This shit is getting really lame, man.
Per the title photo, Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson decided to take some time on his lil podcast this week to talk about Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.
The comments were critical of Murray after he openly called into question the playcalling late in the game against the Chargers.
After a bad play call led to a turnover, Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury left too much time on the clock for Chargers QB Justin Herbert to cook.
Herbert drove the LA offense down the field, throwing a touchdown with less than 15 seconds remaining and struck the final blow by converting a two-point conversion.
After leading by two scores in the 4th quarter, the Cardinals lost 25-24, dropping them to an embarrassing 4-8 going into the bye week.
Peterson was teammates with Murray in Arizona for the first two years of the Heisman-winning QB’s career, and while I don’t think that they were the best of friends, they were close enough to have each other’s phone numbers.
Peterson has since clarified his statements, saying, “What I meant by my comment was when you’re a franchise quarterback, you have to carry yourself a certain way. So, if you’re having bad body language, pouting, moping on the sideline, what kind of energy do you think feeds off to your teammates?”
Right.
So, the quarterback isn’t allowed to have emotions and be frustrated because of bad playcalling and poor coaching because he’s the quarterback? Got it.
While I somewhat understand where Peterson is coming from, this statement is uncalled for and out of pocket.
Yes, the rest of the team feeds off of the energy of the QB, that much is true.
However, have we considered the rest of the team is also sick and tired of Kliff Kingsbury’s inept coaching blunders?
Might I remind you, dear reader, that Kliff Kingsbury came into pro football with an aggressively mild college coaching resume.
He spent several years at Texas Tech where he amassed a record of 35-40 in the much-maligned Big 12 where his offense put up big numbers with little to show for it.
Kingsbury found success in recruiting, bringing in QBs Davis Webb, Baker Mayfield, and most notably, Patrick Mahomes II.
The former Red Raider was fired following another losing season at Tech in 2018 where he moved onto Pasadena to become the OC for the USC Trojans.
After less than a month into the NCAA season, Kingsbury resigned from his role at USC to take calls for NFL head coaching jobs.
You read that correctly. A college coach with a losing record in a B-tier conference was being interviewed for NFL head coaching jobs.
(Side note: thanks, Sean McVay.)
The thing Kingsbury became most infamous for during his Tech tenure was the second-half collapse, not second half of the game necessarily but of the season.
Kingsbury’s teams continuously started off seasons with guns blazing, but after game seven, they fell off a…
(No, I’m not gonna say it.)
This even extended to his final season there in 2018 where the Red Raiders started 5-2 with some solid wins on the mantle before falling apart, finishing 6-7.
In a conference that was practically the wild, wild west for offense, Kingsbury finished his Big 12 coaching career with a 19-35 record. Putrid.
Cardinals GM Steve Keim thought it’d be a great idea to hire this mid merchant as his team’s head football coach, and he’s done the exact same thing in the pros.
Kingsbury’s 2019 Cardinals were especially bad, but they had a rookie QB and a young, unrefined roster overall, so I won’t place too much blame on him there.
2020 is a much different story.
With the acquisition of elite receiving threat DeAndre Hopkins in the offseason, analysts (including me, I guess?) expected Arizona to take a leap.
This was true in the first handful of games, winning six of their first nine games to put them in a good spot to make the postseason.
Then, they only won two of their next seven games as they skidded to a mediocre 8-8 record to finish the 2020 season.
Old habits aren’t dying hard. They’re so unbothered that they’re sharing a cigarette in a back alley with Jay Cutler.
Kingsbury and the Cards regrouped for 2021 with renewed chemistry and a more potent running game featuring former Steeler James Connor.
In spite of a hiccup where the entire offensive coaching staff (including Kliff) got Covid and missed a game, the Cardinals were flying higher than ever before.
Murray was an MVP candidate, the team was undefeated through seven games, and the haters (like yours truly) were starting to close our mouths and sit back.
