The 2022-23 NFL season has been a historic one for the Arizona Cardinals in all the wrong ways imaginable.
Kliff Kingsbury’s squad is poised to accomplish something no other Cardinals team has in the franchise’s 103-year history — the most monumental drop off in wins, year-over-year.
Arizona has gone from 11-6 and in the playoffs in 2021 to 4-12 with a game left against the San Francisco 49ers. With a loss against the 49ers this weekend, the Cardinals, who helped drive the first year of Arizona sports betting, will have dropped seven wins off their year-end total from a season ago, one game worse than the teams in 2016 and 1926.
It seems such a feat is on the horizon, with oddsmakers at BetMGM Sportsbook Arizona listing the Cardinals as a 14-point underdog against the 49ers.
BetArizona.com wanted to contextualize how historically feeble the Cardinals have been in 2022, comparing the team’s year-over-year win total drop off to their predecessors.
Cardinals Worst Season-to-Season Drop Offs
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How Cards Fell in 2022
The 2022 season got off on a sour note in the Cardinals’ opener against Kansas City, as they gave up 360 yards and five touchdowns to quarterback Patrick Mahomes in a 44-21 shellacking in Glendale.
Arizona rallied in Week 2, staging an immaculate comeback win over Las Vegas to move to 1-1, before splitting games against the L.A. Rams and Carolina to move to 2-2.
Things spiraled from there, though, as Arizona would go on to lose four of five between Oct. 9 and Nov. 6, with defeats at the hands of Philadelphia (20-17), Seattle (19-9), Minnesota (34-26) and Seattle again (31-21).
A Nov. 13 win over the Rams in L.A. helped stop the bleeding temporarily, as the Cardinals moved to 4-6 for the year, though a six-game (and counting) losing streak would soon signal the end for Arizona’s glimmering playoff chances.
Arizona added injury to Arizona betting apps insult in Week 14, when franchise cornerstone Kyler Murray went down on a non-contact play with a torn ACL during the team’s 27-13 Monday Night Football loss to the New England Patriots on Dec. 12.
Arizona’s 20-19 loss to Atlanta on Sunday marked the team’s seventh single-digit defeat of the year, proving once again why the NFL is a game of inches and showcasing how little margin for error there is in the league.
Where the 2022 Cardinals Rank in Franchise History
With a loss to San Francisco in Sunday’s Week 18 finale, the Cardinals would clinch the biggest year-over-year win total fall-off.
The 2016 squad followed up a 13-3 season that saw Arizona knock off Green Bay, 26-20, before falling to Carolina (49-15) in the NFC Championship game by going 7-8-1 and missing the playoffs entirely.
Arizona can only hope the franchise won’t revert to the losing ways they found between 2017 and 2020, when they went 24-39-1 (.375), missing the playoffs each year.
For now, at least the Cardinals can take solace in hosting Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12, though they will not be partaking in the gameday festivities.
