Was Kliff Kingsbury Really the Problem in Arizona?
When Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray were together on the Arizona Cardinals, it should have been a match made in heaven. Kingsbury was an offensive-minded coach and Kyler Murray was a Heisman-winning quarterback at Oklahoma. However, when two big egos collide, there needs to be someone to blame if losses start piling up. Murray and Kingsbury seemed to blame each other. The Arizona Cardinals blamed Kingsbury. That is why they fired him. That may have been a mistake though. Kingsbury has shown that he is better off without Murray and the Cardinals.
Kingsbury and Murray’s Time Together
Kliff Kingsbury was hired by the Arizona Cardinals starting in the 2019 season and fired after the 2022 season. He coached the Cardinals for four years and had a record of 28-37-1. Kingsbury was an offensive-minded coach who had coached Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech. According to Arrowhead Pride, Mahomes credited Kingsbury for helping him become the player he is. Kyler Murray was drafted in May of 2019. Murray was a Heisman-winning quarterback at Oklahoma. Kyler Murray and Kingsbury’s time together was relatively mediocre except for the 2021 season. In 2021, the Arizona Cardinals finished 11-6 and almost won the division. The Los Angeles Rams were 12-5 and barely beat the Cardinals out of the division. Then, the Cardinals played the Rams in the first round of the playoffs.
Playoff Game in 2021
In 2021, the Arizona Cardinals faced off against the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. This would be the only time the Cardinals would make the playoffs under Kingsbury. The Cardinals went to Los Angeles as they were the lower seed in the matchup. In one of the worst performances of his career, Murray threw two interceptions and went 19 on 34 attempts for 137 yards. The Cardinals lost 11-34. The Los Angeles Rams went on to win the Super Bowl.
Sideline Incident
It was Week Seven of the 2022 Arizona Cardinals season. The Cardinals were playing the Saints. Both teams were 2-4. After the Arizona Cardinals used their final timeout, Murray walked to the sideline barking at Kingsbury and everyone around him. DeAndre Hopkins got in the middle of Murray and Kingsbury. Then Murray continued yelling at Kingsbury and Kingsbury sat there silently and slowly nodded. In the post-game interview Kingsbury had this to say, “It’s just one of those things on the field, we had a difference of opinion. Yeah, he said I didn't look that good, acting that fiery so I said, I don’t know, It’s the Gen Z thing you’re on TV so calm down, like, I like showing emotion.” In Murray’s post-game interview, he said, “He’s real animated over there on the sideline sometimes.” He said that he was trying to tell him “Calm down, we’re good, we’re gonna make it right.” Then Murray described what went wrong. What went wrong was that the Arizona Cardinals did not have time to run the play because the clock was running down so they had to call a timeout. Kyler Murray then said, “I guess it was my fault, I’ll take it.” Having a player tell their coach to calm down is a strange occurrence. However, it would make sense that tensions would be high after having such a rough start to the season.
The Blame
Kliff Kingsbury was blamed for the Cardinals’ failures. It is a lot easier as an organization to blame the coach for the Cardinals’ failures than it would be to blame the first pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Kyler Murray was not playing well, and it could be argued that Kingsbury was not coaching well. That is how the Cardinals saw it. They fired him after the 2022 season. However, in hindsight, the Cardinals may have made the wrong decision to let Kingsbury go.
Most Recent Matchup
Kliff Kingsbury is now the offensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders. The Commanders played the Cardinals in Week Four of the NFL season. Kingsbury and Murray faced off against each other. The Washington Commanders had one of the most dominant performances in recent times. Jayden Daniels was calm and collected the entire game and tore the defense apart piece by piece. This was thanks to Kingsbury’s play calls. Kingsbury won the battle as the Commanders beat the Cardinals 42-14. The Commanders are now 4-2, while the Cardinals are now 2-4.
Murray and Kingsbury should have been a match made in heaven. Kingsbury was an offensive mind who had worked with talented quarterbacks. Murray was a talented quarterback. However, when two big egos collide and losses pile up, someone needs to take the blame. The Cardinals blamed Kingsbury and fired him. Kingsbury has proven that he is better off without the Cardinals. The Cardinals have proved that Kingsbury was not the problem.
