2014 Arizona Cardinals season

The 2014 season was the Arizona Cardinals' 95th in the National Football League (NFL), their 27th in Arizona and their second under head coach Bruce Arians. Following an explosive 9–1 start to the regular season, they finished at 11–5, achieving their highest win total since 1975 when they were still in St. Louis (also their highest total in a 16-game season). The Cardinals clinched their first playoff berth since 2009, and had a chance to become the first team to play the Super Bowl on their own home field, University of Phoenix Stadium. However, after season-ending injuries to Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton, they were forced to start third-string quarterback Ryan Lindley in the wild-card round, losing to the Carolina Panthers, 27–16, which was the first time since 1982 when they were in St. Louis that the Cardinals went one-and-done.

• Note: The Cardinals traded their original first-round selection (No. 20 overall) to the New Orleans Saints in exchange for the Saints' first- (No. 27 overall) and third- (No. 91 overall) round selections.

Owner/chairman – Bill Bidwill President – Michael Bidwill General manager – Steve Keim Vice president of player personnel – Terry McDonough Director of college scouting – Dru Grigson Director of pro scouting – Quentin Harris Head coaches

Head coach – Bruce Arians Assistant head coach/offense – Tom Moore Offensive coaches

Offensive coordinator/offensive line – Harold Goodwin Quarterbacks – Freddie Kitchens Running backs – Stump Mitchell Wide receivers – Darryl Drake Tight ends – Rick Christophel Assistant tight ends/assistant special teams – Steve Heiden Assistant offensive line – Larry Zierlein Offensive assistant – David Diaz-Infante Offensive quality control – Kevin Garver | | | Defensive coaches Defensive coordinator – Todd Bowles Defensive line – Brentson Buckner Outside linebackers – James Bettcher Inside linebackers – Mike Caldwell Defensive backs – Nick Rapone Cornerbacks – Kevin Ross Defensive assistant/assistant defensive backs – Ryan Slowik Pass rush specialist – Tom Pratt Special teams coaches

Special teams coordinator – Amos Jones Assistant special teams – Anthony Blevins Strength and conditioning

Strength and conditioning – Buddy Morris Assistant strength and conditioning – Pete Alosi Assistant strength and conditioning – Roger Kingdom |

23 Marion Grice 39 Robert Hughes FB 30 Stepfan Taylor 33 Kerwynn Williams Wide receivers (WR)

13 Jaron Brown 12 John Brown 11 Larry Fitzgerald 15 Michael Floyd 19 Ted Ginn Jr. RS 10 Brittan Golden Tight ends (TE)

89 John Carlson 85 Darren Fells 84 Rob Housler | | Offensive linemen (OL) 61 Jonathan Cooper G 74 Paul Fanaika G 62 Ted Larsen G 70 Bobby Massie T 63 Lyle Sendlein C 79 Bradley Sowell T 71 Anthony Steen G 68 Jared Veldheer T 78 Earl Watford G Defensive linemen (DL)

93 Calais Campbell DE 95 Tommy Kelly 96 Kareem Martin DE 73 Josh Mauro DE 98 Frostee Rucker DE 66 Alameda Ta'amu NT 92 Dan Williams NT | | Linebackers (LB) 94 Sam Acho OLB 97 Lorenzo Alexander OLB 59 Marcus Benard OLB 56 Glenn Carson ILB 54 Kenny Demens ILB 50 Larry Foote ILB 51 Kevin Minter ILB 57 Alex Okafor OLB 91 Matt Shaughnessy OLB Defensive backs (DB)

28 Justin Bethel CB 36 Deone Bucannon SS 29 Chris Clemons SS 31 Antonio Cromartie CB 22 Tony Jefferson SS 26 Rashad Johnson FS 32 Tyrann Mathieu S 21 Patrick Peterson CB 25 Jerraud Powers CB Special teams (ST)

 2 Drew Butler P  7 Chandler Catanzaro K 82 Mike Leach LS | | Practice squad 34 Zach Bauman RB 75 John Fullington G 80 Andre Hardy Jr. TE 17 Travis Harvey WR 46 Jimmy Legree CB  4 Jeff Mathews QB 69 Kelvin Palmer T 86 Ryan Spadola WR 37 Ross Weaver CB 27 Darren Woodard CB Reserve

55 John Abraham OLB (IR) 90 Darnell Dockett DE (IR) 20 Jonathan Dwyer RB (NF-Inj.) 38 Andre Ellington RB (IR) 87 Troy Niklas TE (IR)  3 Carson Palmer QB (IR) 72 Ed Stinson DE (IR) 58 Daryl Washington ILB (Susp.) 41 Eddie Whitley CB (IR)  9 Dave Zastudil P (IR) Rookies in italics 53 active, 10 reserve, 10 practice squad |

The win ended the Cardinals' eight-game losing streak against the Redskins, beating them for the first time since the 2000 season, when both teams were members of the NFC East.

Carson Palmer would suffer a season-ending injury on his left-knee. Drew Stanton would take over as quarterback for the rest of the game. Thanks to the efforts of the defense during the fourth quarter, the Cardinals rallied to beat the Rams 31-14.

This would snap the 49ers' 4-game losing streak in Levi's Stadium. With the loss, the Cardinals finished their season to 11-5.

The Cardinals' offensive performance was historically bad as the team lost to the 7-8-1 Panthers, by a final score of 27-16, and were eliminated from the postseason. They committed three turnovers (two of them being red zone interceptions), gained only 8 first downs (and only 2 first downs in the second half) and recorded 78 net yards of offense, the fewest yards gained in a playoff game by any team in NFL postseason history. After a 9-1 start, the Cardinals went 2-5 in their final seven games. Because both QB Carson Palmer and QB Drew Stanton went down with injuries during regular Season Games. Cardinals were forced to use 3rd string QB Ryan Lindley for the last 2 regular season Games and Lindley had to start for the Cardinals in the Wild Card game at Carolina.

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