It was hard to see early, but the Cardinals tried to be creative. They spread the field with receivers. They ran option plays. And jet sweeps. They went up tempo.
The problem was that nothing worked in the first three quarters. The run game was stagnant because the Cardinals were dominated up front and running back David Johnson danced too much. The passing game was impotent because Kyler Murray was either under duress or inaccurate when he wasn’t.
All this led to the Cardinals spending the day in third-and-long far too often. By early in the third quarter, they were 2 of 10 on third downs.