NFL Winners and Losers: With Carson Palmer fading, Cardinals' championship dreams are done

When the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, the Arizona Cardinals inherited the longest championship drought in the four major American professional sports. Their last title came in 1947.

The timetable for the Cardinals breaking that streak might need to be pushed back a couple years. At least.

After falling to 4-5-1 on Sunday, the Cardinals’ season is likely over. And after this season they might enter the NFL’s abyss. There’s too much talent to tear everything down and start over. There might not be enough talent to get the Cardinals to a Super Bowl, though. This quandary begins at the quarterback position.

Last season Carson Palmer was an MVP candidate. Palmer struggled late last season and into the playoffs. That could have been due to a dislocated finger. Whatever the reason, the struggles have continued. On Sunday Palmer had just 198 yards on 38 attempts, and one of his interceptions was returned 100 yards by Xavier Rhodes. The pick-six swung a 30-24 decision to the Minnesota Vikings. The Cardinals needed a win. Now they’re three games behind the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West with six to play. The schedule isn’t easy either. Four of the Cardinals’ final six opponents have winning records. Four of their last six games come on the road.

Palmer has been an issue all season. Last season he had 35 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. This season he has 13 touchdowns and 10 picks. His passer rating of 83.6 is exactly 21 points off last year’s mark. Palmer turns 37 late next month. It’s rare that a 37-year-old quarterback turns out of a skid like this.

That leaves the Cardinals in a tough spot. Even though Arizona has talked up Drew Stanton as its next starter, it’s hard to buy that a 32-year-old with a 67.2 career rating is leading anyone to a championship. Palmer is still their best option right now (starting over at quarterback in the NFL is really tough to do), but it seems like he has passed the point in which he could lead Arizona to a Super Bowl, and his 2017 salary-cap number is $24.125 million according to Spotrac. It’s a tough spot for the Cardinals to be in.

Aside from Palmer, there are other concerns. This was a team built to win now. Next offseason defensive lineman Calais Campbell, receiver Michael Floyd, guard Evan Mathis and pass rusher Chandler Jones are among Arizona’s free agents. Receiver Larry Fitzgerald will be 34 next season, and he can’t play at a high level forever. And this is a team that looks like it needs to figure out a way to make improvements, because the status quo in Arizona doesn’t look good enough anymore.

The Cardinals’ best chance to be a contender next season centers around Palmer returning to his 2015 form. A more prudent option is probably figuring out a real long-term plan at quarterback. However, that will cost capital that the Cardinals would need to bounce back in 2017. And in most non-Dak Prescott cases, starting over at quarterback takes time. The Cardinals, after making it to the NFC championship game last season, suddenly appear to be stuck in the middle. Unless the Cardinals hit on a draft pick that can help them immediately at quarterback or there’s a total turnaround for a quarterback in his late 30s, it’s hard to see Arizona being a contender again anytime soon.

The longest streak without a championship in major American professional sports might go on for a while. The window to get a title with this group seems like it might be closed.

Here are the rest of the winners and losers for Week 11 of the NFL season:

WINNERS

Indianapolis Colts: For all the problems the Colts have had this season, they might enter Week 12 as the favorite in the AFC South.

The Colts beat the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, hanging on for a 24-17 win after taking a 21-0 lead. The win served two purposes. It got the Colts to within a game-and-a-half of the Houston Texans in the AFC South, and it effectively knocked the Titans out of the race. And the Texans are heavy underdogs to the Oakland Raiders on Monday night, so it’s likely that the Colts will be just a game back in the division by Tuesday morning. And the second meeting between the two teams will be in Indianapolis, on Dec. 11.

Houston hasn’t been very good, despite piling up a 6-3 record, and it seems like the Colts are the better team moving forward. Andrew Luck is playing well, and at times that’s all the Colts need (at times, that’s all the Colts have, too). Even though the Colts haven’t been good this season, you’d probably have to pick them to be the AFC South representative hosting a playoff game on wild-card weekend.

Jarvis Landry: One play said a lot about the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Rams.

The Dolphins have battled back to become playoff contenders after an ugly 1-4 start, though they were in trouble on Sunday. They trailed the Rams 10-0 late in the game when Landry caught a short pass over the middle and appeared to be stopped. Most of the Rams, who have never shown any discipline during the Jeff Fisher era, just watched and figured Landry would get brought down.

Instead, Landry kept trying to move forward, a blocker pushed the pile ahead, and then got in as the Rams suddenly tried to put in some effort. Seven Rams appeared to touch Landry before he crossed the goal line. None of them tackled him.

The Dolphins put together a game-winning drive after that, winning in the final minute. Miami is 6-4 and alive for a wild-card spot. It was a disappointing loss for the Rams, but they’re used to that under Fisher.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The 5-5 Buccaneers don’t look like a real playoff contender right now. But for a team that is building toward that, Sunday was a big day.

The Kansas City Chiefs had the longest active home winning streak in the NFL, at 10 in a row. And behind 331 yards by Jameis Winston and a huge fourth-quarter interception by Chris Conte, the Buccaneers upset the Chiefs 19-17. When the Chiefs had some momentum and forced a third-and-3 late in the game, Winston calmly hit Mike Evans for 14 yards to practically seal the win. It was a great clutch play from a young quarterback-receiver combination.

