Kingsbury equates two painful losses
It’s a tough feeling to watch or play while your team is routed before the final buzzer. At least you’re ready to concede the loss long before the game’s over.
It’s also demoralizing after surging in a comeback after trailing the opponent all game, getting within reach to win on a walk-off scoring play, but faltering in the end.
That’s why Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury told reporters on Monday that it’s equally hard to walk away from their 24-point loss to the Carolina Panthers (5-5) on Sunday as it was to their three-point loss to the Green Bay Packers (8-2) on Oct. 28.
Both of those losses were at home, which were two of their last three games.
“A loss is a loss, and we have a prideful locker room,” Kingsbury said. “We didn’t like how it went yesterday. Obviously, we feel like we’re a better team than we showed. Gotta give (the Panthers) a ton of credit, they played really well. They have a great football team, but we feel we could’ve played at a lot higher level, so we gotta get back to work and try to prove that next week.”
The Cardinals looked gone as the Panthers dominated from the start, jumping out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. Carolina scored two touchdowns and a quarter-closing field goal off three Cardinals turnovers. That includes a strip sack on their opening drive, turnovers on downs in their second possession — both which their offense didn’t reach midfield — and Colt McCoy’s interception.
In Arizona’s loss to Green Bay, the Cardinals made a 94-yard final drive to the Packers 5 with 15 seconds to play and trailed 24-21. But Kyler Murray’s targeted pass to A.J. Green in the end zone and their miscommunication became an INT caught by Rasul Douglas.
But what they can’t look past is their ongoing problems defending the run.
Arizona allowed 341 total yards, including 166 on the ground with 13 rushing first downs.
The Cardinals’ run defense has fluctuated from as high as No. 13 in the league in week 2, dropped to their lowest this season to 29th two weeks later, then rose again to 18th in Week 8. As of Monday, they were 19th in the category.
“There’s definitely some areas that we gotta improve upon. We’ve had certain weeks we’ve played at a really high level against really good rushing teams and others that we weren’t quite as good,” Kingsbury said. “As we get into this back half of the season, we’ve got to solidify some things up front.”
That’s definitely a game the Cardinals will want to forget. Especially without their top offensive players Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins. They were ruled out for the second consecutive week from their ankle and hamstring injuries, respectively.
Kingsbury is looking to manage other starting players’ injuries before entering the bye week, which follows Arizona’s road game against the Seattle Seahawks (3-6) on Sunday.
He said “it’s going to be close” about Murray’s possible return against the Seahawks, but wasn’t certain.
Kingsbury said their backupturned-starting QB Colt McCoy is dayto-day from his pectoral strain he suffered in the third quarter before he was replaced by Chris Streveler against Carolina.
In addition, Kingsbury also hopes to have “at least one” of his starting offensive linemen — Justin Pugh and Max Garcia — against Seattle as they’ve “progressed” last week from their calf and Achilles injuries, respectively. Pugh and Garcia were out against the Panthers.
“I think everybody in the league feels that way at some point throughout the season,” Kingsbury said. “In 17 games, the level these guys play at, it’s tough. Thankfully we have the bye week approaching. I think that will give us a nice pause in the action for guys to get rest and recovered. Some of the guys that have been out have the chance to get back over that time period and then finish it off strong.”
Note
The Cardinals released running back Tavien Feaster from the active roster. They also released defensive lineman Matt Dickerson and wide receiver Darrius Shepherd from the practice squad.