Kingsbury didn’t have much to say about what is now a trend for his Cardinals.
“We just got to keep looking at it,” the coach said. “Keep trying to find new ways to improve later on in the season, whatever that may be. That’s definitely a priority this offseason.”
The Cardinals have little issue with starting regular seasons positively. Arizona won its first seven games in 2021 and was the last remaining undefeated team in the NFL before falling to the Green Bay Packers in heartbreaking fashion on the prime-time stage. Still, the Cardinals’ play in the first two months of the season was convincing enough to lead many to tab them as their favorite to win the NFC title.
In hindsight, such an expectation was foolish.
The national audience ended up being an indicator of disappointment for these Cardinals, who lost all three prime-time contests in which they played in the regular season. Murray was similarly underwhelming in such contests, completing 64.8% of his passes for 902 yards and a 1-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio in the three games. It was only fitting their season came to an embarrassing end in the prime-time viewing window on Monday night.
The Cardinals proved to be talented enough to play with the league’s best, but lacked the experience to handle the biggest moments. They also didn’t get many breaks from the injury bug, which knocked out Watt for a large portion of the season before he was surprisingly able to make it back to play in the wild-card affair. DeAndre Hopkins was also lost to injury and did not return for the postseason contest, leaving Murray without a key target.
Another important contributor — A.J. Green — failed to make a difference Monday night, seeing three targets and catching none of them (though one required a review to be deemed an incomplete pass). Instead, the responsibility fell on the shoulders of similarly inexperienced players like Christian Kirk, Rondale Moore and Eno Benjamin. Meanwhile, veteran tight end (and in-season acquisition) Zach Ertz didn’t play much of a role, catching three passes for 21 yards.
None of these playmakers had much of a chance to make a difference when viewing the game in total.
Murray’s hesitancy to throw early and his struggles to place passes accurately undercut Arizona’s hopes, and an early deficit eliminated any chance of executing a balanced attack. Benjamin, Chase Edmonds and James Conner combined for 16 carries on the night. Murray only ran twice himself, picking up a grand total of six yards.
“I haven’t thought about the future or anything like that,” Murray said. “Trying to soak all this in. There’s a lot of emotions. Proud of the team. Proud of the way we fought.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t play our best tonight.”
Simply put, Arizona’s offense didn’t work Monday night, and it hasn’t worked well enough in the latter portions of the last two seasons to make the Cardinals a legitimate contender. Instead, they’re September and October darlings that prove to be as tough as tin cans in December and January.
That must change next season, or it will mean a change is coming. For now, Kingsbury and Co. will have plenty of time to find an explanation. They’ll need to turn that into an action plan in 2022.
