Mildly Disappointing

The Arizona Cardinals are 1-3, after losing to the St. Louis Rams 17-13. Which makes Arizona 1-2 at home so far this season. Carson Palmer was knocked out by taking enough hits to the head they put him into concussion protocol. Meanwhile, the defense was giving way at the worst moment, giving the lead back to the Rams. Then Drew Stanton came in and promptly threw an INT. Which was pretty funny, since the announcers were blathering on about how poor Stanton never seemed to be wanted by any of the teams that picked him up, and right as they're bemoaning his eternal bridesmaid fate, he kills any chance they had of winning.

The loss isn't necessarily a surprise. The Cardinals are out of sync, and Palmer got his ass beat by the Bills last week. Now he was facing the Rams and their pass rush, so him being pummeled was an unfortunately likely end result. Oh well, maybe the Cardinals are trying to wait until late in the season to hit their stride, like the Seahawks do sometimes.

On the baseball side of the ledger, the St. Louis Cardinals won their final four games, but did not make the playoffs, because the Giants finally got their act together. How much of san Francisco's success was them as opposed to the Dodgers not giving a shit I couldn't say. It's not as though the Cards didn't have every opportunity the last two months to seize one of the two wild cards. The Giants played like shit after the All-Star Break, but the Cardinals couldn't do better than stumbling along at slightly better than .500. Too many games against the Braves and Reds they let get away.

Hard to say what the offseason will bring. They're declining Holliday's option, though I'm not convinced they won't try to bring him back on a cheaper deal. I'm not sure if they'll make a qualifying offer to Moss, or if he'll accept if they do. He's been in a slump for the last month, probably cost himself millions. Will they pick up Garcia's option, what do they do with Wacha, or Rosenthal? Can they ship Peralta out for anything (as part of a package deal), do they even want to.