Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta Mornings: The charade is over.

The Arizona Cardinals stayed in playoff contention by picking up wins against bad football teams and supporting the mediocrity of their own division. There is no more pretending. A disgusting performance on Sunday in a 36-30 overtime loss in Charlotte ends another crazy season.

This loss affects everyone. It starts with the coaching staff not making this team ready to play in a must-win situation. The defense was pushed around, allowing 36 points and 392 yards (243 on the ground) to a poor Carolina offense. The offense struggled to 382 yards, but we had a puzzling game plan that included four total scores for tight end Trey McBride. There was also some terrible time management at the end of regulation, but that was negated by Chad Ryland’s heroics on a 58-yard field goal that forced overtime.

The Cardinals killed themselves with 11 penalties for 82 yards.

But let’s focus on the two elephants in the room. Over the last five weeks, Kyler Murray has done almost nothing to assure anyone that he is the quarterback for the future of this team. He had his weekly inexplicable interception in the fourth quarter and the Cardinals’ first turnover was a botched handoff between Murray and Michael Carter that led to a Carolina touchdown. It’s the end of Murray’s sixth year as a starter, and he’s still making bad rookie mistakes in playoff situations (like the pick, a delay of game penalty, and a bad sack on third down). He looks as skittish as ever and his body language on the sideline on Sunday was the physical embodiment of defeat.

This is the third time in Murray’s six years leading the Cardinals that he has shrunk in a season.

Marvin Harrison Jr. is currently a below-average receiver. He is not physical. He doesn’t get a breakup. He still makes serious mistakes (false start on the first play) and doesn’t get back to the ball with enough force or make contested catches. Did I leave anything out? Throw away the numbers. At the moment, the eye test tells you much more.

It’s zombie football for the next two weeks… Maybe it’s better to check out the draft prospects than watch the final two games of the season.

Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: With the season on the line, the Cardinals unleashed a toxic banter of penalties and injuries, a shaky defense and a confused offense and, in the end, just enough hope to make us believe the dream could live on for another week. It was one of the most frustrating weekends in Cardinals football in recent memory, and that’s saying something.

Everything went so badly that it’s hard to know where to start. The penalties? A once-disciplined team has fallen into sloppy territory too often lately, even though some of the calls have been highly suspicious. The injuries were of course a factor; The Cards were limited to their two backup tackles and a fourth-line running back. The defense gave up 30 points in the regular season to the fifth-worst offense in the NFL. The offense managed to tie the game thanks to a miracle from Chad Ryland, but made too many mistakes: delays, balls that should have been caught, the interceptions, the sacks. The chorus of fans who don’t believe in Kyler Murray grows larger by the day. And even if you’re not in that camp yet, your faith in Murray to give his best in the crucial season is weak. Another year of Murray won’t inspire much confidence.

Some will point to the Cardinals’ year-to-year improvement and believe better days are coming. Maybe one day I’ll be able to do it. But a team that was 6-4 and leading the division has gone 1-4 since then. The Cardinals were exposed. Your chance was missed. I’m in no mood to celebrate the modest successes they’ve achieved this year.

Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf and Luke: What happened to this team during the bye week? I don’t think anyone saw the Cardinals as Super Bowl contenders when they were 6-4, but they developed into a gritty team that didn’t beat itself. They were the least penalized group in the NFL, Kyler Murray threw no interceptions, the defense gave them a chance to win every week, and attention to detail became part of their identity. They had a winning record and what it took to conquer the division. Their losses to elite teams like the Lions, Bills and Packers were justified.

That was five weeks ago. It feels like five years ago.

Now they’re losing must-win games to the Carolina Panthers. They’re taking a ton of penalties, Murray is throwing interceptions, the defense is banged up, and the offense looks disorganized at crucial moments. The winning record is gone and with it any chance of a spot in the playoffs. Did I mention they just lost to Carolina?

