Shame on the Cardinals. In a sport full of cruelty, they are the cruelest jokes of all.

Eliminated in Carolina?

No serious football team would dare. No fan base deserves to hear such vile words in 2024.

But that’s exactly what the Cardinals spat out on Sunday. With their playoff hopes hanging in the balance, they lost to a three-win team with one of the worst franchises in sports. They fiddled around and figured it out.

There are lots of fingers to point at. The Cardinals coaching staff talked all week about playing meaningful games in December. They stressed that they couldn’t ignore the three-win Panthers, a team that performed better than its record suggested. They talked about how to avoid a trap and ran headfirst into it.

Their focus in the first quarter was an abomination. There were penalties, a botched handoff and numerous mental errors. Marvin Harrison Jr. made two of them on the first three plays, contributing to wasting great field position early in the game. The first quarter spoke very poorly to team leadership, particularly a coaching staff that failed to command the attention of the room, which failed to prevent the team’s second lackluster performance in three weeks.

There will be a lot of talk and a lot of propaganda this coming offseason about how much the 2024 Cardinals have improved in their second year under Jonathan Gannon. Even if the Cardinals win their final two games and finish with a 9-8 record, the claims will ring hollow.

That’s because the Cardinals were 6-4 entering the bye week. Since then they have been between 1 and 4 and faded again over time. Their outrageous loss to the Panthers deprives the Valley of an upcoming showdown against the Rams in Los Angeles, a game that would have given the Cardinals a real lead on the division title and a home playoff game. A game scheduled for prime time Saturday night that gave Arizona Spots fans another shot at glory.

Now the game means nothing.

Finally the quarterback. Kyler Murray already has size issues. He can no longer afford to shrink on a football field. But he’s done that consistently since the bye week, making mishaps in big moments and undoing solid overall performances with inexplicable moments and decisions.

Murray is capable of being an MVP candidate, a stunning dual threat, and one of the most compelling players in the NFL. It can also be annoying, polarizing and incredibly bad. And all within a single possession.

The inconsistencies are annoying, as is an offense built around checkdowns and bubble screens.

For financial reasons, most astute observers expect Murray to return in 2025. But it’s going to be really hard to peddle hope and a significant increase in ticket prices when so many Valley residents have turned against our little quarterback. And it will be really hard to see.

It’s not uncommon for the Cardinals to get eliminated in Carolina. It happened twice in the playoffs during the Bruce Arians era, and both games hurt badly. However, it was great Panthers teams that blocked our path to the Super Bowl.

But today? Against Bryce Young’s Panthers? Deprive the fan base of a huge stage and a defining moment in LA?

Out of shame.

Reach Bickley at [email protected]. Listen to Bickley & Marotta mornings from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports

Follow @danbickley