Despite falling to the Jacksonville Jaguars in what was their eighth loss in nine, the Arizona Cardinals deserve a lot of credit for turning in a great defensive performance against a likely playoff opponent. Moral victories are rarely appreciated at this point in the season, but many people, including myself, called out the lack of effort and fight in two blowout losses to the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks, and Arizona deserves some kudos for the way they played on Sunday.

The Main Takeaway: Defensive improvement

The Cardinals' defense turned up the heat on Sunday, blitzing Trevor Lawrence early and often. Of their three sacks, two were by defensive backs on well-timed pressure calls. The first occurred when Jalen Thompson came screaming off the edge and stripped the ball from Lawrence, leading to a touchdown for Walter Nolen.

The second was a split sack between Calais Campbell and Budda Baker on another safety blitz. It was awesome to see Nick Rallis finally dip into some creative blitz packages, but you have to wonder where that’s been in big spots all season? Baker specifically played a fantastic game, with the aforementioned sack being accompanied by an incredible diving interception.

Aside from his splash plays, his full game PFF grade of 77.5 was his best all season. Garret Williams also deserves credit for continuing to fight in the slot. Despite allowing a touchdown, he allowed only one other catch in the game, and continues to make his case to be a staple in the secondary of the future, health permitting.

Offensive imbalance makes closing games incredibly difficult

Jacoby Brissett and the passing game were pretty good on Sunday. 33 completions on 49 attempts for 317 yards and a touchdown despite being sacked six times and pressured a whopping 27 times. Arizona never trailed by more than three points in this game, yet Jacksonville defenders were constantly able to pin their ears back and tee off on Brissett, thanks to a lack of respect in the Arizona run game.

The Cardinals ran 20 times for 55 yards, and 20 of those came on three Brissett scrambles. The offense is continually being set behind the chains due to the insistence of the offensive coaches on calling first-down runs. Josh Fryar has been seeing time as a sixth offensive lineman over the last two weeks to try and generate more push, but it hasn’t made a difference so far.

If the offense is forced to live and die with the pass, they need to change up their tendencies in order to have a shot. That’s throwing on first down, throwing on third and short, and running the ball out of more spread out formations to lighten the box.

Finally, Nolen’s injury is the biggest blow of the week

Since his debut against the Dallas Cowboys, Nolen has been nothing short of a revelation on the Cardinals' defensive line. The rookie has 5 pressures and a sack in essentially three games, along with six tackles and his defensive touchdown on Sunday.

Nolen left after just six snaps against Jacksonville, and as of the writing of this article, his status is still up in the air, according to Bo Brack of PHNX Sports. Nolen has had such little time to show off what he can do because of injury, and it would be brutal for his development if he has to lose any more of his rookie season. Monti Ossenfort seems to have knocked his first two picks out of the park in Nolen and Will Johnson, but both missing extended time due to injury has to be at least a little concerning to fans.