Bordow: Cards’ loss disappointing, but not discouraging

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Disappointed? You bet the Cardinals were disappointed. Think of what they lost Sunday:

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A 14-point lead against a 5-2 Carolina Panthers team.

An opportunity to win a big game on the road.

A chance to proclaim themselves as one of the NFC’s elite teams.

“It’s like when you want that special toy for Christmas,” fullback Terrelle Smith said after Arizona’s 27-23 loss. “You open it, and it’s a pair of socks, a pair of shorts and a pair of drawers instead of a video game.”

Discouraged? Not a chance.

A month ago, the Cardinals gave up 34 points in a quarter to the New York Jets. It looked like they would never win a road game again. Ever.

Sunday, they were the Panthers’ equal and arguably one tipped pass away from handing Carolina its first home loss of the season.

That’s progress, because not all losses are created equal.

“What’s going to stay with me the most is the way we came out and played on the road,” quarterback Kurt Warner said. “ ... It might be the best road game we’ve played since I’ve been here, and it was against a good — a very good — football team.

“If we can bottle this up and take it on the road the rest of the year, we’re going to win some football games.”

Most of Warner’s teammates echoed his line of thinking. Defensive tackle Darnell Dockett went as far as to say, “Nothing negative came out of that game.”

Well, that’s not entirely true. The Cardinals did blow a 17-3 third-quarter lead, mostly because the defense forgot how to tackle.

Carolina did nothing offensively in the first half, finishing with just 122 total yards. But after Tim Hightower scored to give Arizona a two-touchdown cushion, Arizona’s defense apparently decided to take the rest of the night off.

The Panthers scored 21 points in the third quarter and had 229 total yards in the final 25 minutes.

“It was all on us,” defensive end Antonio Smith said. “They didn’t do anything different.”

Two plays summed up the defense’s collapse:

Carolina wideout Steve Smith took a short pass and ran 65 yards to give Carolina a 24-23 lead with two seconds left in the third quarter. The Cardinals challenged the play, certain that Smith’s left foot had stepped out of bounds. Maybe it did, but Smith never would have scored had Rod Hood and Antrel Rolle done their jobs and tackled him.

Then, with 1:51 left, Carolina had a 3rd-and-13 at the Cardinals 49-yard line. Everyone knew the Panthers were going to run the ball. Somehow, though, on a simple draw play, DeAngelo Williams bulled through three Cardinals and gained 15 yards for the first down.

“You’ve got to be able to tackle a little bit better than we did,” Whisenhunt said.

The blown tackles were just part of the story.

Arizona again couldn’t run the ball, with Edgerrin James and Hightower gaining just 20 yards on 13 carries. Heaven forbid Kurt Warner gets hurt, because if Matt Leinart has to play, the Cardinals won’t be able to fall back on their running game to protect him.

There was also the fake field-goal attempt before halftime — 15 yards seems like a lot for Jerame Tuman to pick up — and holder Dirk Johnson dropping an extra point snap.

In the end, though, the Cardinals succumbed to their two turnovers, their inability to get the ball back from the Panthers in the final six minutes and, perhaps, to the knowledge that there’s still a couple of steps left in their evolution.

“We are a good team, and I think everybody knows that,” wide receiver Anquan Boldin said. “For us to go from a good team to a great team, we have to win these games.”

Amen to that.