The collapse of the Arizona Cardinals will undoubtedly generate calls for explanations and difficult questions in the days, weeks and months to come.
One of the most obvious and complicated questions is this: Is the “marriage” between Kliff Kingsburry and Kyler Murray going to work or not?
The idea that Kingsburry’s continuity could be in jeopardy or that Murray isn’t the right quarterback for the team going forward would have seemed ludicrous a couple of months ago, when the Cards led their rivals 10-2 until On December 5th.
Then the team crashed. He lost four of his last five regular season games. And on Monday night, he was humiliated 34-11 by the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card game.
“Losing is one thing, but when you don’t even compete it’s another,” Murray acknowledged.
Kingsbury was hired in 2018 as the coach who would help mature Murray, the first overall pick in the 2019 draft.
They both shared good times together. Monday’s game was not one of them.
Nothing Kingsbury arranged seemed to work, and Murray had one of his worst games as a pro, completing 19 of 34 passes for 137 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions.
Cardinals defensive end JJ Watt called the end of the season a “colossal flop.” And Murray agreed.
As for Kingsbury, he was more measured, but basically reflected the same sentiment.
“We have to be better,” he said Tuesday. “In this league, the important thing is to finish strong and get more momentum in the playoffs. Unfortunately we didn’t get that.”
It’s true that the Cardinals made some progress by advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 2015. But it’s also true that the franchise routinely seemed overwhelmed when the big games came around, in December and January.
This is the second consecutive season that Arizona has gone from more to less. The Cards lost their last two games of the 2020 season to go 8-8 and miss the playoffs.
Certainly, Arizona faced some problems in the campaign. DeAndre Hopkins, a three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, was injured and missed virtually the entire second half of the season.
Running back James Conner has also had to deal with ailments over the past month.
But just about every NFL team suffers similar problems during a long, rough-play season.
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