Rookie mistakes by head coach are hurting Arizona Cardinals

Rookie coach Kliff Kingsbury‘s gameday blunders have contributed to both of the Arizona Cardinals losses in the past week

When the Arizona Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury this past January, the organization knew that there would be growing pains. After all, the club’s number-one choice for their vacant head-coaching position was fresh out of the college ranks. Kingsbury had held the same title at Texas Tech University for six campaigns, but the NFL would obviously be a much more daunting challenge.

Through the first seven weeks of the current season, Kingsbury had managed to limit the blunders. The 40-year old was by no means perfect. But for the most part, Kingsbury seemed to have a good grasp of the nuances of the professional game, and his inexperience never appeared to hinder the squad.

Things seemed to take a turn for the worse for Kingsbury last Sunday, when his Cardinals visited the New Orleans Saints. Arizona’s on-field leader finally did something that was immediately second-guessed, a decision that was certainly worthy of criticism. In fact, Kingsbury’s lapse in judgement may have very well prevented his team from pulling off a major upset.

Trailing by a score of 10-6 in the third quarter, the Cards elected to go for it on a fourth-down and one from their own 30-yard line. Running back Chase Edmonds took a handoff and was stopped for no gain by the Saints’ stout defensive front. New Orleans took over on downs, and five plays later Drew Brees found Latavius Murray for a touchdown that basically took whatever air was left out of the Cardinals balloon.

Kingsbury made two more inexcusable errors four days later, when Arizona hosted the San Francisco 49ers on Halloween night. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph‘s unit appeared to have made a crucial stop on a fourth-down and goal at their own one-yard line. The outstanding defensive stand would’ve kept the Cards deficit at 7 points, instead of the 14 it would soon become.

We learned moments later that Kingsbury had called a timeout just prior to the outstanding effort by the Cardinals defenders. Instead of ending the first half with a tremendous amount of momentum, Arizona had inexplicably given the 49ers another chance to get into the end zone. San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo took full advantage of the gift, hitting wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders for a score as time expired.

Kingsbury’s second mistake against the 49ers on Thursday night was a bit less egregious. With time winding down in the contest, San Francisco’s Tevin Coleman clearly gained the necessary yardage on a third down and three from his team’s 48-yard line. But for some unknown reason, Kingsbury challenged the spot, costing the Cards a valuable timeout that the club could’ve needed later on.

No one expected perfection from Kingsbury in his first year with the franchise. Still, it’s hard to deny that the head coach’s blunders may have contributed to a couple of Cardinals losses. We can only hope that Kingsbury has learned a lesson, and that he’ll exercise much better judgement going forward.