The injury conversation gets tiring, for fans, for players. Teams have to overcome in the NFL. But there was Garrett Williams, helmeted head in his hands after falling with a non-contact Achilles injury Sunday in a loss to the Falcons, waiting for the cart to come take him away. There was Walter Nolen III clearly emotional on the field – even though his helmet was on, and I was watching through binoculars from way up on the press box – after a non-contact knee injury waiting for the cart to take him away.

The losses on the scoreboard are difficult. The losses of teammates and friends are too.

"You try to tell yourself, 'Next man up,'" veteran Calais Campbell said, "but you're losing friends and losing guys you depend on and go to war with and have confidence with. There are a lot of new faces. That's on a weekly basis, it seems like."

The cart has been used way more than the Cardinals, or any team, would want this season. James Conner. Tip Reiman. Travis Vokolek. Andre Baccellia. And now Williams and Nolen. But what resonates about Sunday is what it means beyond 2025. If Williams tore his Achilles, that's a long-term injury. We don't know exactly what is wrong with Nolen, but he feared something with his reaction.

For a team already trying to make it through a tough season, those things make it tougher.

"It's kind of scary," rookie cornerback Denzel Burke said. "It's the first time in my career to see so many guys get hurt like that in one game. You just gotta pray for them. Football is a tough game."

-- Michael Wilson, as is his personality, was wearing the loss after the game, upset at not only the score but also his role in the final interception, thinking he should have prevented it. So asking about his amazing 32-yard touchdown catch back in the first quarter wasn't something he was about to giddily recall.

But it was an amazing play, somehow not letting the ball hit the ground while he battled Falcons defender Cobe Bryant.

"I think that was just, I'm not going to say lucky, but just a once-in-a, funky, wonky catch that happens once a season where, honestly you just get lucky and the ball didn't hit the ground," Wilson said. "I think it hit off his arm. I thought it was incomplete."

Quarterback Jacoby Brissett didn't think Wilson caught it, but he did think there should've been a pass interference flag. "I looked at the Jumbotron and saw how he caught it, and I don't think he realized he caught it until he looked up too. Great play by him."

-- Wilson's TD came about only after a challenge flag that was thrown by coach Jonathan Gannon. Amazingly, it was the first challenge of the season by Gannon, who had only four challenges last season.

-- Wilson took the blame for the final Brissett interception, and clearly was feeling it in the locker room after the game. It looked like Wilson might've been able to at least get in the way of cornerback C.J. Henderson when he dove for the pick.

"It was a bad play by me," Wilson said. "I felt like I just misjudged the ball. I didn't realize how close the defender was to me. Just a play I wish I had back."

-- Kicker Chad Ryland started great with field goals from 50 yards- and 51 yards, along with a 25-yarder But then he hit the right upright with a 50-yarder and missed right with a 44-yarder before knocking through a 34-yarder to make it a one-score game late.

"We started good and the operation was good all night," Ryland said. "We came back and hit one at the end of the fourth quarter, and you have to make that decision, when you kind of come to the fork in the road about your attitude with how you go about your business, whether it's soccer, football, baseball, life, you've got to make the decision that no matter what the cards are that are in your hand, it's number one, be a man, step up and make your kicks and number two, be a good kicker and know what you're trained to do."

-- The Falcons tried to take away Trey McBride and did a good job. McBride had just four catches for 27 yards, snapping his NFL-record streak for tight ends at five receptions a game at 16 straight. Fellow tight end Elijah Higgins had his best game, with seven catches for 91 yards on eight targets; McBride, Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. combined for seven catches for 93 yards on 14 targets.

-- The Cardinals had their best rushing game since Week 10, gaining 132 yards on the ground. Michael Carter had a season-best 65 yards on 11 carries – 5.9 yards a tote – and now has 286 yards on the season to lead the Cardinals despite beginning the season on the practice squad. The beat-up running back corps also has Emari Demercado at 272 yards in second, with the on-IR Bam Knight at 269.

-- Kick-blocking Calais is back. After Calais Campbell blocked a field goal in Houston last week, he ran through the line on Sunday to block an extra point.

-- As we look for silver linings in a loss, the result helped the Cardinals two-fold in the 2026 draft. It kept them in the sixth position with their own pick and hurt the Rams – who own the Falcons' first-round selection. That pick is now No. 11.

-- BJ Ojulari got his first sack since November of 2023, since he missed all of 2024 and most of this season with a knee injury. Ojulari has three of his five career sacks against the Falcons, after getting two against them in 2023.

-- Burke got his third interception of the season – in part because of pressure from Nolen, before Nolen got hurt – and became the fourth rookie since the franchise moved to Arizona to have at least three picks. He's the first since Patrick Peterson had four as a rookie in 2011.

"I played receiver back in the day" Burke said. "So I think I just kind of have a knack for the ball."

-- The last word goes to Campbell, who might have played the last home game of his career, on the fourth down stuff that allowed the Cardinals to get the ball back one last time for a chance to tie or win the game.

"It's a good feeling. A lot of times I want them to go for it because it gives us a chance. It just wasn't enough. But we had a shot."

That's all for tonight, and that's all from State Farm Stadium for the season. We're on to Cincinnati.