TAMPA – Once upon a time the Cardinals won three straight football games and the NFL was singing the praises of first-year head coach Kliff Kingsbury and rookie quarterback Kyler Murray.

Seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?

The Cardinals lost their third straight game Sunday, falling to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-27 and now 3-3-1 has become 3-6-1, and Arizona still has to play the Los Angeles Rams twice, at San Francisco, at Seattle — well, you get the picture.

It’s not that the season has turned ugly. Ugly was 2018.

Arizona has lost its past two games by a total of six points and, if not for a multitude of costly mistakes Sunday, we’d be talking about that gutsy fake punt call by Kingsbury on fourth down, Larry Fitzgerald’s amazing one-handed grab on another fourth down and Christian Kirk’s 138 receiving yards and three touchdowns.

Instead, fans are left to lament tight end Maxx Williams losing a ball in the sun and costing the Cardinals a touchdown. They’re wondering what in the world Patrick Peterson was doing lining up in the neutral zone on a Tampa Bay field-goal attempt; turning a 46-yard errant kick into a 41-yard field goal. They’re cursing David Johnson for his fumble at the Buccaneers’ 11-yard line late in the third quarter and shaking their head at Murray’s interception late in the game with Arizona up by four.

Those four mistakes cost Arizona at least 16 points and as many as 24. That’s the ballgame and why, when asked for his general takeaway from the game, Kingsbury said two words: “Just disappointed.”

There’s also room to erupt in anger over the booth review pass interference call on safety Jalen Thompson in the end zone with 1:56 left and wonder how Arizona’s defense — which was without Peterson, who was nursing a calf injury — allowed Tampa to drive 92 yards in 113 seconds to get the game-winning touchdown.

From a big-picture perspective, however, the game feels like it belongs to two storylines: the continuing education of Murray and the continued ineffectiveness of Johnson.

Let’s start with Johnson, who was returning from an ankle injury that sidelined him for essentially three weeks (he played three snaps against the New York Giants on Oct. 20). After Kenyan Drake had 162 total yards in his Arizona debut against San Francisco, the most-asked question of Kingsbury all week was how he would split time and touches between the two backs.

The answer: Drake had 10 carries for 35 yards and was targeted seven times in the passing game, catching six passes for just six yards. Johnson had five carries for two yards and caught one pass for eight yards.

But the biggest tell was that Kingsbury went strictly with Drake when the game was on the line. Johnson’s final carry came with 1:46 left in the third quarter and his last touch came one play later, when he caught an 8-yard pass from Murray but was stripped of the ball as he was tackled, killing a golden scoring opportunity created by linebacker Jordan Hicks, who had intercepted a Jameis Winston pass at the Tampa 20-yard line.

“That was one of the things we can’t have happen,” Kingsbury said.

The Cardinals have to be at the point where they’re questioning Johnson’s long-term place in the organization. Arizona signed him to a three-year, $39 million extension in September 2018 and then pronounced him as the perfect fit in Kingsbury’s system. But Johnson is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry and hasn’t looked like the explosive back who had more than 2,000 total yards in 2016.

It’d be folly for Arizona to release Johnson in the offseason; the dead cap hit would be $16.2 million. But if Johnson doesn’t show significant improvement over the final six games, might the Cardinals try to trade him? And would there even be a market for Johnson, who in base salary alone is owed $18.1 million.

Stay tuned.

As for Murray, the No. 1 draft pick has looked like anything but a rookie all season. In the first quarter Sunday he set an NFL rookie record by throwing a 177th consecutive pass without an interception. His final numbers were just as impressive; he completed 27 of 34 passes for 324 yards with three touchdowns, all to Kirk.

But there were two reminders that Murray still has a lot to learn. The first came on the interception that snapped his rookie record streak at 211. The Cardinals, leading 27-23, had a second-and-10 at the Tampa Bay 15-yard line with 3:47 left.

There was no need to gamble or try to make a big play. Run some clock and, at the very least, kick a field goal to make it a seven-point game. But Murray, scrambling to his left, threw off his back foot trying to hit Trent Sherfield, and the pass was intercepted by Tampa cornerback Jamel Dean.

Kingsbury blamed himself, saying it was a bad call and bad play design, but he was simply trying to protect his quarterback. In that situation, Murray has to throw the ball away and see third down. It was a careless and unusual decision; Murray hadn’t committed a turnover the previous five games.

“I shouldn’t have thrown it up, knowing that we have a field goal to make the game seven points and make them go score,” Murray said. “Honestly, when I threw it, there’s no way in hell I thought he was going to pick the ball. So that is unfortunate.”

Murray’s second rookie mistake came on the Cardinals’ final drive. Arizona got the ball at its 25-yard line with 1:43 left, trailing by three. After a first-down run gained three yards, Murray stood in the shotgun, looking over Tampa’s defense. Twenty-three precious seconds elapsed before Arizona snapped the ball.

Then, on third and fourth down, Murray scrambled out of the pocket, trying to buy time to throw the ball downfield but also burning the clock. The first four plays of the drive took 1:18.

“That was tough,” Kingsbury said. “He was trying to make a play and we didn’t have the sense of urgency we probably (needed), and I think he was trying to get us in the perfect call there and we just have to have a better feel for when the clock is running.”

Murray will learn. So will Kingsbury. But, 3-6-1 is 3-6-1.

You can either be encouraged by the first two sentences or discouraged by the third.

Or, can’t both be true?

(Photo of Jamel Dean’s interception: Jonathan Dyer / USA Today Sports)