GLENDALE — It feels like a repetitive question at this point:
Would it feel any different if the Arizona Cardinals were getting blown out instead of the close losses on display these past five weeks?
No matter the answer, a loss is a loss. And they’re seriously piling up for a franchise that was supposed to be turning a serious corner in Year 3 under the current regime.
The Cardinals made NFL history in the worst of ways behind their 27-23 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 7. They’ve now lost three straight games despite being up by at least seven points heading into the fourth quarter in each.
Once again, the Cardinals had their moments to put the game away, whether it be the offense picking up a critical first down with 6:39 to play or the defense getting that late stop it just hasn’t had in weeks.
Calais Campbell said it best postgame, but even for a professional like the defensive lineman, the frustration seeped in at his locker.
“We’re in a repetition business. So, fight, do your job, play football. Find the way to win the ball game,” Campbell said.
“I don’t know if much really needs to change other than making the plays when they matter at the (expletive) end of the game,” the veteran added. “Excuse me, I’m a little frustrated. That’s the only thing that needs to change. This team has a lot of fight, playing good football, just losing one-score ball games. And in this business, 70% of them come down to one score and you got to win most of those if you want to be a playoff team and we’re not doing that.”
Sitting at 2-5, the Cardinals are well off the expectations many put on this team.
The going’s not going to get any easier, either, with Arizona sporting one of the toughest strengths of schedules the rest of the way.
As head coach Jonathan Gannon said postgame, “there’s no magical answer” to getting back in the win column. It comes down to “playing better and coaching better” to dig themselves out of the hole they’re in.
That’s what makes this upcoming bye week so critical.
Bye week coming at right time for Cardinals
While quarterback Jacoby Brissett — fresh off another strong outing in place of the injured Kyler Murray — would prefer to roll the rock out and play next week, players and coaches getting some off time to reflect couldn’t come at a better time.
Either way, they’re going to need to come up with something or risk extending their losing streak on the national stage against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football in Week 9.
Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon recognizes the need to play and coach better as the team carries a five-game losing streak into the bye week. pic.twitter.com/tpRNuQnI6e
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) October 20, 2025
“Seven games in, we’ll do a deep dive and we got to get it corrected,” Gannon said. “That’s every losing coach I’m sure stands up here and says the same (expletive), but until we do it, that’s going to keep happening. I fall into that boat. It starts with me.
“I’m sitting in there after the game and it’s like, ‘Damn, I got to do more. I got to do something more.’ But I really do believe in the people that we have. So, that’s a positive. … They will battle, they will fight. I know that. … We just got to play a little better.”
Belief or not, it’s one thing to say it — which has felt like the case since Week 3.
It’s another to do it.