No, this is not a joke.

Arizona has lost eight straight to a team whose most recent finish above last place in the NFC East came in 2007. More importantly, the Cardinals haven’t won in Washington since 1998.

On Sunday, The Redskins made it easy for the Cardinals to break this streak, but in old, Arizona Cardinals fashion they were unable to pull off the win.

Why was this?

Let’s take a closer look at both sides of their game.

Offense

Simply put, the Cardinals were outperformed on offense all game.

They made huge mistakes at inopportune times and failed to come up big in others.

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The offensive line continues to struggle with quarterback protection. The run blocking has been some of the best I have ever seen from a Cardinals’ offensive line, but the quarterback protection hasn’t changed. The Redskins pressured Kevin Kolb all day, hit him five times and recorded three sacks, although, Kolb might have held on to the ball for too long for a few of those.

For some reason the Cardinals refused to run the ball Sunday. By the end of the game they had a total of only 15 rushing attempts. Despite this, Beanie Wells continues to show he’s going to be a tough runner when given a chance. Still, he does seem to be susceptible to the “trip”.

A few bright spots came from Kolb and Larry Fitzgerald.

In two games, Kevin Kolb has shown he can complete the big passes and perform well in fourth quarters. He’s tough and doesn’t seem to panic under pressure, something you

couldn’t say about Derek Anderson last year. He took a monster hit from Redskin’s linebacker London Fletcher but still was able to throw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Fitzgerald.

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Fitzgerald’s 133-yard-one-touchdown day, on top of tying a few Cardinals’ franchise records, gave fans a glimmer of hope for the Kolb-Fitzgerald connection being there all season.

The overall offensive performance was decent at best, but by no means did it lose the game.

Defense

Blame it on the lockout, blame it on the injuries, or blame it on the young cornerbacks. Blame it on whatever you want; the Arizona Cardinals’ defense has looked atrocious. If last week showed they couldn’t stop the pass, this week showed they couldn’t stop anything. In just two games they have surrendered 932 yards, including 455 to the Redskins on Sunday.

Their defensive line was pushed around by the Redskins all game. They made Tim Hightower look like a pro bowler. There were numerous miscommunications. Veteran players looked like rookies and enthusiasm seems to be absent.

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It was chaos on the defensive side for the Cardinals.

There were, however, a few flashes of good. The Cardinals’ red-zone defense was solid for most of the game, recording two interceptions and a blocked field goal. But, their inability to stop the Redskins from completing a fourth-quarter comeback makes you forget about the good things they did.

"We couldn't finish it there at the end," Coach Whisenhunt said. "We're going to learn from it and continue to improve."

The good thing is the Cardinals have a week to prepare for the winless Seahawks, who are having struggles of their own. They should be able to figure things out and win a crucial divisional match-up. But, as I have come to learn, you never know what to expect from the Cardinals.