Kliff Kingsbury making his mark in the NFL

23 games into his NFL head coaching career, Kliff Kingsbury is proving he was well worth the gamble with his hire.

“35 and 40.” Those were the two numbers that were played on the broken record when the Arizona Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury before the start of the 2019 season. That was his win-loss record in Lubbock as the head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. It was sub-par, but the Cardinals needed to answer for the disaster that was Steve Wilks in 2018.

After a slow start and strong finish in 2019, questions still remained as to whether or not Kingsbury was indeed the Cardinals’ man moving forward. After an unprecedented Covid-stricken off-season and no preseason, the Cardinals are flying high into their bye week. That can all be attributed to their young, aggressive play-caller and head coach, Kliff Kingsbury.

Coming off what has to be the game of the season so far on Sunday Night Football, the Cardinals were the first to take down the unbeaten Seahawks. With the win, Kingsbury and his squad are now 5-2 heading into the bye week and currently sit second in what most regard as the best division in football, the NFC West. They are also unbeaten (2-0) against division opponents so far this season.

Despite the ups and downs of Sunday night’s game, Kingsbury never wavered from his faith in the fight of his team. “They never stopped believing,” he said after the game. “I could tell in the locker room, our guys believed. And they continued to fight…. it’s fun to be around these guys.”

The win gives them their best start in 5 years and brings the team back into playoff talks after a long drought of terrible play on the field since Bruce Arians’ departure. But the most under-looked aspect of Kingsbury’s coaching style is his aggressiveness. Through 7 games, the Cardinals are keeping their foot on the gas and taking more chances in Kingsbury’s sophomore season.

They are are an astounding 6-7 (85.71%) on fourth down conversions and have scored a touchdown on 76% of their red zones trips so far, according to Team Rankings. The one miss on fourth down came on Sunday, when the Seattle Seahawks denied the Cardinals on a Kyler Murray scramble. A call that the head coach vehemently defended when asked by reporters after the game saying, “you don’t beat that team with field goals. … I would (go for it) 10 out of 10 times.”

The über-aggressive coaching style has certainly paid dividends. The Cardinals are 2nd in overall offense, putting up 419.1 yards per game and scoring 29 points per game in the process. And with the defense staying stout, the Cardinals are able to go out and win these shootouts, as proved on Sunday night.

The only real question that remains: Will the second year head coach’s aggressive bite him in the long run, or will it earn him his first Head Coach of the Year Honors when the 2020 campaign comes to an end?