Play-calling justified by Pats win in Buffalo
Mother Nature can’t be controlled, let alone in open football stadiums.
But after the Cardinals’ win over the Bears on Sunday, she inherently helped Kliff Kingsbury look better to his receivers after the New England Patriots’ power run play-calling in a 14-10 win over the Buffalo Bills on Monday night.
“What was good was the next night, a team threw it three times and so it really got me off the hook on that deal. So we could point right to that and be, ‘Hey, it could be worse,’” Cardinals coach Kingsbury said with a chuckle.
With the temperature at Orchard Park, N.Y., where the Bills play home games, in the low 30s and 25-to-35 mile per hour winds with 55 mph gusts, New England threw just three pass plays for 19 yards. However, the Patriots ran the ball for 222 yards, including 32 consecutive rushing plays in the victory.
That helped Kingsbury justify his play-calling for 35 run plays compared to his minimal 15 pass plays for 123 yards against the Chicago Bears.
Kingsbury said Monday his play-calling caused “a lot of angry wideouts and tight ends,” largely because of the 35-degree temperature, 17 mph winds, and steady rain in Chicago Sunday.
He didn’t like resorting to so many run plays either, but that’s what nature called for to get the win.
“It’s frustrating for all parties involved because you work all week, get a game plan, practice it hard and you rep and you walk through it, and you get it to a point where you’re ready to go execute it live and then you’re not able to do that based on some circumstances, really out of your control,” Kingsbury said.
Cardinals wide receiver Christian Kirk admitted his own frustration to reporters on Wednesday about their run-oriented offense in Chicago.
“We have so many guys who want to win and want to compete, make the big
play and contribute to us winning,” Kirk said. “We believe, us as receivers, we can have a big impact on the game. Unfortunately because of the weather, it’s kind of one of those things we were driving up to the stadium, it started to rain a little bit. You get a little disappointed because you’re foreshadowing on what the game is about to look like.”
But nevertheless, Kirk added that he and the team was happy to get the win.
Hicks named NFC Defensive Player of the Week
Arizona’s Jordan Hicks earned his first Defensive Player of the Week award on Wednesday.
The veteran inside linebacker earned the Week 13 award for his game-high 13 tackles (nine solo, four assisted), two sacks, two tackles for loss of 11 yards and two quarterback hits in Arizona’s 33-22 road win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
“Usually teams that win get recognized with some of those awards, so great for Jordan,” Kingsbury said. “He’s been a great leader around here since he got here. Great person, great player, and as a staff we were all very excited to see him receive that.”
Hicks is the Cardinals’ second consecutive recipient for award, after Chandler Jones won following their road win over Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 21, before their bye week through Thanksgiving weekend.
Correcting mistakes before Rams game
The Cardinals return to practice on Thursday for the first time this week before their Monday Night Football showdown against the Los Angeles Rams (8-4) at home.
Even though Arizona dominated Chicago,
Kingsbury cited several errors to correct in order to beat their secondplace NFC West rival.
The first thing he addressed was their offense’s mistakes. The Cardinals had eight penalties account for 63 yards, including four which resulted in 15 offensive yards lost, and Kyler Murray’s two fumbles.
“I think it was three times on third downs that we had negative plays presnap, two false starts and one delay of game put us in a third-and-long,” Kingsbury said. “We gotta get that cleaned up. We can’t hurt ourselves in that manner.”
On defense, the Cardinals gave up 112 rushing yards, which was lower than their own 127. But Bears running back David Montgomery had a solid performance as he got a game-best 90 yards on 21 attempts, and eight catches for 51. He had four plays for over 10 yards and one run for 24.
“Some of those chunk runs, you can’t give those guys 15-, 20-yard chunk runs in this league and expect to be successful consistently. And so we’ll address that this week,” Kingsbury said.
Cardinals hosting holiday toy drive
The Cardinals are hosting a toy drive prior to their Monday night game against the Rams at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
The event is presented by Desert Financial to benefit Arizona Helping Hands.
Volunteers from Desert Financial and Arizona Helping Hands will team with Cardinals Cheerleaders to collect new unwrapped toys and donations outside of all the stadium’s entrances near security checkpoints. Fans can also make monetary donations using a QR code, which will be posted throughout the stadium.