Arizona Cardinals Get Stumped in Opener at Home 44-21 to the Chiefs

The Arizona Cardinals were confident coming into the home opener on Sunday afternoon after the starters didn’t take much of any live reps in preseason and it showed on the field on both sides of the ball.

Rust is not easy to knock off without live reps, but it was more than just rust that produce the blowout outcome in a game that was supposed to be an offensive shootout

The level of play from the Chiefs was far superior to that of the Cards today, it looked like one playoff team against a team that is uncertain of itself.

The day was long and frustrating to watch as a fan, as Patrick Mahomes and Coach Andy Reed toyed with the short-handed Cardinals on almost every possession of the game.

The Chiefs rolled over the Swiss cheese defense of Arizona to the tune of 488 total yards of offense, and Patrick was unstoppable.

Mahomes carved up the Cardinal’s defense for 5 touchdowns with a new wide receiving core, which points more to the talent of Mahomes than anything else.

Arizona had a rough day in all phases of the game, and the defense could not get the high-powered Chiefs off the field.

Kyler Murray was not great but not bad, he took what the defense gave him and did not put the ball in harm’s way, and looked very calm and collected.

The question will be, was the lack of preseason reps really the reason for a bad game? Most of the teams around the league didn’t play starters so preseason could not be that much of a factor.

Cardinals need help and that help needs to come from veterans and not young players, there are several vets still in free agency that is waiting for deals that are not guaranteed but offer a chance to show they are not done.

The Redbirds lacked a pass rush to the point to get Mahomes uncomfortable, they also lack secondary play which was an issue coming in and linebacker play was absolutely horrible.

Isaiah Simmons had a hard day covering Travis Kelsey, as he trailed on almost every play and looked lost in coverage.

This is more on the coaching staff, this team is very bad at recognizing where players should fit on the field.

There is way too much on Simmon’s plate doing what they called “star backer” he didn’t look anything like a star and at anything backer, he was a step behind.

The good news that comes from today’s loss is that the team is still in first place, as all of the teams in the division lost their openers that is if Seattle follows suit to the Broncos on Monday night.

Next week the Cards are on the road to Las Vegas, and with the lack of secondary coverage, it will be very interesting to see the defensive game plan to cover Adams and Waller.

After the game we heard the same old cliche from this team “we got to get better” and “we just didn’t execute” and on and on excuse after excuse, but quarterback Kyler Murray called it as it was “they kicked our (Blip)” and that is what took place.

Hopefully, this is a sign for Murray starting to mature a little more, now we will see how this team responds to another bad home performance.

It’s only week one and jumping to conclusions about a team after one loss to a very good team is overthinking the situation, but coach Kingsbury has to do more with his offense and get his quarterback under center to bring the element of surprise to this expected high-powered offense.