National Football League

How Kliff Kingsbury can right Cardinals' ship before playoffs

Updated Dec. 30, 2021 4:10 p.m. ET

By Bucky Brooks
FOX Sports NFL Analyst

I don't know whether Kliff Kingsbury is a movie buff, but I feel like the Arizona Cardinals' coach is currently playing the role of Jack Dawson in "Titanic."

As Leonardo DiCaprio’s stand-in, he is clinging to the top of the door while the ship is slowly sinking into the North Atlantic.

Although the Cardinals have not plunged out of the NFC playoff picture, the team has continued a disturbing trend that started last season, when Arizona (10-5) followed a 5-2 start with six losses in its last nine games to miss the postseason.

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With the Cardinals in the midst of a three-game losing streak and having lost five of their past eight games after a 7-0 start, the dejà vu has led to questions regarding Kingsbury’s ability to lead a talented team on a deep playoff run. Moreover, it has led to debate about the former college coach’s ability to win at a high level.

That is not a dismissal of Kingsbury’s accolades as a coach, but the Cardinals’ late-season flops continue a trend that started at Texas Tech. During his six-year run as the Red Raiders’ head coach, Kingsbury was 27-15 in his team’s first seven games of each of those seasons before posting an 8-25 mark over the rest of those seasons.

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What's worst, the challenge Sunday is formidable, as Arizona visits the NFC East champion Cowboys (11-4) in a clash of contenders (4:25 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App).

Under Kingsbury, the Cardinals are 15-5-1 in the first half of each season (first seven games), with an 8-18 mark down the stretch. Perhaps it is merely a coincidence, but this trend of Kingsbury's teams fading fast makes me worry about the Cardinals' ability to reemerge as title contenders in the playoffs.

That’s why there's immense pressure on the third-year coach to fix the Cardinals’ problems immediately — before the team experiences back-to-back late-season collapses.

From reviewing the game tape and scouring the box scores, the Cardinals must clean up some of the "bad football" that quarterback Kyler Murray has referenced following a series of losses. From the turnovers to the penalties to the mental mistakes and flawed execution, particularly in the red zone, the Cardinals must eliminate the self-inflicted miscues if they are to resume their winning ways.

The issues that plague the Bird Gang fall under the "Don’t Beat Ourselves" category, and it is hard to overcome mistakes in those areas. Turnovers are the No. 1 deciding factor in football games, and Murray has given the ball away five times in the team’s four losses under his direction.

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In addition, Murray has taken eight sacks in those losses, with five fumbles. Although the Cardinals recovered each of those fumbles, the loose ball-handling from the spectacular playmaker points to a lack of discipline, focus and attention to detail.

To reverse the Cardinals’ fortunes, Murray must take better care of the ball while becoming a more efficient player from inside and outside the pocket. While Kingsbury needs to reduce his QB's workload, particularly as a passer (40-plus pass attempts in each of the Cardinals’ past four losses), the third-year pro also has to play like an MVP to get the offense untracked.

During the Cardinals’ three-game losing streak, Murray has failed to post a passer rating above 100 after topping the mark six times in seven games to open the season. The efficient play from the former MVP candidate coincided with a seven-game winning steak in which the QB operated like a pass-first point guard running the fast break in the open court. At the time, Murray was evenly distributing the ball to a quartet of pass-catchers on the perimeter.

The balanced distribution to DeAndre Hopkins, AJ Green, Christian Kirk and Rondale Moore made the Cardinals difficult to defend, especially with the emerging running game steadying the offense behind James Conner and Chase Edmonds. The mix of power and finesse overwhelmed opponents unable to handle the "pick your poison" approach deployed by Kingsbury.

But after topping the 30-point mark in six of their first seven games, the Cardinals have scored 30-plus points in only two of their previous eight contests.

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Part of the decline can be attributed to the injuries removing Murray, Hopkins and others from the lineup, but it is more likely that teams have caught up with Arizona's scheme, and Kingsbury has not adequately adjusted. Game tape circulates quickly in this league, and the Cardinals have not been the same since their blowout loss at home to the Panthers in Week 10.

Opponents took note of Carolina's physicality and aggressiveness and have employed those tactics against the Cardinals with the success. Defensive coordinators have instructed their defensive backs to put their hands on Arizona's receivers to disrupt the timing of the passing game.

In addition, defensive coordinators are taking away the outside portion of the field (outside the numbers) to force Murray away from his sweet spots as a passer. The third-year pro was leading the league in yards per attempt (9.7) and passer rating (129.1) on throws outside the numbers through Week 13. However, his production declined sharply with his No. 1 target (Hopkins) sitting on the sideline, as evidenced by his 6.3 pass yards per attempt and 60.3 passer rating during Weeks 14-16 (per Next Gen Stats).

With that in mind, the onus is on Kingsbury to figure out how to get his offense untracked over the next few weeks if the Cardinals are going to have a chance to win multiple games in the postseason.

Whether he decides to utilize more pre-snap motion to force opponents to adjust their coverage and technique to handle receivers on the move or increasingly relies on the running game to create more balance, the offensive wizard needs to dig into his bag of tricks to give the Cardinals a different look.

Kingsbury also needs to challenge defensive coordinator Vance Joseph to up the ante with blitzes and pressures to enable the defense to take the reins for the team. Despite the excitement created by the offense’s hot start, it was the defense that led the way in the first half of the season. The unit has shown the capacity to dominate and strangle opponents with blitz-heavy game plans.

Chandler Jones and Markus Golden have played key roles as edge defenders with complementary pass-rush skills. The duo has combined for 20.5 sacks and 42 QB hits, with their relentless energy and karate-like hand skills overwhelming blockers at the point of attack. Joseph found various ways to create one-on-one matchups for No. 55 and No. 44 with pre-snap bluffs and post-snap blitzes that confused blockers at the line of scrimmage.

The veteran defensive coordinator can also tweak the game plan to give linebacker Isaiah Simmons and safety Budda Baker more opportunities to make plays. The second-level hybrids have the capacity to match up in coverage while producing splash plays on blitzes.

The collective athleticism and speed of the Cardinals’ defense create problems for opponents ill-equipped to deal with the exotic pass-rush patterns deployed by Joseph.

Kingsbury also must get his kicker, Matt Prater, to regain his magic as a rock-solid scorer. The veteran left seven points on the field (two missed field goals and a missed PAT) against the Colts, and with Arizona struggling to put points on the board, that cannot happen down the stretch.

The Cardinals’ recent slide has put the spotlight on Kingsbury and his dismal record down the stretch as a coach. With the Cardinals’ ship beginning to take on water following a three-game slide, the football world is paying close attention to whether the captain can reverse his team’s course heading into the postseason.

Bucky Brooks is an NFL analyst for FOX Sports and regularly appears on "Speak For Yourself." He also breaks down the game for NFL Network and is a cohost of the "Moving the Sticks" podcast.