been greatly exaggerated

The doomsday parade chanting Harrison Jr is a bust already should’ve been silenced against the Rams. MHJ reeled in six receptions for 96 yards. It was an under the radar performance with far more highs than lows. 

And although he didn’t have many plays that will be on his rookie highlights tape on YouTube, it was still a game that should build confidence in him to continue growing. 

Harrison’s stat line may not be the historical season we wanted, but it’s still be a good one. 

If Harrison can close the season with another game like this, Cardinals fans should be much happier than they were a few weeks ago about his outlook heading into year two. 

Cardinals need more playmakers on defense 

I love some of the pieces on this Cardinals defense and several guys have bigger roles ready for the future. Garrett Williams, Dante Stills, Max Melton, and several others have had great seasons and will be the foundation for this defense. 

But that being said, they desperately need more playmakers. 

Several turnover worthy plays were left off the board, such as Baron Browning unable to strip-sack Matthew Stafford or Budda Baker’s dropped interception in the endzone. These are plays that swing the game in your favor and it’s causing too many close games and losses for Arizona.

When the offseason rolls around, the Cardinals have to prioritize not just adding talent to the defense but adding playmakers. Interceptions, sacks, anything and everything in between.

The Cardinals could’ve won more games this year with someone capable of generating turnovers. That has to be a top priority for this organization. 

The Cardinals are a playoff team if this offense showed up every week

Speaking of winning more games, the Cardinals wouldn’t have been knocked out of the playoff hunt by now if they had this offense performing week in and week out. And it wasn’t even an elite effort tonight. 

But what we saw was the Cardinals move the ball effectively more often than not and occasionally test the defense. You had mixed results, but at least there was life to be found in this game and it made it worth watching. 

We didn’t get the result we wanted, but this was a far more competitive game because the Cardinals were willing to do things they didn’t before. 

Wins are wins and losses are losses, but you can’t tell me Arizona doesn’t win at least one more game if they play offense like they did tonight.

That being said…

Drew Petzing Needs to Go

I’m done with watching Drew Petzing at this point. Even in a game that was well called, he found a way to ruin it.

Murray made some mistakes, but there were many questionable calls made by Petzing that had me upset… none more so than the final play of the game for Arizona’s offense where the Cardinals opted to pass inside the five yard line rather than force the Rams to burn their final remaining timeout and drain the clock by running it. 

Nope. Instead, we got a foolish decision to throw the ball and it ended in a play that will be remembered as one of the best of the regular season… but not for Arizona. 

I’m done. I’m over it. I’m ready for a change. 

Sorry, Coach Petzing, but your number’s up. 

In producing one of the top rushing offenses in the country this past season, Seth Doege relied on several ball carriers to churn out more than 200 yards per game at Marshall. That looks to be the plan at Arizona as well, as the Wildcats have added a second running back from the NCAA transfer porttal since hiring Doege as offensive coordinator last month.

The UA has earned a commitment from former Utah rusher Mike Mitchell, who will have three seasons of eligibility remaining. He joins ex-Texas State running back Ismail Mahdi in a backfield that also includes returners Kedrick Reescano and Kayden Luke and incoming freshman Wesley Yarbrough.

The 6-foot, 211-pound Mitchell played in 10 games this past season for the Utes, rushing for 158 yards and a touchdown on 47 carries as a redshirt freshman. He had three carries for two yards against Arizona in September.

Mitchell was a 3-star prospect from Florida in the 2023 recruiting class, picking Utah over Florida State, Louisville and Washington State, among others.

He is Arizona’s 18^th transfer pickup this offseason, 11^th on offense and second running back. The Wildcats have also landed four offensive linemen, three receivers, a tight end and a quarterback.

The Diamondbacks leap out of shadows on Friday evening to reportedly sign ace Corbin Burnes to a six-year, $210 million contract, which includes an opt out following the 2026 season, after the Giants and Blue Jays seemingly balked at his contractual demands. The 30-year-old right-hander fills an obvious need for Arizona’s reeling pitching staff following a half-decade run as one of the most durable aces in baseball, recording a sparkling 2.88 ERA (3.01 FIP), 1.02 WHIP and 29 percent strikeout rate across 816 2/3 innings (134 starts) between the Brewers and Orioles since the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Let’s take a deeper dive into how Burnes impacts Arizona’s rotation mix and his immediate fantasy outlook at Chase Field.

