This season may have been Larry Fitzgerald’s best opportunity to win a Super Bowl before calling it a career, and the Arizona Cardinals came up well short in a blowout loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. After the game, it was clear that Fitzgerald was pretty devastated.
The nine-time Pro Bowler fought back tears during his postgame press conference, which you can watch over at NFL.com.
“It hurts to lose like this, in this fashion,” Fitzgerald said. “I love my teammates. They fought all year, through a lot of adversity, ups and downs. I’m really proud to be here, but obviously didn’t want it to end this way.”
Some would argue that losing a close game is more heartbreaking, but Fitzgerald seemed more bothered by the lack of fight his team showed.
“I think just the performance,” he said. “If we’d have lost in a shootout, it was a close game, came down to the wire, they beat us on some play, it would hurt, but … we just didn’t have it today. And that really stings.”
The bottom line is the Panthers were a significantly better team. Turning the ball over seven times killed the Cardinals, but Carolina forced a lot of bad decisions with its swarming defense.
Fitzgerald also apologized to Arizona fans on Twitter:
Cardinal nation we are terribly sorry about the bitter defeat we suffered this evening!!
— Larry Fitzgerald (@LarryFitzgerald) January 25, 2016
We are truly grateful for the love & support you all showed us this season. We couldn't have made it this far without you! #BirdGang
— Larry Fitzgerald (@LarryFitzgerald) January 25, 2016
The Cardinals showed how good they can be with Bruce Arians running the show and a healthy Carson Palmer, but things won’t get easier next season. Palmer recently turned 36 and Fitzgerald had one of his best seasons (this game in particular) as a pro at age 32. Can we expect the same kind of production in 2016? Time will tell.
