The Arizona Cardinals started the season 10-2 and looked like the best team in the NFL for the first three months of the campaign. Even without Kyler Murray, they scraped their way into a win and seemed poised for a deep playoff run.
Then, the Kliff Kingsbury effect was at a full display again. For the third straight season, the team seemed to peak at the wrong time and finished the year with a 1-4 slide. That was a sign of what was to come.
Murray had one of the worst games of his career and the Cardinals were outhustled, outcoached, and outplayed from start to finish, failing to even disturb the Los Angeles Rams on Wild Card Monday.
Kyler Murray Says He’s Disappointed In How They Played
Needless to say, Murray was far from satisfied with his performance. He threw for 137 yards with 2 interceptions on 34 attempts, adding just two rushes for 6 yards. When asked about it, he said he didn’t even know what went wrong:
“It’s disappointing that we didn’t make it a game and come out and play the football we know we’re capable of playing, that’s really the most disappointing part,” Murray said, per ProFootballTalk. “Losing is one thing, but when you don’t even make it competitive, it’s another thing.I put a lot on my shoulders, put a lot on myself and to dream of this moment and then be in the playoffs, the first game of the playoffs and then to play the way I did, to play the way we did, it’s, like I said, disappointing.”
J.J. Watt Says The Season Was A ‘Massive Failure’
Star edge rusher J.J. Watt was even blunter when talking about the team’s late-season collapse. When asked about the big picture, the former Texans player called it a ‘massive failure’:
“It was a massive failure, from what we were capable of doing, to what we showed we can do, to today,” Watt said, as quoted by Darren Urban of the Cardinals’official website. “There is no other way to describe it.”
Kliff Kingsbury entered the season on the hot seat and he figures to end it the same way. He’s got one year left on his contract but whether the Cardinals will give him another shot is yet to be seen, as he looks better suited for an OC job instead.
