Three Takeaways From Cardinals' 27-13 Loss to Patriots

The Arizona Cardinals were held scoreless in the second half as they lose 27-13 to the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football.

The season of horrors continues for the Arizona Cardinals, who lost 27-13 to the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. The loss didn't come without the worst injury imaginable for the Cardinals, who now sit at 4-9 for the season.

Arizona lost QB Kyler Murray on the third play into the game when he awkwardly went down due to a non-contact knee injury. The fourth-year quarterback was in his second game back after missing the previous two with a hamstring injury.

Murray was carted off the field at State Farm Stadium and was deemed questionable to return. Later, the Cardinals would rule him out for the remainder of the game.

It's now believed that Murray suffered a serious knee injury. 

The Cardinals' loss came off the Week 13 bye week and are now in a deeper hole not only for the 2022 season but for the future with Murray's potentially serious injury. 

Here are the team's three takeaways following their Week 14 defeat.

Sloppy Cardinals Offense

After subbing in for Murray, Colt McCoy started off strong, completing 13 of 19 passes, including a touchdown, in the team's first five drives. 

But in the end, Bill Belichick's defense was too much to handle. They had one interception and sacked McCoy six times as the Cardinals' offensive line was in complete disarray throughout the game.

Arizona also had five offensive penalties and four of which were accepted. It's been a theme all season for the Cardinals to have self-inflicting mistakes through penalties.

To take it up a notch, DeAndre Hopkins caught a pass on Arizona's own 23-yard-line and had an uncharacteristic fumble, which was recovered by New England and returned for a touchdown.

Points by the @Patriots defense! 💪

📺: #NEvsAZ on ESPN
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/UKeBTYKCRY pic.twitter.com/8PHgaMkuyV

— NFL (@NFL) December 13, 2022

The Cardinals were also one-for-five on fourth down.

Head coach Kliff Kingsbury will have to answer questions concerning his usual aggressiveness, as well as the rest of the issues on offense.

Nightmare Night of Injuries

It felt like after every down, a player was hurt for both sides. Murray's knee injury in the third play of the game started the carousel of injuries on Monday night.

For the Patriots, running back Rhamondre Stevenson (knee), wide receiver DeVante Parker (head) and cornerback Jack Jones (knee) left the game and were all ruled out. 

Other than Murray, cornerback Marco Wilson (stinger) and Zach Allen (hand) did not return for the Cardinals.

Patriots Get Better of Arizona's Defense

The Patriots entered Week 14 ranking last in the league in red zone touchdown percentage, according to TeamRankings.com.

Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph took a dig at New England's offense during the week, saying, “It’s like a defensive guy is calling the offense."

It sure seems like Patriots' offensive coordinator Matt Patricia got the last laugh.

Despite numerous players out with injuries on offense, the Patriots scored 20 unanswered points after trailing 13-7 in the second quarter. In that span, Mac Jones threw a 39-yard pass to a wide-open Hunter Henry when the defense was in Cover 3 and brought five pass-rushers. Pierre Strong Jr. would run it in for a three-yard touchdown in the next play.

Still, Jones threw the most screen passes in a single game in his career against the Cardinals on Monday Night. There were times when the Cardinals bottled up their short game.

But it wasn't enough. The Patriots totaled 328 yards on offense after not posting over 300 yards in four of the previous five games.

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