After embarrassing loss to Broncos, it's clear Steve Wilks' Cardinals are a debacle
There was plenty of speculation heading into Thursday night’s game that Denver Broncos coach Vance Joseph’s job was on the line. Maybe we were focused on the wrong coach.
Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks has coached seven career games. That’s not enough to make a judgment on anyone. But this much is clear: Absolutely nothing in those seven Cardinals games has been positive.
If there was any doubt the Cardinals were the NFL’s worst team, they put that to rest on Thursday night with an embarrassing 45-10 loss to the Broncos. At least they laid down early enough so people could flip over for most of the Red Sox-Astros ALCS game.
Cardinals rookie quarterback Josh Rosen threw two pick-sixes in the first quarter, and it never got better. Von Miller said this week, “We’re going to kick their ass.” He must have said it right after watching tape of the Cardinals.
The Cardinals were 8-8 last season, and that was without star running back David Johnson for nearly the entire season. They weren’t good, but nowhere close to this bad. Plenty of coaches have rebounded from terrible starts, but it would be normal if Cardinals fans are worried that Wilks might have been a bad hire.
“I would say all of our jobs are in jeopardy, including mine, if we don’t win,” Wilks said earlier this week, long before his team had the worst single performance of this NFL season.
Afterward, he told reporters, “Definitely embarrassing tonight. Premature to talk about changes.”
“Definitely embarrassing tonight,” Wilks said. “Premature to talk about changes”
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) October 19, 2018
The Cardinals were woefully unprepared
The Cardinals looked unprepared from the first minute of the game. They lined up wrong less than a minute in, and Rosen had to call a timeout. As Fox analyst Troy Aikman pointed out, teams script their first 10-15 plays. They presumably practiced them. To come out and not know what to do on the second play of the game was a horrible look. Then Rosen threw a pick-six the next play.
The Cardinals didn’t do anything right in the first half, which ended with the Broncos holding a 35-3 lead. The offensive line didn’t protect Rosen. There was another dud of a half by Johnson, who was an All-Pro two years ago with a different coaching staff. Sanders scored on a 64-yard touchdown in which there was a complete miscommunication by the defense and Sanders was running all alone in the deep middle. Before that, Arizona was fooled by a trick play and Sanders threw a touchdown. The Cardinals offense had to burn another timeout to avoid a delay of game, and took a delay of game later in the first half.
If there was a checklist for an unprepared, poorly coached team, the Cardinals marked off every box in one half.
Cardinals have been bad all season
It’s not like Thursday night was just a strange, bad night for the Cardinals. Their whole season has been ugly.
The team decided to go with underwhelming veteran Sam Bradford at quarterback to start the season, and he was terrible. Wilks said he never considered pulling Bradford for Rosen in a 34-0 Week 2 loss to the Rams, which was weird. It was even weirder the next week when Wilks pulled Bradford with 4:31 left and the Cardinals trailing a good Bears defense 16-14. Not many coaches would ask their rookie quarterback, in his first NFL action, to immediately conduct a last-minute, game-winning drive against a good defense. Rosen didn’t pull off the win, and that’s not his fault.
Then came Thursday night, when Wilks left Rosen in until the bitter end of a blowout even though the offensive line couldn’t block and Rosen hurt his ankle on his last play, which was another Broncos sack.
The Cardinals beat San Francisco 49ers, a game in which they were lucky. They were out-gained 447-220 in yardage and had 10 first downs to 33 for the 49ers. But at least they got a win. It’s their only one in a 1-6 start. Four of those six losses have been by double digits.
Struggling Broncos blasted the Cardinals
The Broncos needed a win Thursday night. They were 2-4 coming in, on a four-game losing streak, and there was plenty of negative vibes around Joseph and quarterback Case Keenum. They were in utter turmoil heading toward a Thursday night road game, which is a tricky situation for any NFL team. And the team on a four-game losing streak was up 35-3 at halftime. They played very well, but it’s almost impossible to judge if the Broncos made any real progress considering the opponent was so awful.
Considering it came on a prime-time stage, the seats were mostly either empty or filled with Broncos fans, this was a low point for the Cardinals. They’re not going to fire Wilks after seven games (though offensive coordinator Mike McCoy seems like a good bet to get fired very soon due to the Cardinals being 32nd in the NFL in yards gained). Wilks might end up leading a rebound in the second half of this season and becoming a great coach. It’s too early to say.
But seven games in, it doesn’t look good.
More from Yahoo Sports:
• 2003 rape allegations cost Kobe spot on film festival jury
• Controversial call wipes out Astros home run
• NFL owners take a knee in waning anthem controversy
• Dan Wetzel: Gymnastics scandal secrets may finally go public
– – – – – – –
Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Follow @YahooSchwab
Subscribe to The Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast
Apple Podcasts• Stitcher • Google Podcasts
