3 Takeaways from Cardinals' Week 14 Loss

The Arizona Cardinals need to use their Monday night loss to the Los Angeles Rams as a learning experience. 

The Cardinals made some critical mistakes against their NFC West rival that led to their third defeat of the campaign. 

Arizona's loss dropped it from the top of the NFC down to the No. 3 seed. The Green Bay Packers are now on top of the conference and they hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Cardinals. 

As Arizona prepares for the postseason, its staff and players need to work on being cleaner in pressure-packed situations.

The Cardinals left at least 13 points on the field due to failed fourth-down attempts and red-zone turnovers. 

Arizona still played a decent game despite some of those mistakes, so if it works on things over the next four weeks, it could be poised for a playoff run. 

Monday night's game had four momentum-changing plays that went in favor of the Rams. 

The first came on Arizona's second drive, as Kyler Murray was intercepted by Ernest Jones inside the 10-yard-line. 

Arizona had a chance to take a 10-point lead, but instead, the Rams turned that pick into a two-yard touchdown catch from Odell Beckham Jr. 

Murray's second interception came at a critical juncture at the start of the third quarter. Arizona needed to respond to the 52-yard passing score from Matthew Stafford to Van Jefferson. Murray was picked on the second play of Arizona's first second-half series and eight plays later Cooper Kupp was in the end zone. 

Los Angeles' 14 points off turnovers put Arizona in a tough spot when it came to fourth-down decision-making for the rest of the second half. 

Arizona came close to answering the Kupp touchdown with a scoring drive, but it fell short at the Rams' 14-yard-line on a drop from DeAndre Hopkins. 

Los Angeles' second fourth-down stop occurred in the fourth quarter, when James Conner was halted for no gain at the Rams' 37-yard-line. 

Neither failed fourth-down conversion resulted in points for the Rams, but they killed any momentum gained by the Arizona offense. 

If Arizona converted one of those two fourth downs and Murray was not intercepted, we may be talking about a different result. 

James Conner continued his fantastic season with a do-it-all performance out of the Arizona backfield. 

Conner ran for 31 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 13 carries and he caught all nine of his targets for 94 yards. 

Arizona's No. 1 running back found the end zone for the seventh consecutive game and he stepped up when he was asked to do more in the passing game. Conner set season highs in targets, receptions and receiving yards.

Conner's successful night was the latest proof of how strong of a season he has had in his first year in Arizona. Conner has 661 rushing yards, 203 receiving yards and 16 total touchdowns. 

With four games left, Conner is 313 rushing yards away from breaking his single-season high. He needs 79 yards per game to reach that mark. 

Conner has a chance to get much closer to that number in the Week 15 matchup with the Detroit Lions, which may serve as a bounce-back game for the NFC West leader. 

Arizona's first loss of the season could come back to haunt it in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the NFC. 

The Cardinals fell to the No. 3 seed because they are on the wrong end of the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Green Bay Packers. 

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers moved ahead of Arizona off the strength of victory tiebreaker, but the Cardinals have a chance to improve their standing for the No. 2 seed. 

Arizona and Tampa Bay possess the same conference record at 6-3. If the Cardinals beat Detroit, Dallas and Seattle, they would finish at 9-3 with a win over the NFC East leader. 

Tampa Bay should beat Carolina twice, New Orleans and the New York Jets. All of the Bucs' remaining opponents are under .500. 

The Cardinals also play the Indianapolis Colts in Week 16, and a win there could boost the strength of victory percentage to contend with Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay has a .492 strength of victory compared to Arizona's .446, per ESPN.com, but the Cardinals play the more difficult closing schedule. 

Arizona needs to at least make sure it avoids the Rams in the wild-card round by beating the Cowboys in Week 17. A win there would keep the Cardinals in the top three. 

If the Cardinals win out and the Packers lose to either Baltimore or Cleveland in the next two weeks, there is a path for Arizona to claim the No. 1 seed.

However, that path got tougher on Monday because the Cardinals have to rely on Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady to lose games at the point of the season where they are typically very good.