Six Takeaways Hard Knocks Episode Seven

Hard Knocks begins to wind towards an end for the Arizona Cardinals - here's our takeaways from the seventh episode of the series.

The Arizona Cardinals have seen their playoff hopes come to an end, but the film continues to roll for HBO's Hard Knocks in-season series with the team. 

This week's episode profiled a handful of things, mostly centered around the team's loss on Christmas Day to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

At this point in the season, the Cardinals are merely looking for effort. That's where we'll kick things off:

Six Takeaways From Hard Knocks Episode Seven

Effort is contagious- Early in the episode, Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph met with the defense and gave passionate speech about wanting his guys to play with maximum effort for the rest of the season. The main point: You never know who's watching, so you'll want to put on impressive film for both the Cardinals and 31 other teams for next season. 

Trace leads the way- Down to third-string quarterback Trace McSorley, the Cardinals did their best to still maintain the level of commitment to game-planning even in spite of the talent gap at QB. It was also nice to see the encouragement from teammates and coaches telling him to enjoy the moment. We even get some background on the former Penn State passer and his family, too. 

The GOAT- Tom Brady will garner everybody's respect when trying to piece together a plan to stop him, and that was evident through all the team meetings leading up to Sunday night. It was also nice to hear J.J. Watt and Brady have some nice exchanges both during and following the game. TB12 got everybody's attention, and he showed exactly why when Tampa was down by ten in the fourth quarter. 

Conner strong- James Conner has dealt with injuries throughout his career, but is undoubtedly a strong runner when available. However, his true strength rests with his personal battle with cancer, something he overcame while at Pitt. Hard Knocks did a great job stepping into the Conner household with him and his mother to dive deeper into the story. 

Cards' collapse- This season just has not gone the way Arizona has wanted. Even up 16-6 in the late minutes of the fourth quarter, the Cardinals still found a way to relinquish their lead and ultimately fumble away the game. What a present to unwrap for fans to re-live once again on HBO, who did a great job displaying the mood both during and after the collapse. 

Franco Harris- Franco Harris unfortunately passed away last week, but Cardinals WR coach Shawn Jefferson ensured to educate his group of players on how special he was and the path he paved for others in the league. It was a nice touch at the end of the episode. RIP, Franco. 

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