It was tough not to get the feeling that, after a half in which it looked like the Cardinals would take control of their game against the Steelers but never did, the Cards missed their chance. That's how it played out of course, with the hamstring injury of Mike Vick turning out to be the best thing to happen to the Steelers. Landry Jones looked OK, but the fact he was able to give Pittsburgh a semblance of a passing game made all the difference.

What it means now is that the Cardinals will again draw skeptics that they have lost to the only two decent teams on the schedule so far. That feeling probably won't change in the next two weeks, with a Monday night game against the Ravens at home and then a trip to the feisty Browns. There was, not surprisingly, confidence in the locker room this will get fixed over the next week. It was, like the game itself, a lot like what happened after the Rams loss.

The Seahawks lost, at home to the Panthers, so the two-game division lead remains intact. The Cardinals play like they are capable, they win Sunday. But the math is simple in the NFL — everything else considered, when you're minus-3 in turnovers, you're almost always going to lose. If the Cards finish that next-to-last drive and Carson Palmer doesn't throw a pick, well, again, we were saying the same thing after the near-game-saving drive against the Rams — you're talking about a win regardless of the warts.

-- It was a little surprising the Cardinals didn't run it more. They gained only 55 yards on 20 carries, and the Steelers were stout on the day. But Andre Ellington only got one carry for seven yards, early, and then didn't carry it again.

-- Dwight Freeney got his first playing time as a pass rusher. I didn't watch him a ton, but it seemed like he had a couple of pressures. That'll be something to watch on the replay.

-- The penalties just killed the Cardinals Sunday. Whether it was Michael Floyd's offensive pass interference to negate a TD or Kevin Minter's post-play push or the chop block, they didn't help. There were definitely some questionable calls — the Markus Golden helmet-to-helmet hit wasn't, as replays proved. But officials are calling that in real time and will always err on the side of caution.

Bruce Arians was blunt about how to fix the mistakes and penalties.

"Stop doing it," Arians said. "Drag your foot closer and make a touchdown. Don't give up an 80-yard touchdown."

-- He was talking about the Floyd-TD-that-wasn't — a huge turn, and Floyd was a toe away from being in, it looked like — and then the final TD catch-and-run by Martavis Bryant. That may have been just as painful as the Palmer pick. A three-and-out there, and the Cards get the ball with about 1:50 left and one timeout. Instead, the game was over.

-- So in the Cards' two losses, they are 2-for-9 in the red zone. In their four wins, they are 16 for 17. The latter is an unrealistic pace to keep up, but still, it makes all the sense in the world to Larry Fitzgerald.

"Our issues on offense are pretty simple to me," he said. "We are getting down there, we have a ton of offensive red zone snaps. We just have to execute them better. Point blank, that is where it stops. If we are scoring touchdowns and we put 30 points on the board we walk out of here with a win."

This is true.

-- Fitz did do one somewhat strange move late in the first half, during a timeout. He went over to the Steelers sideline to say hi to offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who used to be the Cardinals' OC back in 2007 and 2008. He promptly dove at Haley's legs and tackled him — relatively gently — to the ground. Fitz used to do it all the time to Haley at practice (he's done it to many people over the years, including me), although I will admit to see it during a game was different.

-- Safe to say Floyd is back in the mix. One touchdown, and he was targeted for three others, although in one way or another they weren't completions.

-- It's been a long week. Time to get home.