Analysis: What went wrong for the Cardinals during their loss to Chiefs, Mahomes

Analysis

The Cardinals can blame their injury situation for some of Sunday’s outcome during their 44-21 blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. They can also point the finger at Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has a penchant for coming up with huge performances in season openers.

He did it again at State Farm Stadium, passing for 360 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. In addition to all the damage he did against the Cardinals, Mahomes has now thrown 18 touchdowns with no interceptions in five season openers as the Chiefs’ starter.

He completed 30 of 39 passes against an undermanned and underwhelming Arizona defense, including 10 pass plays of 15 yards or longer to keep Kansas City on the move throughout the game. The Cardinals never sacked Mahomes, either, although they came close a few times. Mahomes, though, either spun himself out of trouble or stepped over a defender to make a positive play.

The Cardinals? They had too many negative plays all around on both sides of the ball, opening the door for Mahomes to play loose and free and look like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“They beat us in every way. There’s no denying it, no hiding from it,” a perturbed Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said afterward. “We didn’t execute in any phase and they played at a high level. I thought Pat was phenomenal as he usually is and defensively, they stymied us and we didn’t get in a rhythm.

“It was an impressive win by them, and we’ve got to get a lot better in a hurry.”

Kingsbury suggested the Cardinals need to practice better for the results to be there on game day, indicating he either wasn’t happy with what he saw during the week or casting blame on certain unnamed individuals.

Quarterback Kyler Murray, though, wasn’t buying that, which is sure to raise some eyebrows around the organization.

“I can’t speak for everyone,” said Murray, who completed 22 of 34 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns with no picks. “It felt like the week was good. Obviously, none of that matters. Nothing that happens during the week matters if you don’t execute on Sundays. So, everybody says what they want to say about the week, mentality and all that (expletive). It doesn’t matter.

“You come out there on Sunday and get your ass beat, that’s what happens. … You’ve got to execute. That’s all it comes down. Make plays, make plays and teams lose who don’t make plays. That’s what it comes down to.”

There’s no question how decimated the Cardinals were at multiple key positions. They played without star defensive end J.J. Watt (calf strain). They didn’t have their top two left guards in Justin Pugh (neck) and Cody Ford (ankle). They also were missing two of their top three wide receivers in DeAndre Hopkins (suspension) and Rondale Moore (hamstring) in addition to one their starting cornerbacks, Antonio Hamilton, who is on the reserve/non-football injury list after a freak cooking incident at home.

But they had enough talent on the field to play better than they did on Sunday, even if it was against Mahomes, the former league MVP and Super Bowl champion. Murray said it as much himself when he told reporters there were plenty of pieces with which to work to make it a game.

The key now, Murray said, is how the Cardinals clean up the laundry list of issues that turned sour.

“We got punched in the mouth,” he said. “How do you respond? Simple.”

Except it might not be so simple. The Cardinals, after all, are the only team in the league to face off against teams that made the playoffs last season in the first three weeks of schedule this year. After getting clobbered by the Chiefs, they play at the Raiders before returning home to meet the Super Bowl champion Rams.

That’s difficult to digest in itself without going back and detailing all the things that went wrong, could have been better or need to get fixed this week in practice. Here’s just a short sample size:

Need more pressure on the QB

They didn’t have Watt and outside linebacker Markus Golden was playing on a fractured toe, the result of a 50-pound kettlebell accidentally dropping on his foot. But the Cardinals need end Zack Allen, outside linebacker Dennis Gardeck and somebody else to chip in and throw a scare into the Raiders’ Derek Carr and the Rams’ Matthew Stafford.

“Patrick Mahomes made a lot of plays out there, but you’ve just got to go back to work,” said Golden, who had one tackle in the game. “After a game like that, you’ve got to flush it. … Of course we want to play better. That’s what we’ll work on doing this week.”

Murray, 'Hollywood' must challenge defenses

With Hopkins and Moore unavailable, the Cardinals needed a big day from new receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown. He and Murray gushed about all the good things they could accomplish together now that the two former Oklahoma teammates are reunited in the desert. But it didn’t happen.

Brown only caught four passes for 43 yards. Yes, one of his catches was a nice diving grab in the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown. But he was almost invisible in the first half, when the Cardinals were trailing 23-7. Murray only completed one long pass to him, a 26-yarder down the left sideline on a drive that ended up as a turnover on downs.

“Whatever they want me to do, I’m going to do it to the best of my ability,” Brown said, adding he thinks the Cardinals “could definitely practice a lot harder, we could definitely practice a lot sharper and treat each rep like a game rep.”

Going for it vs. taking the points

A 52-yard field goal is certainly no gimme, but it kind of is for Cardinals veteran Kicker Matt Prater, who happened to be the NFL’s all-time leader in field goals made from yards or longer. But toward he end of the first half, Kingsbury elected to keep Prater off the field and go for it on fourth and 2 form the Chiefs’ 36-yard line.

Kingsbury said the play design was perfect, except the intended target on the pass play, Greg Dortch, slipped and fell. Murray’s pass feel incomplete, the Chiefs took over and kicked a 54-yard field goal to extend their lead to 23-7.

A successful field goal by the Cardinals would have made it 20-10 – if the defense would have stopped Kansas City on its final drive of the half. Kingsbury, though, had no regrets.

“I love the play call. I thought we had it,” he said. “Unfortunately, he got tripped up. … We just weren’t able to execute it. You can’t kick field goals against them. They’re really good on offense so going in, we were going to be aggressive, and we just weren’t able to execute that play.”

Fix it, don’t overreact to it

A handful of players remarked in the locker room after the game about the value of not putting too much emphasis into Sunday’s loss, recognizing it’s just one of 17 games on the regular-season schedule. That’s important to remember – so long as the Cardinals fix what they failed to do on Sunday.

Murray said everyone needs to look in the mirror and do their part before anything happens. But they can’t make it bigger than what it is.

“it’s Week 1, you don’t win the Super Bowl based off Week 1,” inside linebacker Isaiah Simmons said. “You don’t make your career based off one game.”

Have an opinion on the Arizona Cardinals? Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com and follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac. Listen to him live on Fox Sports 910-AM every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 on Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch. 

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