Some of this can be explained away, at least to some extent. The defense is really dealing with an absurd number of injuries. This finally seems to be catching up with her. And were the eight penalties Arizona conceded today in the first 16 minutes all good decisions by the referees? No. Some of them were actually embarrassingly bad calls — the kind that the league later apologizes for. But not all. The bottom line is that the Cardinals weren’t on the same page at all heading into this game. And it cost them their season.

To be fair, Jonathan Gannon’s group did rally. And they probably would have escaped Carolina with a win if James Conner hadn’t been injured early in the third quarter. But that means absolutely nothing when they update the rankings. They gave the Panthers way too much life early on, but then had to do everything perfectly to make up for it late. You know how this usually ends.

So now we need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. My checklist for a “successful” season in August was 8-9 wins, a contract extension for Budda Baker, progress from Murray in that offense – especially in big games – and clear development from the young players. Some of that is still in play, but there’s a gray area there now too.

This is a very young team and many of the first and second years are making significant progress. This is not something we can just ignore because we are frustrated. But outside of Conner and Trey McBride, the offense is struggling. There are few explosive plays and they aren’t winning the turnover battle often lately. Making the playoffs in 2024 isn’t a prerequisite for the Cardinals to be on the right track, but Arizona fans are justifiably reacting to them falling apart down the stretch. And that’s what the last month has felt like.

Tyler Drake, Arizona Sports Cardinals beat writers and Cardinals corner Co-host: Quarterback Kyler Murray laughed at the idea that Sunday’s game was a trap game. Unfortunately for the signal-caller, that’s exactly what happened in Charlotte. The Cardinals failed to assert themselves right away and keep their name in the playoffs behind the things that plagued Arizona for a good portion of the season: penalties, miscommunications and inconsistencies .

Murray was responsible for most of the last two factors mentioned. Whether it was his ongoing misunderstanding with Marvin Harrison Jr. or his costly fourth-quarter interception, the QB neither lived up to his early-season projections nor his price tag in Arizona’s biggest game of the year. I would be interested to know how he assesses the loss.

Then there’s the defense, which watched Bryce Young and the Panthers’ offense score 36 points and put up a boatload of rushing yards behind Chuba Hubbard.

The Cardinals – despite their failures since the bye week – still appear to be on schedule and have already exceeded expectations in the second year of the new regime. Remember, the over/under for wins in 2024 was 6.5. That was the baseline.

Still, at the end of this season, it feels like the Cardinals just missed a chance to get ahead of schedule.

As the saying goes: good luck next year.

Mitch Vareldzis, co-host of Arizona sports at night: I’m not going to sit here and try to wax poetic about it.

Today was shit.

It sucked from the start and it sucked at the end.

Much like the Phoenix Suns in their recent games against the Pacers and Pistons, there was a severe lack of urgency in a game the Cardinals absolutely had to win.

That’s alarming considering how much this coaching staff and players have emphasized the “one game at a time” and “don’t look forward” philosophy.

Good news! There’s nothing to look forward to beyond the first week of January. The season is over.

For now, the only joy you can take away from the rest of this season is the individual success and spoilsport for the Rams next Saturday.

Now that the season is over (at least for the purposes of my quick response post), here are my hopes for the Cardinals’ offseason.

Number 1: Stop talking about culture.

You are now entering the third season with this regime. Nobody cares about the group of men in the locker room anymore. They value results. You need wins, otherwise your culture isn’t as strong as you think.

Number 2: A deep and thorough assessment of the QB situation.

Is Kyler Murray the guy to move forward? Can he take you to the places you want to visit? More importantly, is there another option on the market or in the draft that would be better than what you currently have?

Number 3: Please spend the entire salary cap!!!

I don’t care if the money is poorly invested at this point. It remains inexcusable that $20 million was simply left on the table and still unused when the trade deadline passed.

Afterwards my head hurts. Let’s just hope Arizona State gives us a great start to 2025, because this end to 2024 in Arizona sports has been anything but memorable.