It wasn’t just the how but the who that painted the Arizona Cardinals’ blowout loss to the Washington Commanders in Week 4. It was that former Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s offense — just four games into his tenure as the Commanders’ offensive coordinator — looked like a well-oiled machine.
And if you thought there wasn’t any extra juice to Kingsbury’s professional return to State Farm Stadium by the 42-14 score, how Washington head coach Dan Quinn presented him the game ball afterward might say otherwise.
…KLIFF!!!!!!!@budlight | #RaiseHail pic.twitter.com/74IA9wRGCW
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) September 29, 2024
RELATED STORIES
“It’s great when you can count on others and they can count on you. In that way, victory is produced by (explicit) everybody,” Quinn told the Commanders in his postgame speech. “And that’s what tonight was, man. Fast, physical. We said anybody, anywhere, any (explicit) time.”
“It’ll be a number of game balls that we’ll be issuing out, I’m sure tomorrow. But there’s one (explicit) that ain’t leaving this (explicit) city without one. Kliff!”
Kingsbury broke the last team huddle of the night with an “on to the (explicit) next!”
In the home team’s locker room, it was likely a very different tone after being on the end of the Kingsbury revenge game.
The Cardinals gave up 216 rushing yards and 233 passing yards at a combined 6.7 yards per play.
The result: Washington scored on seven of its nine possessions and converted on third downs 75% of the time. And it was Arizona fans left wondering about why the Cardinals’ play-calling looked so Kingsbury-esque while Kingsbury’s did not.