GLENDALE –Embarrassment. That was the word best associated with the end of the Kliff Kingsbury era with the Arizona Cardinals.
Whether it be the product on the field — especially at home — or the mountain of distractions off of it, there was no escaping it for the franchise.
Fast forward to two seasons later, and embarrassment was again coursing through State Farm Stadium with Kingsbury in attendance, albeit for a completely different reason.
In his return to Arizona as the Washington Commanders offensive coordinator, Kingsbury and former Arizona State Sun Devil Jayden Daniels again had their offense rolling, carving up the Cardinals to the tune of 42-14 on Sunday.
RELATED STORIES
“We got a couple stops on defense. We scored some points, but not a lot (of positives),” head coach Jonathan Gannon said postgame. “This league is very humbling and we got humbled today.”
Even with Washington’s scoring and turnover streaks coming to an end, the Commanders had more than enough offense to get the job done on Sunday.
As a team, Washington amassed 449 yards of offense and scored on all but two of its drives throughout the afternoon.
Outside of an early interception, the Cardinals defense really had no answer for Daniels, who completed 86.7% of his passes (26-for-30) for 233 yards and a touchdown. He was not sacked.
“He’s a good player. He’s dynamic,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said postgame. “We had him wrapped up a couple times and he got out of it and made some plays with his legs. He gets the ball out and he’s accurate.
“I give him a lot of credit, but we’ve got to do a better job of affecting the quarterback.”
Washington’s run game had little resistance, too, rushing for 216 yards and four touchdowns on 37 carries. Daniels had his handprints in the run game, too, behind 47 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
The Commanders offense absolutely took it to the Cardinals on Sunday. But it was Kingsbury’s victory laps down the sideline on seemingly every Washington touchdown scored — getting a peek at the Arizona sideline every now and again — that was the proverbial twist of the knife for Cardinals fans.
And for as bad as the defense looked, the offense wasn’t much better.
In what’s become a common theme for the Cardinals this season, they had little trouble scoring on their opening drive behind a quarterback Kyler Murray two-yard touchdown pass to rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.
Much like last week, though, Arizona’s offense couldn’t back up the quick start. After going 55 yards for the score on the opening drive, the Cardinals registered just 51 yards across the next five possessions before eventually finding the end zone for a final time late in the third quarter.
Among the most glaring issues for the Cardinals offense was the inability to move the chains on third down, converting four times out of 11 tries (36%).
The poor third-down conversion rate has been a recurring theme in recent weeks, with the Cardinals going 1-for-9 on third down in last week’s loss to the Lions.
“We gotta be able to stay on the field,” Murray said postgame. “That’ll take a lot of the pressure off the defense. We all work together. When you can’t stay on the field on third down and the defense is always on the field, they get worn down and vice versa. As a team, we have to be better.”
Seeing Kingsbury back on the sidelines of State Farm Stadium was bound to bring back some memories for Cardinals fans.
They probably didn’t expect the Cardinals to pay homage to Kingsbury’s last ride in Arizona with that kind of performance, though.
A positive in waiting?
If you can find a positive outside of two defensive stops and a pair of touchdowns, take a bow. That’s harder than finding Waldo.
But while the negatives are front and center, how Arizona responds in the aftermath of the beatdown will speak a lot to the makeup of this team.
“We’ll get back to it and the positive will be what we get out of this tape tomorrow, the adjustments that we make, the corrections that we make and we’ll get better from it,” Gannon said. “That’ll be the positive from it.”