Arizona Cardinals: What’s gone wrong to cause recent slump?

Kliff Kingsbury’s Arizona Cardinals have dropped three straight games after a 6-3 start.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks were all tied atop the NFC West. Now 13 weeks and one Thursday night win by Sean McVay’s team later, the Rams own the division’s top spot at 9-4 and the ‘Hawks need a victory over the visiting Jets on Sunday to forge another tie in the standings.

As for the Cards, they’ve been dealt three straight defeats since the late-game heroics by Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins in Week 10 vs. the Bills. Losses to the Seahawks (28-21), Patriots (20-17) and Rams (38-28) have put Kliff Kingsbury’s team in third place all by their lonesome at the moment.

After 10 weeks of play (nine games), the Cardinals owned the league’s top-ranked offense, averaging an impressive 425.4 yards per game. Arizona also led the NFL by running for 168.9 yards per contest. The club was averaging 29.6 points per outing and Kingsbury’s team had totaled 32 offensive touchdowns while Murray was sacked just 13 times.

But it’s been a different offensive story as of late. In their last three outings, all losses, Arizona’s offense has totaled 844 yards, a mere 281.3 per game. The team has run for a combined 287 yards (95.7 per game) and is averaging just 22 points per game.

Murray has been sacked seven times and the club is coming off a season-low 232 yards gained in the 38-28 loss to the Rams — the seventh consecutive setback to Sean McVay’s team. It’s an offense that has stalled to a degree and the Cardinals’ defense, improved from a year ago but still very vulnerable, simply has been unable to take up the slack.

This week’s foe is the resurgent Giants, winners of four in a row, at MetLife Stadium. That’s followed by home games with the Eagles and 49ers, the latter whom the Cards defeated in Week 1, and a rematch with the Rams in Los Angeles.

There’s still time for these Cardinals to right the ship. But their once-potent offense, which gets wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald back this week, needs to make a return in quick order.