Arizona Cardinals: Mainstream media still worships Kingsbury
By Sion Fawkes
The Arizona Cardinals are 3-4 this season and their offense recently found a way to score just 3 points against a bad Seahawks defense.
Yet the mainstream media still looks at Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury as though he is a top five coach. Whether it’s PFF (see aforementioned link), or ESPN, it seems that people in the mainstream media can’t get enough out of a coach whose offense limped through the first six weeks of the season.
And they probably would still be limping if star receiver DeAndre Hopkins didn’t return to save the situation. Last season, Kingsbury supposedly looked like an offensive guru, with his offense putting up 30-plus points per game.
Until DeAndre Hopkins went down with an injury and was never the same, and Kingsbury showed his true colors. This season? The Cardinals failed to score 30 offensive points in a single contest until Hopkins returned. So what is the media worshiping Kingsbury over now? Fourth-down conversions.
Arizona Cardinals head coach should get little credit
While I will be fair and say that ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss acknowledged the reason the Cardinals have converted 14 of their 23 fourth-down conversions have come because they are incapable of converting third-down conversions, consistently going for it and converting just over half the time is nothing an offensive-minded coach should be given credit for. Offensive gurus have their boys converting on second and third down the majority of the time, and Kingsbury ain’t.
Coaches that possess a sound offensive mind also have a system tailored around their respective players, like Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia or John Harbaugh in Baltimore. While Harbaugh coached in all three phases of the game before his stint with the Ravens, he successfully tailored the playbook to fit Lamar Jackson’s profile.
Meanwhile, Kingsbury can hardly control his quarterback, given last week’s confrontation that both parties shrugged off – Though this is often for show. How many times have you seen a player or coach skip town once the layer of truth was revealed?
Must Read. Cards dealing with an immature Kyler Murray. light
The media can continue to give Kingsbury undeserving credit. But until he figures out how to coach an NFL offense, don’t expect many (if any) NFC West division titles. And continue to expect epic meltdowns in the second half of each respective season.
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Article Source: Necessity pushes Cardinals to be NFL’s front-runners in fourth-down conversion attempts by Josh Weinfuss