The Buccaneers have shown some progress in spurts this season. They have road wins over the Atlanta Falcons and Chiefs, two of the NFL’s better teams. They also have looked bad at times, but that’s the sign of a young team.

If the Buccaneers make a nice step next season – or get hot at the end of this season and make a run at a playoff spot – remember Sunday’s win. That was a pretty nice building block for a team that could be on the rise soon.

Anyone who wants to see another 0-16 team: Not that the Cleveland Browns had a realistic chance to knock off the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, but loss No. 11 didn’t offer much hope moving forward.

A sequence at the end of the first half, in which the Browns took two straight penalties to keep the half from ending, and then allowed a touchdown on an untimed down, seemed to take the fight out of the Browns. Cleveland ended up losing 24-9, and fell to 0-11 this season. For the second straight week Josh McCown got in, this time because Cody Kessler was injured, and didn’t play well. It doesn’t look like a change to McCown would give the Browns a better chance to win than sticking with Kessler or looking to anyone else. Perhaps Robert Griffin III comes off injured reserve and leads the Browns to a win. But there aren’t many games left.

There has only been one 0-16 team in NFL history. There’s no game left on the schedule that looks like a good spot for the Browns to get a win, especially with how they’re playing lately.

LOSERS

Seattle Seahawks running game: Just when the Seahawks seemed to be getting things rolling, they suffered another huge injury in the running game.

Thomas Rawls finally returned, but C.J. Prosise could be on his way out. Prosise has a scapula injury and will be out a while, coach Pete Carroll said. It’s a bad enough injury that Carroll is already talking in terms of Prosise maybe being able to return before the end of the season.

Prosise had given the offense a much-needed spark. He had a 72-yard touchdown run on Sunday in a win over the Philadelphia Eagles. The Seahawks were confident enough in him and Rawls that they cut Christine Michael this week. Now they’re back to having depth issues at tailback.

The Seahawks looked great again on Sunday, and perhaps Rawls can immediately resume full-time duties and stay healthy. But if anything derails the Seahawks in the NFC, it could be because the running game ends up failing.

Tennessee Titans’ fourth-quarter decisions: On a day in which the Titans’ playoff hopes likely ended, they’ll second-guess some key decisions.

After a horrendous start, the Titans stormed back and were trailing just 21-14 in the fourth quarter. Tennessee gained 8 yards on third down and faced fourth-and-2 at the Colts’ 29-yard line. The Titans offense has been very good lately. It has averaged more than 30 points per game since Week 4 and was playing well in the second half. But the Titans decided to kick a field goal instead of going for it. Even after making the field goal, the Titans still needed a touchdown. It was a very conservative call.

After the Colts kicked a field goal to take a 24-17 lead, the Titans drove again. This time, they did go for it on fourth-and-1. The play call wasn’t very creative. Tennessee ran wide left and DeMarco Murray was stopped short. It’s the kind of play that’s easy to question when it doesn’t work.

Tennessee lost 24-17 and fell to 5-6 this season. Unless they get really hot they aren’t going to make the playoffs, which is unfortunate. Their offense has been fun to watch, and mostly under the radar. In the fourth quarter Sunday, the Titans didn’t show enough faith in that offense.

Marvin Lewis: It’s really hard to fire a coach who makes the playoffs. Teams don’t do it very often, even if they think in private moments that it’s the right thing to do.

The Cincinnati Bengals have kept going forward with Lewis, despite his 0-7 playoff record. On one hand, it’s tough to make the playoffs six times in seven seasons, as Lewis has. On the other, the Bengals still haven’t won a playoff game since Jan. 6, 1991.

Lewis has guided the Bengals to the playoffs five straight seasons. They’re not going to make it back this season. The Bengals are 3-6-1 after a 16-12 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Their best player, receiver A.J. Green, will miss some time with a hamstring injury. And if the Bengals want a coaching change, but couldn’t do it as Lewis was making the playoffs, they’ll have a chance this offseason.

Cincinnati has been loyal to Lewis, who has done a good job with a franchise that was a joke before he took over. The Bengals had seven playoff appearances in their history before Lewis, and had seven in Lewis’ first 13 seasons. Maybe Cincinnati won’t move on from Lewis for one bad season. But the opportunity is there if they had been considering a change.

Blake Bortles throwing an interception when the Lions were trying to give him a completion: Bortles is having a hideous season, which should give the Jacksonville Jaguars serious concern. At this point he needs a total overhaul to be a competent starter again.

Nothing illustrates Bortles’ issues like his last pass on Sunday. The Lions’ secondary played a soft coverage with a few seconds left, ready to give up a short completion and then make a tackle on the receiver or whoever he lateraled to. Instead, Bortles’ pass to wide-open Marqise Lee was so far behind Lee that he tipped it up to Lions safety Tavon Wilson for the interception. Bortles had no pressure on him when he threw it. He still was nowhere close on the throw to a receiver the Lions weren’t even defending. Bortles has been terrible this season, and that moment summed it all up.

Bortles threw a pick-six for the 10th time in his career Sunday, and that was huge in a 26-19 loss. The Jaguars are in a tailspin, coach Gus Bradley seems likely to lose his job, but they still won’t bench a struggling quarterback whose mechanics are so awful that he has become hard to watch. And Bortles isn’t showing any signs of turning it around.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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