Arizona Cardinals

Arians on Cardinals' crushing loss: 'This was a nice wake-up call'

Published Jan. 3, 2016 11:56 p.m. ET

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The Arizona Cardinals picked an opportune time for their worst game of the season, getting steamrolled in a 36-6 loss to the visiting Seattle Seahawks.

With the Cardinals already having locked up the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs, coach Bruce Arians sensed his team was ripe for a dud despite entering the regular-season finale on a nine-game winning streak. 

“This was a valuable lesson today because you could see it coming all week,” Arians said. “Coaches, players, all of them fell into that reading-the-press-clippings thing and anointed Super Bowl champs. This was a nice wake-up call.”

Arizona unraveled late in the second quarter, surrendering three touchdowns in under a span of four minutes to turn a four-point deficit into a 30-6 hole at halftime. Still, the players were not sounding an alarm despite lopsided defeat. 

“I’m not saying this was a preseason game or anything like that, but sometimes, you can learn more from losses than wins," veteran linebacker Dwight Freeney said. "Especially when the games don’t necessarily affect you.”

Quarterback Carson Palmer threw for 363 yards and three touchdowns in a 39-32 win at Seattle on Nov. 15, but he was yanked at halftime in Sunday's rematch. Like Arians, Palmer said the loss could have a positive effect on the team.

“Sometimes that’s a good thing, going the way we had it going," Palmer said. "Bring some guys back down to earth and get back to work. We believe in ourselves and we’re not going to hang on this one very long.”

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