Cardinals vs. Falcons: Daryl Washington says defense has to 'pick up' offense even more

Although they collected a season-high six takeaways Sunday, Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington believes the defense still needs to do more, according to Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com.

Here's what the breakout defender had to say about the outcome of Sunday's 23-19 loss to the Atlanta Falcons:

"We've got to pick those guys (on offense) up. We understand the circumstances, and we have to pick them up more. We have to make more plays."

Then again, what could that unit honestly have done differently? The Cardinals defense forced MVP candidate Matt Ryan to throw a career-high five interceptions, giving the offense the ball a whopping five times at Atlanta's 35-yard line or closer but Arizona still only managed one touchdown.

With rookie QB Ryan Lindley taking over at the start of the second quarter due to head coach Ken Whisenhunt's obvious frustrations, the offense scrapped together a laughably bad seven first downs on the day while averaging 1.5 yards per pass.

Those "circumstances" are what allowed the Falcons to capture the lead with a little over six minutes remaining despite their best efforts to give the Cardinals an easy win. So perhaps when Washington meant "make more plays," he was literally suggesting doing the offense's job for them and scoring points.

With that in mind, Arizona might have a good chance at some defensive scores next weekend when the turnover-prone St. Louis Rams come into town. If one thing's for sure though, it's that this offense can't be counted on to win games, even with the benefit of a short field.