Amid difficult start, Arizona Cardinals' schedule provides reason for optimism

Amid a difficult season, this week has felt particularly grim for the Arizona Cardinals .

They’ve lost three of their past four and are now slammed with injuries. Their defense has been abysmal and their offense has fallen short of expectations for the past month. A season meant to be a turning point has instead been frustratingly familiar.

There is, though, one reason for optimism.

Through six weeks, the Cardinals have faced the Bills, Rams, Lions, Commanders, 49ers and Packers. Combined, those teams are 20-14. Other than the 1-4 Rams — whom the Cardinals destroyed — they’re all among the top 12 teams in Super Bowl odds.

Beginning with Monday Night Football against the Chargers, the tide begins to turn. The Cardinals' next five opponents are 14-14. These are not pushovers, but the tests are more even. Until their Week 13 trip to Minnesota, the Cardinals do not face a team with Super Bowl odds better than 30/1.

Just look at their next five games.

Less bumps in the road coming up for the Cardinals

The Chargers are strong in the run game — offensively and defensively — but lack the receiving weapons to help Justin Herbert.

The Dolphins could still be without Tua Tagovailoa, leaving them with a group of backup quarterbacks that has proven incapable of leading the offense.

The Bears' offense has not been able to score against decent opponents.

The Jets are talented, especially after the addition of Davante Adams, but they have not put it together and recently fired head coach Robert Saleh for a reason.

The Seahawks have lost three straight, allowing 107 points in that span.

All five of those games are winnable. All five provide a chance for Kyler Murray to prove he can lead this offense to explosive performances. All five give a beleaguered defense the opportunity to get on track. And they’re the start of a trend. The Cardinals' remaining opponents this season have a .452 winning percentage, giving them the seventh-easiest schedule in the NFL from here on out.

No excuses from the Arizona Cardinals

Their players and coaches, though, aren’t focused on the challenges that their schedule has posed.

“We need to do more collectively to win more games,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said. “So that's all our energy and focus is right now, is what do we control and how that impacts beating the Chargers on Monday night.”

Quarterback Kyler Murray added that the schedule does not dampen the frustration of starting 2-4.

“I'm not really with the moral victories,” Murray said. “Do we understand who we've played? Yeah. And the teams that we've played? Yeah, they've all got great records or are good teams, a lot of great players. But that's the NFL. It's any given Sunday. So the focus is to go out there and win, regardless of who we're playing. I don't really look into that.”

Murray, though, did acknowledge that he’s keeping a positive mindset amid the difficult start. This, he said, is part of his development as a quarterback. When he got into the league, he couldn’t compartmentalize losses. After all, he had gone 42-0 as a starter in high school and 24-5 as a starter in college.

“Dealing with failure, I took it super hard,” Murray said. “But I think it was kind of a detriment to being able to move on. You don't want to learn how to lose but at the end of the day, you kinda have to learn how to deal with those things and continue to play the game at a high level. So I guess you could say that's maturity and age.”

Now, the Cardinals have an opportunity to implement that growth. This week, they’re 2-point underdogs. The following week, they’re 2.5-point underdogs. These games won’t be easy, but they’re winnable.

Collectively, they give the Cardinals a chance to produce the first tangible optimism of their rebuild. And if they fail to seize it, the tenor of conversations could begin to shift.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Amid difficult start, Arizona Cardinals' schedule provides reason for optimism