Jonathan Gannon’s voice bounced with each word. Sure, his Arizona Cardinals were 3-9, but he had just been asked about the Los Angeles Rams’ electric offense. For a defensive head coach, this is what it’s all about. The opportunity to test your mettle against the league’s best. To see what you’re capable of. Not just as a team, but as an individual.
“I’m juiced about the challenge,” Gannon said.
Four days later, Gannon’s defense allowed 45 points before its second play of the fourth quarter. The Rams could have easily hit 50, even 60, if Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, Kyren Williams, and Blake Corum had remained in the game. Instead, Sean McVay directed his starters to watch the final 10 minutes from the bench, a move that preserved both their health and a few shreds of the Cardinals’ dignity.
In the locker room, even the Cardinals’ players could only chuckle when asked to summon an explanation.
“God damn,” Josh Sweat said, letting out a full belly laugh. “I mean, that’s all I can say.”
A few lockers over, Garrett Williams offered up more words for a similar conclusion. At 45-17, this loss did not come down to a few plays here or there. It did not come down to one person or one position group. It could not even be isolated to the run game or the pass game.
“Games like that, it's really just everybody has to be better,” Williams said. “There's not really anything you can point at specifically. Everybody, in every way, we've just gotta improve.”
And for the Cardinals’ defense, it started from the opening kick. Their offense put up some fight in the first half, before four consecutive three-and-outs to open the second. The defense had no such encouraging stretch.
On the first drive of the game, the Rams needed just six plays to enter the red zone. That time, the Cardinals held them to a field goal, thanks to a rare miss from Stafford, who overthrew Davante Adams in the end zone.
The MVP frontrunner wouldn’t be so generous again. On each of the Rams’ next three drives, the Cardinals failed to even force a third down. In that stretch, Stafford completed 13 of 14 passes for 191 yards. And when the Cardinals did finally push the Rams to a third down on the first drive of the second half, Stafford simply found tight end Colby Parkinson for a touchdown.
Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon looks on in the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Glendale.
“It's not okay,” Gannon said. “It's not acceptable by me, by any of us in there.”
Finally, after that score, Rams punter Ethan Evans was called into action, even if he would have been forgiven for sneaking off to the locker room for a snooze. The Cardinals, though, weren’t done being ripped to shreds. After offering a brief reprieve with their two punts, the Rams went in for one last kill. This time, it came in the form of consecutive one-play touchdown drives.
On the first, Puka Nacua destroyed Will Johnson with a double move, reached back over Johnson’s head for the catch and walked into the end zone. On the second, Blake Corum ran 48 yards untouched for the score. Two differing versions of mockery.
Nacua’s 167 yards seemed to particularly sting Gannon. On some plays, he tipped his hat to the Rams, who found the weakness in the Cardinals’ coverage and exploited it. But on others, Gannon said the Cardinals were in playcalls designed to negate Nacua. They failed anyway.
It was a defense that struggled in all facets. They couldn’t cover downfield, but they also couldn’t get to the quarterback, generating just five pressures and zero sacks on 31 pass rush attempts. Their run defense was shredded for 7.7 yards per carry, excluding kneeldowns.
It started, as it often does, in the spine of the defense. Outside of Calais Campbell, none of their interior defensive linemen or linebackers have been consistently productive this year, despite offseason investments into both groups.
But this was a new low, one for which Gannon offered a simple explanation.
“Fundamentals,” Gannon said. “Technique and fundamentals. Which lead to execution. Which lead to playing complementary football. Which lead to not getting the brakes beat off you at home.”
For all the details of how this happened, it’s that last part that ultimately matters.
The Cardinals have now allowed 40-plus points in three consecutive games to NFC West opponents. In the first 23 years of the division’s existence — before this fall — they had suffered that indignity just four total times.
And if the Cardinals don’t have their defense, what do they have?
There is one version of this offseason in which they refresh their offensive identity and give Gannon another opportunity — a fourth season to right the ship. That version likely includes a new offensive coordinator, a new quarterback and a bolstered offensive line.
Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum (68) holds off Los Angeles Rams linebacker Josaiah Stewart (10) during an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz.
With that route, the Cardinals could blame their miserable 2025 solely on one side of the ball. On defense, then, they could run it back — which would mean retaining both Gannon and defensive coordinator Nick Rallis.
Some weeks, that looks like a viable path forward. It was just last week, after all, that the Cardinals held the Buccaneers in check on the road in a 20-17 loss.
After that defeat, the offense ranked 24th in DVOA, which accounts for strength of schedule. The defense ranked a more respectable 13th. For all its inconsistencies, there’s a way to spin that as acceptable, especially considering some of the Cardinals’ injury woes.
Even in the Cardinals’ two previous games, allowing 40 points to divisional opponents, there were caveats. The Seahawks scored twice on fumble recoveries. The 49ers used turnovers and special teams for advantageous field position.
Then the Rams inflicted a simple, old-fashioned beatdown. There was no silver lining for the defense in this one, no excusing the point tally.
“It's on coaching,” Gannon said, finding the root cause for that unit’s proclaimed lack of fundamentals.
So, then. If the defense is allowing nearly a half-century of points to its division rivals, can this offseason’s rebuild be limited to one side of the ball? And if not, what does that mean for Gannon? Those, in the coming weeks, will now be the questions for Michael Bidwill and Monti Ossenfort to answer.
