Like His Young Cardinals, Kliff Kingsbury Knows He's Still Learning

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That acknowledgement resonates with the players.


“It’s part of the growing process, because we are still trying to find our identity as an offense,” tight end Charles Clay said. “That’s what good coaches usually do – they put the blame on themselves and pass out the credit. At the end of the day, it’s the first game. There are going to be some growing pains.”


Offensively, it came down to the reps the Cardinals did – and didn’t – have over the offseason. Kingsbury said he should’ve stuck to more plays that the offense had repetitions with often during practice.


And for a second straight day, Kingsbury was also willing to acknowledge that keeping so much under wraps in preseason games – choosing secrecy over testing things out against live opponents – might’ve been a mistake.


“Anytime you haven’t executed exactly what you’re going to do offensively in a game environment against very good people, it’s going to be hard to replicate that,” Kingsbury said. “There’s that give and take there – do you want to not show anything or do you want to get reps under the lights? We chose one, and I don’t know if it affected us or not, but I’m going to look into that going forward.”


How the Cardinals evolve, offensively and otherwise, will be Kingsbury’s main task as the season rolls along. Furthering his chemistry with Murray – whom Kingsbury believes never got into a rhythm because of the playcalling – is paramount not only to offensive but overall success.


The coach knows he can get better.


“It means a lot when both players and coaches can own up to what they’ve done,” wide receiver Damiere Byrd said. “Sometimes it gets lost, (people say) it’s always the players that make mistakes. But when the coaching staff understands they are in the growing process, it helps that team chemistry.”

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