Though the team flew out to a 10-2 start and had full control over the stacked NFC West, Kingsbury led his troops off the…
(I said, I’m not doing it.)
In their final five games, Murray and DeAndre Hopkins struggled with injuries, and the team couldn’t rise above even their most meager of opponents, losing four of their final five games and dropping from the one-seed down into the Wild Card.
There, Murray shouldered most of the blame for a poor performance by his team against the Rams, but for some reason, Kingsbury got a pass here.
The guy who collapsed in the second half of the year in practically every year of his college coaching career is pulling the same shit in the NFL.
And, we’re blaming the quarterback???
Many people saw Arizona as a threat to contend this season as well, especially after taking such a drastic leap at the onset of 2021.
It’s been quite the opposite, actually.
Kliff has clipped this team’s wings this year, and while they had most of their roster return from last year, the team now sits 4-8 with five games to go and minimal hope to make the postseason.
Kyler Murray gained a familiar weapon in the offseason when Keim traded for Oklahoma standout Marquise Brown from the Ravens.
With Hopkins out on a PED suspension to start the year, Brown embraced the #1 receiver role and rekindled his chemistry with Murray before suffering a foot injury in a week 6 loss to the Seahawks, right as Hopkins was set to rejoin the team.
Hopkins’ return has been somewhat beneficial for the Cards, but not as much as you’d like. Since his first game back, they’ve won just two of their six games.
Murray also hasn’t been his healthiest this season, dealing with nagging injuries that held him out against the Rams and the 49ers in back-to-back weeks.
His resumption of the starting role didn’t go to plan this past week against the Chargers, and he levied his frustrations at his coach.
His coach who can’t coach the second half of a season if his life depended on it.
Murray signed a large contract extension in the offseason to play with the Cardinals for years to come, and I don’t think his time and physical investment in this team have been rewarded with proper coaching to propel them forward.
Patrick Peterson is only noticing the quarterback being (rightfully) pissed off, and he’s looking at the quarterback as the root cause rather than looking deeper.
Kliff Kingsbury was never fit to be an NFL head coach, yet he wears the title and gets the paycheck that says he’s an NFL head coach.
He also received a hefty contract extension this offseason!
This is how he’s repaying the team and the fans that got him that extension.
The final thing I’d like to point out is the overall perception of Kyler Murray by the NFL media and the fanbase at-large.
There’s been a narrative created around Kyler as a selfish player and person because of one random rumor from a couple years ago.
Because Kyler is a member of the gaming collective FaZe Clan, it’s been widely speculated by your favorite twitter personas that Kyler plays worse on weekends where Call of Duty offers double experience points (XP).
In an article by Dot Esports, the theory has been widely debunked, especially this season as Murray has actually played better on double XP weekends.
More fuel was added to proverbial fire when details of Murray’s contract extension emerged, including an independent study clause that required Kyler to do at least four hours of reviewing film per week.
Though eventually removed from his contract after intense scrutiny, the damage to Murray’s and the Cardinals’ reputations was already done.
Now, every time there’s a double XP weekend, the nerds are out on twitter watching Kyler’s every move to see if he plays worse, so they can get 12 likes and a retweet.
With that, I’ll sign off by saying y’all need to lay off Kyler Murray. He’s in a frustrating position with a frustrating coach and organization, both of which make frustrating decisions that affect him, his career, and his life.
Kyler is a great QB, and to Steve Keim’s credit, he’s done a solid job of surrounding him with talent. However, the talent isn’t coalescing by staying on the field consistently enough.
You can’t develop chemistry like that.
You definitely can’t develop chemistry when the quarterback is openly lambasting his coach because he fails to adjust past week 6 of an 18-week season.
More players should be pissed off openly with Murray, and I hope after this dumpster fire of a year, the Cardinals consider moving past the Kingsbury era before he leads these wounded birds off a Kliff.
The Wide World of Dirt 
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