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There was never a moment when the Arizona Cardinals had a chance in their Wild Card Round loss to the Carolina Panthers on Saturday night. There were only moments when the Panthers fulfilled their NFC South obligation and played like a team that should be relegated to a league in a far-away galaxy.

The hope was only of the false variety during a 27-16 loss, a whimper to end a season filled with roaring excitement. It was the sort of lying, teasing hope that made Cardinals fans shout “NO WAY!” and then shortly after a meek and muffled “no way” as an inevitable fate finally became reality.

The Cardinals never had a chance with Ryan Lindley at quarterback for a playoff game. They never had a chance with a run defense that was still gushing. And they never had a chance with a rushing offense of their own that barely existed.

Yet there was a point when the scoreboard said otherwise.

It was all confusing and utterly senseless, with the Panthers apparently still stuck in the holiday spirit of giving.

First a muffed punt by returner Brenton Bersin led to a Cardinals touchdown. Then Panthers kicker Graham Gano missed a 43-yard field goal, and quarterback Cam Newton’s erratic, back-footed throwing resulted in an interception returned to his own 17-yard line.

So, through sheer generosity and their duty as an 7-8-1 playoff team, the Panthers gifted 14 points and trailed a team calling Lindley its quarterback 14-13 at halftime.

But this was the real halftime scoreboard…

The Cardinals' first-half hole Team Total offensive yards Rushing yards Panthers 208 105 Cardinals 65 28 Source: NFL.com

Aside from repeatedly polishing golden horseshoes, the Cardinals’ only shot at maintaining their dumb luck in the second half rested with erecting a defensive wall and perhaps a literal one.

That is when the team-wide failure became glaring. It started with the quarterback and then extended far beyond him.

There was clearly an odor coming from Lindley after he finished with only 82 passing yards. But as unbearably awful as he was, I find it difficult to heap too much scorn on Lindley and Lindley alone—even if he threw a fourth-quarter interception inside the Panthers' 10-yard line after being given yet another gift (a Newton fumble), and even if he killed hope one more time in the final minutes by forcing a ball to wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald in the end zone.

Oh, and even if he went an entire quarter (the third one) with minus-two passing yards. ESPN Stats & Info provided his total QB rating—the worst since 2010:

The Lindley angst comes back to this question: What exactly did anyone expect from an often woefully inaccurate third-string quarterback starting a playoff game on the road? At minimum, competence would have been nice, but that’s a difficult thing to find when you’re down to cesspool levels on the quarterback depth chart.

The best-case scenario with Lindley was always going to be some impressive throws mixed in among a vast collection of crushing mental mistakes. We saw that during a Week 17 season-ending loss to the San Francisco 49ers that cemented Arizona's wild-card status. Lindley was slinging it in the first half with 260 passing yards. The second half? Only 56 yards, along with two interceptions due to awful decisions and worse throws.

Expecting Lindley to escape the reality of who he is—a wildly inconsistent backup to the backup—was always foolish. So once more with feeling: The Cardinals needed to win with defense, even if the time of possession was slanted ridiculously in Carolina’s favor (37:06 to 22:54). And that defense needed special teams support because every yard of field position was precious.

Too bad punter Drew Butler couldn’t even surrender effectively, as highlighted by Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith:

Butler averaged only 34.8 yards on his nine punts. That led to a low degree of difficulty for the Panthers and drives that often started just shy of field-goal range.

The lowlight for Butler came on his first punt of the second half that landed on the Cardinals’ 39-yard line. That moment of deep shame also led to another lack of fundamental skill, this time from a defense that was once among the league’s best against the run.

Panthers running back Fozzy Whittaker entered Saturday’s game with only 205 yards from scrimmage throughout the regular season. He was in the backfield on the next play after Butler’s latest punting dud, and after receiving a screen pass, Whittaker’s keen vision spotted a cutback opening.

He stopped abruptly and went against the flow of the defense. The Cardinals were largely caught out of position, but safety Rashad Johnson still had an opportunity to limit the damage.

That resulted in a whiff and instead maximum damage, a familiar sequence from the Cardinals defense we’ve seen since Week 12.

Credit: NFL.com

Whittaker turned the screen into a 39-yard touchdown. He had only two games this season with more than 39 yards from scrimmage.

Effective defenses capitalize on positioning. If a defender in position to make a play fails, then the runner gains momentum and is allowed to power farther downfield.

Johnson was already facing Whittaker at top speed, but what’s linebacker Sam Acho’s excuse for overly pursuing here?

Credit: NFL.com

That’s Jonathan Stewart’s first-quarter touchdown, and Acho was unblocked while facing the running back directly. Acho drifted too far to his left, giving Stewart access to an area of the field occupied by no one. He lost a one-on-one matchup despite being placed in ideal position.

The feeling of leaping and grasping at nothing was one the Cardinals knew well after a six-game stretch to end the season in which they allowed an average of 155.7 rushing yards (a gashing that continued with 188 yards given up to the Panthers). The Cardinals had also missed 30 tackles over their last two games, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

They needed to control the game defensively to compensate for offensive shortcomings. Instead, a late-season collapse extended into the playoffs, and they were thoroughly embarrassed while outgained 386-78.

Defensively, the Cardinals were drained and a shell of their early-season selves. Offensively, they were historically awful, averaging only 1.64 yards per play.

But the stink attached to a single playoff game doesn’t define the 2014 Arizona Cardinals.

"You never want a season like this to end with some of the great things this team has accomplished and what they overcame," said head coach Bruce Arians, via Darren Urban of Cardinals.com. "I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder of a group of guys that go out and fight every week."

This is a team that had to use four quarterbacks, with regular starter Carson Palmer on the field for only six of their 11 wins. At one point in the season, those who accounted for 28.5 of the Cardinals’ sacks in 2013 were lost, mostly because of injury (Darnell Dockett, John Abraham), with a suspension and free-agency departure tossed in for good measure (Daryl Washington, Karlos Dansby, respectively).

The list of bruises and breaks continues to infinity and beyond. Running back Andre Ellington appeared in only 12 games and limped around in others, and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald missed two games. Tyrann Mathieu was a one-handed safety for the final two weeks and against the Panthers, wearing a cast on his injured thumb.

There’s no prize for merely qualifying for the playoffs under those circumstances. Or at least no team prize, as head coach Bruce Arians will soon have the Coach of the Year award renamed in his honor.

Instead, there’s pride in knowing a bright future lies ahead.

More change is coming, with Fitzgerald possibly a salary-cap casualty, middle linebacker Larry Foote likely retiring and cornerback Antonio Cromartie in need of a new contract.

But youthful pieces like wide receiver John Brown and outside linebacker Alex Okafor are rapidly emerging, and they’ll keep growing when a healthy Palmer returns next fall.

There will be more winning in Arizona and more perseverance needed to do it while quickly adapting to changing circumstances. The 2014 Cardinals showed they have little problem dealing with change.