The Arizona Cardinals lost a tough game in Week 14 to the Los Angeles Rams, 30-23. It was a divisional game that Arizona definitely wanted to win as they are now only one game ahead of the Rams in the NFC West. The Cardinals are 10-3 on the season while the Rams improved to 9-4 with the big win.

Arizona didn't play football the way that many know that they can and Kyler Murray didn't fully do his job. He had a great game in terms of yards but threw too many interceptions for the Cardinals to win. If Arizona is going to want to have a successful season in the playoffs, Murray is going to need to be playing the best football that he has all season long.

It was a tough game for the Cardinals, but they are still in first place and can control their own destiny from here on out. Let's take a look at three takeaways from the Cardinals-Rams Week 14 contest.

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Cardinals Week 14 Takeaways

3. Kyler played good but needs to limit the turnovers

When looking at the stat sheet, Kyler Murray had an impressive game where he went 32-49 for 383 yards. He also had seven carries for 61 yards. He clearly did what he needed to do for this team to be successful but unfortunately, he made some timely throws that ended in interceptions and hurt the chances of the Cardinals winning this game.

Murray is too good of a quarterback to be making questionable decisions, especially in big games like this. If the Cardinals want to have any success towards the back end of the season, Kyler simply has to be better and be smarter with the football. There are games where he does tend to turn the ball over a bit too much as he does have nine turnovers on the season but, he has still been able to find the endzone 19 times through the air.

2. The defense needs to be better

For the better half of the season, the defense has been elite. It has been one of the major reasons why the Cardinals are in the position that they are currently in. Unfortunately, the defense couldn't do their job on Monday night as they gave up 30 points to a very good Rams' offense. The Rams do offer one of the best offenses in all of the NFL but this is just like every team who is going to be competing in the playoffs. If the Cardinals want to find success, their defense cannot play like how they did on Monday night, otherwise, they will be disappointed in the playoffs.

Matthew Stafford is a great quarterback but he should not be going 23-30 for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. The Cardinals needed to do a better job on Monday night but they failed to do so.

1. Control what they can control from here on out

The Cardinals are in a good position because they are still in first place in the NFC West. The unfortunate thing is they do have two tough games left on their schedule that could end up in losses. The Indianapolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys are two teams that the Cardinals can not take lightly. If they want to win the division, they need to play as well as they possibly can and take care of business against two playoff teams.