Stock Report: Cardinals Keep Season Alive vs Patriots

The Arizona Cardinals kept their season alive with a win over the New England Patriots.

Dec 15, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (18) warms up before the game against the New England Patriots at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images / Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

Stock up, stock down, stock neutral, stock whatever. The Arizona Cardinals are a mess right now with the regular season ticking away and there's too much parity on this team right now to have hope in going to the playoffs. What once seemed like a reality has become a pipe dream and they're on fumes to get to the postseason.

The Cardinals needed to win their final four games to keep that hope alive and their win over the Patriots was necessary and hopefully will instill some hope from fans.

Best-case scenario will be to ignite this team to start playing hot football.

This win against the Patriots had some highs and lows as most games do, however, there left many concerns for me and others about how they could turn things around again.

The following are players who improved their stock following the game along with some who are making me nervous with three games to go.

Stock up

James Conner

110 rushing yards (6.9 YPC... nice) with a couple of rushing touchdowns is great. Conner tagged on five catches for 28 yards for good measure in one of his finer performances of the season. His efforts were perhaps the biggest reason the Cards pulled off the must-win.

Conner is less than 30 yards away from his second career 1,000-yard rushing season to go along with eight touchdowns and hopefully more on the way. He's been the most consistent Cardinal this year when it comes to yards and putting points up on the board and the playoffs would be long gone without him.

Three games remain and Conner should be the driving force to get them there. Quite frankly, I don't trust any other part of this team the way I do Conner as we wind down the season.

Darius Robinson

Robinson is officially on the board after recording his first career sack! It was a long road to get onto the field, and it's an ongoing process for him to get back to his full-potential. But this was a game for him to remember and a game that hopefully got Cardinals' fans' excitement up a little bit.

Garrett Williams

Williams is stringing together good performances and it won't be long until he's the best player in Arizona's secondary. Williams made just one tackle, but he popped the ball out of Pop Douglas's hands to force an early three-and-out.

It's just another game where Williams has flashed his ability to find the ball and make plays on it. Williams adds the forced fumble to his resume which includes two interceptions and six pass deflections.

Williams is getting better with every passing week and the confidence he's playing with is making an impact. Coupling him with some other defensive backs who are performing above expectations and the Cards have a good-enough secondary to compete, but the future of Williams is bright.

Stock down

Trey McBride scoring touchdowns

The man is cursed. It's as simple as that. McBride owns the record for catches in a season without a receiving touchdown with 89 and counting. The Cardinals even tried a shovel pass inside the five-yard line to get him in and he was short at the one-yard line... I mean, you can't make this stuff up.

There's no end in sight for the stud tight end's bad luck and he's only continuing to pad his stat... one he wishes he didn't have.

The defense limiting big plays

Eight Patriots recorded a play of 15 or more yards whether they did it on the ground or through the air. Drake Maye managed to make off-script plays with both his passing and rushing touchdowns coming from his improv skills.

This wasn't fun to watch defensively despite holding the Pats to three points until halfway through the fourth quarter. Most of the game included chunk plays that made fans pull their hair out and swear at the TV, and that's not the way they want to play defense as the season winds down.

It's been two-straight weeks of bad defense and giving up big plays. It's crunch time and AZ has to win their last three games, but until the defense steps up and eliminates the big plays they won't be advancing to the playoffs.

Kyler Murray

Prior to the bye week, Murray had a decent MVP case despite a low touchdown total thanks to his efficiency and leading a surging Cardinals team to what was supposed to be a playoff spot. But over the last four games, he's been average at best.

Murray has just three touchdown passes against five interceptions, and he had one erased on Sunday because of a personal foul penalty on the defense. Murray simply isn't seeing the field the way he was a month ago and it's costing the Cardinals football games.

Like the defense, it's do-or-die time for the postseason, but AZ's playoff dreams are just that unless Murray starts playing better. At this point, it's not enough to be more conservative; he has to air it out and make plays. The franchise quarterback has to put his team on his back right now.

Marvin Harrison Jr

I truly think that coaching is holding Marvin Harrison Jr. back thanks to their insistency on making him a one-trick pony as a deep threat. However, that doesn't excuse the obvious flaws in his game and we're at a point in the season where he should have made adjustments.

We can complain about the number of go routes he runs, but even on other routes run, he doesn't consistently create separation. there's also the tendency for his targets to all be contestable, although that's not always his fault.

The inconsistency has driven fans mad, but it's more infuriating for the team that desperately needs him to live up to his billing as the fourth overall pick and be their true number one receiver. It may be a lot to ask for a rookie, but that's the role he's in.

Right, wrong, or indifferent, MHJ has got to step up with the season on the line.