A sacked Brian Hoyer sums up the season best in the Cardinals' 27-13 loss to San Francisco. (AP )

Sometimes, Week 17 can't come soon enough. For the woebegone Arizona Cardinals, a 27-13 defeat to the NFC West champion San Francisco 49ers was a mercy killing in this dreadful 5-11 season that ended with losses in 10 of their final 11 games. The Arizona coaching staff and management should feel some relief as they're now able to focus on bringing in the talent needed to restore the offense to full strength.

Offense: D

How bad things have gotten for the Arizona offense? QB Brian Hoyer's touchdown pass to WR Michael Floyd with just under two minutes remaining was treated by the Cardinals fan base as if it was The Drive, The Catch and The Music City Miracle all rolled into one. Perhaps that's what happens when a team hasn't had a passing touchdown since Week 9. Overall, the Cardinals' offense was its typical plodding self, maintaining possession for under 24 minutes, totaling 11 first downs and just 262 yards of offense. Floyd was a bright spot, however, catching eight passes for a career-high 166 yards and the touchdown. Previous game's grade: D

Defense: D

Coming off his worst-rated performance as a starting quarterback -- a 72.0-rated game in a 42-13 loss at Seattle -- San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick responded with his second-best performance of the year against a sick-and-tired Arizona defense. Kaepernick compelted 16 of 28 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns, both to Michael Crabtree, who caught eight passes for 172 yards as well. While the Cardinals held the 49ers rushing game relatively in check with just 129 yards, it didn't matter much and they registered just one sack and no turnovers. Previous game's grade: C

Special teams: B

Dave Zastudil remains one of the few bright spots in what was an otherwise miserable season. He boomed six punts for a 50.8 average and left two boots within the 20. PK Jay Feely was solid once more with a pair of field goals, and LaRod Stephens-Howling set the team record for kickoff return yardage (4,025). Previous game's grade: B-

Coaching: C

Ken Whisenhunt coached the team admirably over the last few weeks, but the writing was on the wall long ago. He'll have to sell himself pretty hard to the Arizona management if he's to retain his job, just a few years removed from a Super Bowl trip. Previous game's grade: C

For more news and analysis from Cardinals blogger Jon Gold, follow @CBSCardinals on Twitter.