With just 26 seconds left in the first half of Sunday’s season opener against the St. Louis Rams, Carson Palmer led the Arizona offense to gain 48 yards in just four plays to give the Cardinals a chance to take a 13-10 lead into halftime.
The points were left on the field as Jay Feely’s 50-yard field goal attempt was pushed wide right. The Cardinals ended up losing the game by just a field goal as Feely’s counterpart, Greg Zuerlein, hit a 48-yard attempt with less than a minute to play to give the Rams a 27-24 victory.
Cardinals’ head coach Bruce Arians joined Alex Marvez and Gil Brandt on Sirius XM NFL Radio Tuesday. Arians said the missed field goal was a big blow and they need more consistency from Feely.
“We did an excellent job in that two-minute drill of getting down there and putting him in field goal position and it was a huge miss for us emotionally not going into halftime with the lead,” Arians said.
Arians said Feely didn’t look great in pregame warmups and didn’t hit his first two kickoffs of the game well either.
“He had a poor warmup in St. Louis and it showed up - not only on the missed field goal, which he hit solid, he just missed it - but he missed his first two kickoffs and that’s not like him,” Arians said.
The Cardinals brought in Dan Carpenter briefly toward the end of the preseason to compete for the job. Feely won the job and was named a captain by his teammates, but Arians says they ultimately need more consistency from their kicking game.
“He’s just got to pick it up,” Arians said.