Kliff Kingsbury will not survive the season.
We know Kliff Kingsbury is in over his head. The best NFL head coaches are playing chess, the worst ones are playing checkers, Kliff Kingsbury is playing Battleship. And he keeps putting his battleships in the same position on the board every single week, just hoping other NFL coaches don’t notice.
Sunday was the cherry on top of the steaming dog poop sundae that is Kliff Kingsbury’s NFL head coaching career. Let’s flashback to last year and the Wild Card debacle to the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams are up 7-0 but the Cardinals are still in it. Its 3rd and 16 and the Cardinals call for a trick play that sees Kyler Murray pass the ball to Christian Kirk who tosses it to James Conner. Kirk’s pass is ruled an illegal forward pass, the Cardinals punt on 4th and 21 and would never sniff a chance at competing with the Rams again.
A poorly timed, poorly designed and poorly executed trick play that should’ve been permanently deleted from the Cardinals playbook.
Instead Kliff called for it again at another pivotal time, this time in Week 9 against the Seahawks and this time it failed even more spectacularly.
The level of incompetence it took to keep that play and use it in another pivotal situation is breathtaking.
That’s why the Seattle loss is different from all other Cardinals losses this year or any other year.
The game likely broke them. After Zaven Collins blew the rook off the joint with a pick 6 to give the Cardinals the lead, Geno Smith marched down the field and re-took control. After the Cardinals answered Geno Smith, Smith promptly completed a 51 yard pass to Noah Fant to effectively end the Cardinals chances.
The Cardinals are out of fight. They are out of belief. And I believe for the first time, we will see on Sunday against the Rams, they are out on Kliff Kingsbury.
To his credit, one thing we have NOT seen from a Kingsbury coached team is quit. That could change in the next two weeks against hungry, embarrassed coaches in Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan.
The Rams are a real team with real pride. They are also struggling at 3-5 but have a Super Bowl hangover to blame not a cosplaying NFL head coach.
I’d expect the Rams to handily beat the Cardinals. The following week the Cardinals are in Mexico City for a Monday Night game against the 49ers. Unless the entire 49ers team is on IR, which is always possible, I’d expect Kyle Shanahan to deliver the last blow to Kingsbury.
Owner Michael Bidwill will have no choice to make a move at that point. The level of toxicity and bitterness will have reached proportions that are impossible to ignore. At that point, every home game becomes an opportunity for fans to vent instead of a gathering to celebrate which is every owner's worst nightmare, especially for one that lived it for many years like Bidwill has.
The cost for keeping Kingsbury and General Manager Steve Keim is going to be a lot more than the 40 million or more it will take to get rid of them.
Keeping the incompetent duo will mean setting Kyler Murray’s $230 million on fire, losing even the most die hard fans and at that point the Cardinals might as well move their remaining home games to Sun Devil Stadium.
The Arizona Cardinals are in desperate need for a change and if Michael Bidwill doesn’t want to do it now, the NFL is about to force the issue.
Change is coming, it’s the only thing left to root for during this Cardinals season.