Harry
ASFN Consultant and Senior Writer
The 2019 Cards decided on a bold plan to revitalize the team. They would hire a losing college coach who had developed an offense that put a bunch of points on the board. They believed Kansas City was the wave of the future and they wanted to ride that wave. Now it’s looking like the move was as misdirected as it was bold.
Most teams would have tried to hire Kingsbury as an offensive coordinator, but the Cards pushed all their chips to the center of the table. The Cards gave him an incredible amount of support. The took his dream QB with the first choice in the draft despite having traded up to draft a QB the previous year. They then traded away that QB at a loss. The Cards also signed a DC with head coaching experience to ease Kingsbury’s transition.
Things started to fall apart fast on defense. The DC struggled is an understatement. I joined others in arguing he deserved a chance this year with a better set of players. I was wrong. His unit lacks discipline and lacks effective technique design, e.g. blitzes. They do not play aggressively, e.g. 1 interception YTD and they simply too often make wrong, disorganized defensive calls, e.g. 10 men on the field yielding a TD . This is an ineffective defense. If Joseph has helped ease the HC transition it might have been better to select someone who’d succeeded in the HC role. Frankly his failure to develop a role for Simmons would be grounds enough to relieve him of his job. I’m okay with doing it now.
Some of my concerns are purely subjective. Some of you may think it odd but I fault Kingsbury’s sideline presence here. It often seems unemotional and detached. He doesn’t have to be Hank Stram or Pete Carroll. It may be the absence of fans makes his ultra calm seem more concerning. However, I think the lack of intensity carries over to KM. Who rarely exhibits leadership actions when off the field. His demeanor resembles Frosty the Snowman.
There seems little question there is essentially no QB development. Last week I was slammed for suggesting letting Murray sit for a series. My point was KK needs to get Murray’s attention because if KK has it now, he’s almost a total failure as a teacher. Murray’s mechanics are amateurish. He overthrew Fitz due to a lack of arm follow through. He did step into that throw but doesn’t do that consistently. When he rolls out he never resets, failing to pull up to throw. Sunday on a critical play, he instead ran out of bounds, well short of the first down line. You have to wonder if Murray has the courage to take a hit to complete a crucial throw. Have you seen Murray call an audible? I haven’t. I’m not certain he knows how to read a defense. He locks on his primary target like a laser and rarely uses progressions to defeat coverage.
The offense’s play design illustrates KK has no idea how to design a run game. Where’s the creativity we were promised? The most creative KK play I saw was Kirk going in motion that looked like 12 yards deep on a red zone play. Effectively leaving the offense to play 10 against 11. Another example: do they even have a 2 minute drill they practice?
Part of Murray’s failure can be attributed to some of the worst play calling I’ve ever seen. KK apparently studied the NFL and decided the most open receivers were the ones behind the line of scrimmage. That’s good for KM’s completion percentage but doesn’t win games. Despite near continual failures of this tactic KK persists. This week the Cards hit a new low of 4.3 yds per pass. Of course it’s harder to go deep when you never keep blockers in to protect. KK’s timing of when to call deep passes is odd at best. He often eschews first downs for a long shot chance at a big play. He seems most prone to do this on third down. He clearly also doesn’t comprehend trying for field goal range when facing third and long. He doesn’t know how to keep his team in striking position.
Whether it’s clock management or understanding the game situation KK seems to have no consistent grasp on reality. This week he punted with 7 minutes left and trailing by 3 scores. Did he expect his defense to give him 3 more possessions? It would have seemed better odds to let his offense try for a makable first down. He was still trying play action, delayed handoffs with 3 minutes left and 1 timeout.
Overall this team lacks discipline. They were lucky they weren’t flagged for knocking the ball out of Cooper’s hands long after the play had ended. KM intentionally grounds the ball like a Pop Warner player. 12 men on the field twice, then 10 when they allow a TD. Who’s in charge here? Is KK even involved with the defense? Does he hold anyone accountable for anything?
It would be one thing if the defense was the only problem as the Cards’ website seems to indicate. This problem is team-wide. The offense is equally responsible for this failure.
