Wild Card Blowout Shows Kliff Kingsbury Is Not Coach for Cardinals

I think it is safe to say that Arizona Cardinals fans nationwide woke up with a sour taste in their mouth after getting blown out by the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night. In some ways, however, it was a fitting end to what has been a disastrous second half for the Cardinals. A team that was favored to win the Super Bowl at points. 

As expected, fans took to social media before the game had even ended calling for Kliff Kingsbury’s firing. While I have more sympathy than most for head coaches, I have to admit the angry mob has a point. 

First of all, the Cardinals were woefully unprepared for the Rams. J.J. Watt summed it up best when speaking with reporters after the loss. “It was a massive failure,” he said. “There’s no other way to put it, really.” 

As a result of this disaster, the Cardinals went from a 10-2 team bound for the conference championship to a team that got rocked in the Wild Card round. They went just 4-6 straight up down the stretch and barely even made the playoffs. While this could be chalked up to any number of things, I think that a lot of the blame falls on coach Kingsbury. 

As I have covered previously, Kliff Kingsbury views coaching a season of football as a sprint rather than a marathon. To sum this point up, just know that Kliff Kingsbury has never had a winning record after Week 7 of the season. This worrying trend would be bad enough if it just applied to his three years in Arizona. But, this lack of 2H success dates all the way back to 2013 when he was the man at Texas Tech. During the first seven games of the last nine seasons, Kingsbury-coached teams have a strong 40-20-1 record. In the remaining games, his record is a disturbing 16-43.

The question remains. Should the Cardinals fire Kingsbury and move on after failing two of his last three years? I think Arizona should seriously consider it. I’ll give him a pass on the 2019 season when the Cardinals were awful when he took over. But, over the last two years, he has gone 6-11 after game seven. This season, that trend extended into the playoffs and ruined what could have been a run at the Super Bowl. All I know is that if I was a GM I wouldn't want a guy who never fails to fail down the home stretch.