The Cardinals were bottled up by the Rams after refusing to accept the quick checkdown throws NFL offenses must take advantage of to succeed.
The Cardinals did not lose Monday’s wild-card game to the Rams because Kyler Murray threw a pick-six while backed up in his own end zone in the second quarter, which put Los Angeles up three touchdowns with eight minutes remaining until halftime.
However, it is possible that the play was emblematic of why the Cardinals were picked apart by the Rams, and why the team lost five of its remaining six games to completely sour a 10–2 start that had them on a Super Bowl trajectory.