There are certainly worse spots to be in than where the Arizona Cardinals stand after their second game of the 2025 NFL season. Consider, there are only ten teams left in the league that have a perfect record after two weeks, and the Cardinals are one of those ten teams. Does it matter that those wins came against arguably the two worst teams in the league? Absolutely not, a win’s a win and the Cardinals can only play the teams on their schedule.
But does it matter that the Cardinals have been playing “sloppy ball” — those are the words of wide receiver Michael Wilson, not yours truly — in those two wins? You bet it does, and everyone in the Cardinals locker room seems to know it.
We could be 0-2, but we’re 2-0 with this issue,” Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray said after the 27-22 win over the Carolina Panthers, per Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com. “I don’t want to make it a thing, but at the same time, yeah, we got to be better. We got to finish games. That’s the bottom line because it didn’t bite us in the a** today. Didn’t bite us in the a** last week, but you keep playing around, you get bit, so we got to be better.”
After taking a 27-3 early in the 3rd quarter on Sunday afternoon, Arizona would then give up 19 unanswered points to the Panthers and find themselves in the same position they were in near the conclusion of their Week 1 victory over the New Orleans Saints… defense on the field, attempting to keep the opponent out of the end zone as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
Each time, Arizona’s defense was able to hold firm and the Cardinals escaped with the win, but this is a team that at least internally believes they’ll be competing well into January this season. A team of that caliber shouldn’t need to be escaping with wins against a pair of squads that will likely have top five picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Closing out opponents before the final minutes of the game is the next step the Cards need to take before they can be taken as seriously as they hoped to be heading into the season.
“I think we need a little bit more emphasis on it (closing out games) because it’s kind of bitten us in the tail two weeks in a row,” Wilson added. “But I think we can calm the storm by just executing a little bit better.”
Jonathan Gannon Speaks Out On Cardinals’ Issues
If you’re Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon, this particular start to the season may actually be a best case scenario sort of outcome. The Cardinals are 2-0, perfect in the standings but not without blemishes. As Kyler Murray stated, they could be 0-2, and that gives Gannon plenty of ammo to be able to keep his foot down on the gas pedal and coach his team up hard, like they’re an 0-2 team, over the next couple of weeks.
“I feel better today than I did last night because the solutions are correctable and we got to correct them,” Gannon told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Monday. “It’s hard to be 2-0 and it’s hard to win a game (in the NFL) but I just feel like we’re a better team than what we put out there but I feel better about the solutions going forward to get better.
One of those solutions could be cutting down on penalties. After finishing the 2024 season with the second-fewest turnovers in the NFL, Arizona has the second-most penalties through the first two weeks of the season.
“We have to play a little cleaner,” Gannon added. “There’s a lot of penalties that are hurting the ball club right now and we’ve been kind of a low flag team. It’s not a winning stat, but it can hurt you in a game and kill drives, sustain drives, changes field position and you’re just making it really hard on yourself.”
Another issue that the Cardinals need to address is the lack of involvement of second-year wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. Much had been said and written about how the Cardinals would get Harrison involved more often this season, and how the second-year wideout spent the offseason getting himself in a better place both mentally and physically after a disappointing rookie year.
Through the first two weeks of the 2025 season, it looks like much of the same from last season. Harrison has had just 11 balls thrown his way, a small sample size no doubt, but still problematic considering he’s receiving fewer targets per game this year than he did last year.
“I know (Marvin) has a certain number of plays where he is the read in,” Gannon said, per Darren Urban of azcardinals.com. “If they play a coverage that says the ball is not going to go there it’s not going to go there. Saying that, I know he needs to touch the football for our offense to be at its premium.”
Cardinals Recognize There Are Imperfections Aplenty Despite Perfect 2-0 Start