Report Card(inals) - Week 6 vs Seahawks

It is time for something different, let's grade the coaching staff of the Arizona Cardinals.

Author:
Kyler Burd
Publish date:
Oct 16, 2022 9:08 PM EDT

In this story:

Hopefully, you’ve gotten something out of these report cards this season but I’m taking a bit of a different tack this week with the Arizona Cardinals.

Something is deeply, deeply wrong with the Cardinals this season and I think it is about time that we give some grades to the coaching staff.

Arizona Cardinals Report Card: Grading the Coaching Staff in Week 6

Special Teams

Jeff Rodgers - A

Cardinals special teams has been consistently pretty good under Jeff Rodgers.

Today, the only touchdown scored by the Arizona Cardinals was from Rodgers' unit when a weird fake punt in the Seahawks endzone was sniffed out and Chris Banjo came up with the ball.

Yes, part of the failure of this game was the lack of a kicker that could be trusted which caused the offense to attempt multiple 4th downs when a regular team would have taken the three points but that blame can't be laid on Rodgers.

He did the best with what he had.

Defense

Vance Joseph - B

The Cardinals defense did everything in its power to give their team a chance and they delivered.

They held Geno Smith under 200 yards and prevented any touchdowns from one of the most impressive offensive players through the first five weeks of the NFL season.

Joseph called his infamous blitzes well and his third-down blitz calls resulted in 3 out of the 5 sacks that the Cardinals would rack up.

The defense did struggle against the run and allowed rookie Kenneth Walker III to accumulate 97 yards on 21 carries which included an 11-yard touchdown run that gave the Seahawks their sole offensive touchdown of the day.

Rookies Cam Thomas and Myjai Sanders had good days which included sacks for both of them, possibly vindicating his unpopular position of keeping young players out of the lineup until he feels they are ready.

Head Coach/Offense

Kliff Kingsbury - F

What other grade could be given to the head coach that engineered one of the most embarrassing Cardinals losses in the last several years?

The offensive incompetence of Arizona is a multi-faceted problem that includes bad offensive line play and bad quarterback play among others, but the onus is on the head coach to have his team ready to play.

Kingsbury is consistently showing himself incapable of that simple task.

Kyler Murray was taken with the No. 1 overall pick in 2019 because of his insane natural talent. Rather than take steps forward every year under Kingsbury, Murray has slowly inched forward and, so far in 2022, is regressing.

Kingsbury was billed not only as an offensive guru but a quarterback whisperer. Whatever message Murray has been receiving this season has been a bad one.

Due to the kicker situation with Matt Prater out another week, Kingsbury was ultra-aggressive on fourth down, a move that is defensible with an untrustworthy kicker.

However, his play-calling continues to involve designs that look good on paper but don't translate to success on the field.

Kingsbury looked completely out of his depth, especially in comparison to a veteran coach like Pete Carroll. Carroll's team did not play particularly well, but he maintained his composure and led his poorly equipped team to yet another victory.

More and more, it looks like Kingsbury is not equipped to be a successful head coach in the NFL.

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