Finally, KK and staff clearly got out-coached. They’d substitute with 10 seconds on the play clock allowing the opposition to also substitute causing a Cards’ penalty or forcing them to waste a timeout. Fool me once...... Unless a remarkable transformation occurs the end of the season should coincide with the end of the KK experiment.
Most teams would have tried to hire Kingsbury as an offensive coordinator, but the Cards pushed all their chips to the center of the table. The Cards gave him an incredible amount of support. The took his dream QB with the first choice in the draft despite having traded up to draft a QB the previous year. They then traded away that QB at a loss. The Cards also signed a DC with head coaching experience to ease Kingsbury’s transition.
Things started to fall apart fast on defense. The DC struggled is an understatement. I joined others in arguing he deserved a chance this year with a better set of players. I was wrong. His unit lacks discipline and lacks effective technique design, e.g. blitzes. They do not play aggressively, e.g. 1 interception YTD and they simply too often make wrong, disorganized defensive calls, e.g. 10 men on the field yielding a TD . This is an ineffective defense. If Joseph has helped ease the HC transition it might have been better to select someone who’d succeeded in the HC role. Frankly his failure to develop a role for Simmons would be grounds enough to relieve him of his job. I’m okay with doing it now.
Some of my concerns are purely subjective. Some of you may think it odd but I fault Kingsbury’s sideline presence here. It often seems unemotional and detached. He doesn’t have to be Hank Stram or Pete Carroll. It may be the absence of fans makes his ultra calm seem more concerning. However, I think the lack of intensity carries over to KM. Who rarely exhibits leadership actions when off the field. His demeanor resembles Frosty the Snowman.
There seems little question there is essentially no QB development. Last week I was slammed for suggesting letting Murray sit for a series. My point was KK needs to get Murray’s attention because if KK has it now, he’s almost a total failure as a teacher. Murray’s mechanics are amateurish. He overthrew Fitz due to a lack of arm follow through. He did step into that throw but doesn’t do that consistently. When he rolls out he never resets, failing to pull up to throw. Sunday on a critical play, he instead ran out of bounds, well short of the first down line. You have to wonder if Murray has the courage to take a hit to complete a crucial throw. Have you seen Murray call an audible? I haven’t. I’m not certain he knows how to read a defense. He locks on his primary target like a laser and rarely uses progressions to defeat coverage.
The offense’s play design illustrates KK has no idea how to design a run game. Where’s the creativity we were promised? The most creative KK play I saw was Kirk going in motion that looked like 12 yards deep on a red zone play. Effectively leaving the offense to play 10 against 11. Another example: do they even have a 2 minute drill they practice?
Part of Murray’s failure can be attributed to some of the worst play calling I’ve ever seen. KK apparently studied the NFL and decided the most open receivers were the ones behind the line of scrimmage. That’s good for KM’s completion percentage but doesn’t win games. Despite near continual failures of this tactic KK persists. This week the Cards hit a new low of 4.3 yds per pass. Of course it’s harder to go deep when you never keep blockers in to protect. KK’s timing of when to call deep passes is odd at best. He often eschews first downs for a long shot chance at a big play. He seems most prone to do this on third down. He clearly also doesn’t comprehend trying for field goal range when facing third and long. He doesn’t know how to keep his team in striking position.
Whether it’s clock management or understanding the game situation KK seems to have no consistent grasp on reality. This week he punted with 7 minutes left and trailing by 3 scores. Did he expect his defense to give him 3 more possessions? It would have seemed better odds to let his offense try for a makable first down. He was still trying play action, delayed handoffs with 3 minutes left and 1 timeout.
Overall this team lacks discipline. They were lucky they weren’t flagged for knocking the ball out of Cooper’s hands long after the play had ended. KM intentionally grounds the ball like a Pop Warner player. 12 men on the field twice, then 10 when they allow a TD. Who’s in charge here? Is KK even involved with the defense? Does he hold anyone accountable for anything?
It would be one thing if the defense was the only problem as the Cards’ website seems to indicate. This problem is team-wide. The offense is equally responsible for this failure.
Finally, KK and staff clearly got out-coached. They’d substitute with 10 seconds on the play clock allowing the opposition to also substitute causing a Cards’ penalty or forcing them to waste a timeout. Fool me once...... Unless a remarkable transformation occurs the end of the season should coincide with the end of the KK experiment.
