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On one side of State Farm Stadium, disgusted home fans turned away en masse and made their way to the exits early. On the other hand, enthusiastic visitors broke out into chants and cheers, celebrating another step in the rebirth of their franchise.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals' coaching staff began the autopsy, discussing the last three disastrous hours on their headsets. The final moments of a 42-14 loss to the Commanders were still playing out before them, but the coaches had to process it all to understand why the day had gone so wrong.

“It was a good conversation,” said head coach Jonathan Gannon. “Where everyone looks in the mirror and says, 'Hey, we need to do a better job, we need to figure it out together.'”

It was such a day for the Cardinals as they fell to 1-3 this season. Here's what we learned from the loss:

MCMANAMAN: The loss for the commanders is the beginning of the end

The season is in serious trouble

Forget for a moment how Sunday's defeat came about. We'll come back to it because it was bad. But regardless of the circumstances, the Cardinals desperately needed a win.

After the loss, Kyler Murray tried to warn against that mindset.

“It’s a game,” he said. “The season isn’t over yet.”

However, it was a crucial game. Trips to San Francisco and Green Bay are on the agenda for the next two weeks. The most likely outcome is that the Cardinals will enter mid-October with a 1-5 record.

At some point the schedule loosens up. In the second half they face teams like the Bears, Patriots and Panthers. But two weeks ago, it looked like a team that could advance to the playoffs. For this to be the case, they had to survive this gauntlet at the start of the season with a passable record. The defeat of the commanders made this task much more difficult.

NO ANSWERS: Daniels, the commanders dominated the cardinals

The Cardinals' offense didn't serve its purpose

The optimistic outlook for this Cardinals season rested entirely on the shoulders of their offense. And within two weeks, that version became reality. They scored 69 points in the first two games, placing them second in the league.

Since then they have picked up 13 and 14 points respectively. It's the lowest-scoring two-game stretch the Cardinals have had with a healthy Murray since his rookie season. Making matters worse, this latest effort came against Washington, which came in with a defense widely considered one of the worst in the league.

Last week, the culprit was obvious: The Cardinals couldn't run the ball, forcing their offense to become one-dimensional. This week they were effective on the ground but couldn't develop a deep passing attack, even against a weak secondary team. Their longest play of the game was only 22 yards.

“We just weren’t able to create explosive plays,” said receiver Michael Wilson.

The Cardinals had few explanations for these struggles. But given the makeup of this roster — with a $230 million quarterback, a star running back and a pick wide receiver at No. 4 overall — their production wasn't enough.

Marvin Harrison Jr. and the receivers didn't do enough

In their first three games, the Commanders allowed 83 yards to Chris Godwin, 127 yards to Malik Nabers and 118 yards to Ja'Maar Chase. Their defense was exploitable by elite pass catchers, especially deep downfield.

Given that the Cardinals prefer to use Harrison as a deep threat, it seemed like a perfect pairing. Instead, neither he nor the Cardinals' other pass catchers were able to impact the game.

Harrison led the way, but still managed just five catches for 45 yards on six targets. Murray also struggled to find his receivers, but the reality was they weren't getting open often enough. The Cardinals only attempted one pass longer than 20 yards, and it was a good route for a well-covered Wilson.

In the passing game, the end result was similar to Week 1 in Buffalo, when the Cardinals were forced to keep everything under control. But after that game, players and coaches gave credit to the Bills' defensive game plan. On Sunday they could only point the finger at themselves.

“Player execution,” Harrison said. “That’s what matters. Eleven against 11, as a player you have to win the one-on-one.”

Cardinals secondary wasn't good enough

There was rightful concern about the Cardinals' pass rush early in the season. They made few moves to address the unit in the offseason and, on paper, had one of the worst groups in the league.

But while that group wasn't particularly effective — it didn't record any sacks on Sunday — the Cardinals' biggest defensive problem was their secondary one.

Let's take Sunday as an example. According to Pro Football Focus, the Cardinals pressured Jayden Daniels on 12 of 36 dropbacks. But on those 12 passes, Daniels went 10-for-10 for 96 yards. So far this season, the Cardinals are allowing 10.8 yards per attempt when generating pressure. That's a disastrous number and is due to their secondary's inability to cover receivers downfield.

It's not just accomplished receivers who dominate the Cardinals. On Sunday, they allowed 85 yards to Olamide Zaccheaus, who averaged 20.3 yards per game for his career.

Cardinals hurt themselves by calling plays

Early in the game – back when it was still competitive – the Cardinals faced four plays on either third-and-1 or fourth-and-1. They passed the ball on three of those four plays.

It worked once – when Murray hit Harrison on a corner route in the back of the end zone to break up the first drive. The next two times weren't as productive. On the Cardinals' third drive, Murray attempted to hit Wilson on a third-and-1 dig route, but the pass was broken up. On their fourth drive, he couldn't find an open receiver – the Cardinals went for a man-beater, but the Commanders surprised them by dropping into the zone – and Murray was sacked for a turnover on downs.

Given that James Conner averaged 5.8 yards on 18 carries, the commitment to passing on short yardage was a surprising move that hindered several drives. Afterward, Gannon defended the decisions, saying they were the “best play” every time.

On Sunday they had little competition for the title of “Best Game”.

On By John Fenwick

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