'Triggered': Why Cardinals Coach Kliff Kingsbury Doesn't Want Cowboys Playoff Rematch

The Cardinals coach came out of AT&T Stadium with a win on Sunday, but his memories there aren't all good

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Arizona Cardinals 25-22 on Sunday at AT&T Stadium in a game that had everything to do with not just NFC playoff seeding, but emotions as well.

Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray's ties to the stadium are well-known, as he pushed his record while playing at AT&T Stadium to a perfect 9-0, going back to his high school days.

But Murray isn't the only member of the Cardinals organization with emotional ties to the building.

Coach Kliff Kingsbury got a happy memory on Sunday, and it seems like he can't pile enough of those up to forget about an unhappy one. The visitor's media room, where he was addressing a group of reporters on Sunday, is where he learned of his firing from Texas Tech three years earlier.

Reports of Kingsbury's firing began spreading on social media just after a Nov. 2018 loss to Baylor at AT&T Stadium. Kingsbury was addressing the media when a reporter asked him about it. It was the first Kingsbury had heard about it, as he had not yet been officially informed of his dismissal.

Things were clearly different for Kingsbury on Sunday, as his Cardinals came into the game as underdogs, riding a three-game losing streak,  and needing a win to improve their NFC playoff seeding.

What Arizona got was an out-of-this-world performance by its defense through three quarters against a Cowboys offense that just a week before scored 56 points and racked up 497 yards of offense. The Cardinals held Dallas to just 256 yards total and only seven points through three quarters.

The win gives Arizona what some call a "signature'' NFC win heading into the playoffs, something the Cowboys seem to be without, and it leaves the two teams as the fourth and fifth seeds in the NFC playoff standings.

If those seedings remain unchanged after Week 18, the two teams will meet again at AT&T Stadium in the first round of the playoffs. And with a win at that time, Kingsbury will have one more reason to smile when leaving the media room.

Except for one problem that the coach readily admits to. While Cowboys players, led by DeMarcus Lawrence, are talking about seeking a rematch (see "Damn Right!''), Kingsbury feels differently.

“I would rather not,” he said. “Just excited to be in the playoffs, so whoever it ends up (being), we’ll take it. (But) it’s tough to beat anybody twice in this league. ...''

The Cowboys hope, in this case, that Kingsbury is right.