How does Corbin Burnes’ arrival impact Arizona’s starting rotation?

Burnes provides Arizona’s starting rotation mix with a certifiable front-of-the-rotation ace after the club’s pitching staff allowed the fifth-most runs (4.86 per-game) last season and got just 72 starts combined between their veteran quartet comprised of Zac Gallen, Jordan Montgomery, Eduardo Rodriguez and Merrill Kelly. According to multiple reports, the Diamondbacks are looking to move on from Montgomery, who struggled to a calamitous 6.23 ERA across 117 innings (25 appearances, 21 starts) last year in his Arizona debut, and seems like the most obvious trade candidate prior to spring training. The club also jettisoned some of its pitching depth earlier this month when it shipped former prospect Slade Cecconi to Cleveland as the centerpiece of the Josh Naylor trade. It goes without saying that Burnes’ arrival will make a significant impact for the Diamondbacks given his track record as a durable innings-eater to pair with former top prospect Brandon Pfaadt, who made a career-high 32 starts this past season.

Even with Montgomery potentially being subtracted from the picture, that doesn’t exactly leave a rotation spot for talented youngsters like Ryne Nelson, who posted a serviceable 4.24 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 126/34 K/BB ratio across 150 2/3 innings (28 appearances, 25 starts) last year during a mini-breakthrough season or Yilber Diaz, who showed some flashes in seven appearances (four starts) last year at the highest level. Nelson is most likely ticketed for a versatile swingman-type role but could still wind up making plenty of starts given the health question marks swirling around Gallen, Kelly and Rodriguez. He’s a name to monitor in deeper mixed leagues as he’s currently being selected just inside the top 400 picks (389th overall), on average, in early NFBC drafts.

How much does Chase Field alter Corbin Burnes’ fantasy outlook?

Here’s a slight oversimplification: Burnes is unlikely to be significantly impacted by the move to Chase Field, which ranks sixth out of 30 ballparks in Baseball Savant’s park factors over the last three years. It’s undoubtedly a more hitter-friendly offensive environment than the “Walltimore” era of Camden Yards that Burnes operated in last year, but it’s not like Milwaukee’s American Family Field was a pitcher’s paradise earlier in his career. Burnes won’t be completely immune to the high-octane offensive settings that come with the move to the NL West, but he’s done an excellent job in limiting hard contact (including home runs) over the past half-decade, which mitigates some of the immediate risk. Burnes remains a certifiable fantasy ace heading into the 2025 campaign, even if we bake in some slight pullback from a run-prevention standpoint.

The bigger concern from a long-term standpoint is whether he’ll wind up reversing a linear four-year decline in the strikeout department with the move to Arizona. After topping out at a whopping 36.7 percent during the shortened 2020 campaign, Burnes’ strikeout rate continued dipping to a league-average 23 percent mark during his lone season in Baltimore. A quick peek under the hood reveals that he’s generating fewer whiffs these days on his cutter and curveball than previous years, but it’s not exactly a cause for alarm since his previously elite control remains firmly intact. There’s also the possibility that Burnes actually fixed his cutter during the late stages of last year by adding a couple inches of additional horizontal break to the offering, which led to a surge in whiffs. There isn’t a huge margin for error here with Burnes moving forward, especially if his control starts to move in the wrong direction and he starts giving up more hard contact, but his continually declining strikeout rate isn’t a cause for total alarm just yet. It’s possible last September’s results weren’t a late-season mirage and he actually fixed his cutter. We’ll see.

Volume matters, especially from a fantasy standpoint, which is why Burnes’ extensive track record as a durable fantasy ace keeps him as an early-round selection in all fantasy formats, even as he starts to show some early warning signs of decline. The veteran stalwart is currently being selected in the third round (35th overall), on average, in early NFBC drafts and he’ll most likely wind up going off the board next spring as a borderline top seven starting pitcher in all fantasy formats in the same range as Logan Gilbert, Garrett Crochet, Chris Sale, George Kirby and Jacob deGrom.