In their loss to the Eagles, the Cardinals show signs of life

For the first month of the season, the NFL was a mosh pit of mediocrity. And that was at its best. At its worst, a steaming compost pile.

If you wanted to feel better about your team, all you had to do was watch most of the 31 other ones.

The Cardinals participated in that, mucking their way to a 2-2 record. But there were signs of change Sunday at State Farm Stadium.

Oh, the Cardinals lost to the Eagles, 20-17. They lost their eighth consecutive home game, the franchise's longest such streak since 1956-58. They bumbled the beginning of the game and botched the end.

But in between? The Cardinals played a better brand of football than they did in the first four weeks.

They responded to challenges and did enough good things to suggest they're getting better, not worse. And that when receiver DeAndre Hopkins returns from a suspension in a week, they might be able to get hot at the most opportune time.

They did that against one of the best teams in the NFC. The Eagles (5-0) remain the NFL's only undefeated team, and they showed why Sunday.

"I just think we continue to battle," coach Kliff Kingsbury said. "We're kind of getting hardened through this process, hopefully. Last year adversity came late. Now it's coming early. And so we've got to be able to grow from it and be better late."

There was a mixture of disappointment and tension in the Cardinals locker room and interview room after the loss. Quarterback Kyler Murray, still in uniform, sat in his locker for nearly an hour after the game, looking down, slowly turning a cell phone over in his hand, and the game, probably, in his head.

"Processing," he later called it.

To his credit, kicker Matt Ammendola, who missed a 43-yard field goal attempt that would have sent the game to overtime, answered questions and said the obvious. "Obviously, it sucks," he said. "It's a bad feeling."

Guard Justin Pugh interrupted Ammendola's interview and chastised the media for blaming the loss on one person, even though Ammendola was agreeable to the idea that an NFL kicker should make a 43-yarder with the game on the line.

But point taken. NFL teams should start faster than the Cardinals do and not lose eight consecutive home games, including the last five in 2021 and the first three this year.

The passion is something the Cardinals can work with, however, as is the avoidance of blaming and shaming of others. Big picture, the Cardinals played their best game of the year and lost to a better team.

Safety Jalen Thompson called Sunday's game "a big stepping stone. It just shows us how critical it is to finish games. That's the biggest thing."

It's also critical to start them better. The Cardinals have been outscored 38-0 in first quarters. Four times they've trailed by two scores early in games.

"I'm open to suggestions," tight end Zach Ertz said when asked if there was anything the Cardinals haven't tried to fix the problem.

Kingsbury sounds as he's tried everything but voodoo to fix the problem. Practice times and structure have been altered, but the Cardinals have come out flat every game this season, he said.

It happened again Sunday. The Cardinals trailed, 14-0, before they had a grass stain on their white pants. With a start like that, it's hard to come back against a bad team, much less a good one like the Eagles.

But the Cardinals did, and their 12-play, 90-yard touchdown drive tied the game at 17 with 9:43 remaining. Murray was 6-for-6 on the possession, and Eno Benjamin, the Cardinals only healthy running back after three quarters, caught a pass for 16 yards and made two big runs, including a touchdown from 11 yards out.

Why can't the Cardinals offense produce like that at the beginning of the games? It remains a mystery to them.

The Eagles responded promptly and methodically drove 70 yards in 17 plays, the last of which was a 23-yard field goal that gave them a 20-17 lead with 1:45 left.

The Cardinals were out of timeouts, having used two during the Eagles' drive and been assessed a third when Thompson had the wind knocked out of him while breaking up a pass in the end zone.

The absence of timeouts wasn't a problem until the final seconds. The Cardinals moved quickly downfield and thought they had a first down when Murray ran up the middle for what looked like 10 yards and a first down at the Eagles 24-yard line.

But the ball was marked at the beginning of his slide, the 25-yard line, one yard short of a first down. Kingsbury was calling for Murray to spike the ball, and by the time the officials spotted the ball a yard short, it was too late to call a play. So Murray spiked the ball on third down.

It was a surmountable problem because all Ammendola, signed this week as a temporary replacement for the injured Matt Prater, had to do was make a 43-yard field to send the game to overtime.

Ammendola, cut by the Chiefs after missing a field goal and extra point against the Colts in Week 3, missed the kick wide right.

Sunday's loss was obviously a setback for the Cardinals (2-3), but not devastating. They're only a game back of the 49ers in the NFC West, and Hopkins is eligible to return after next Sunday's game in Seattle, which is also 2-3.

Who knows? Maybe he has an idea or two about how to score in the first quarter.

Reach Kent Somers at Kent.Somers@gannett.com. Follow him on twitter @kentsomers. Hear Somers every Monday and Friday at 7:30 a.m. on The Drive with Jody Oehler on Fox Sports 910 AM.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: The Cardinals lost another home game but might have found themselves