Obviously, and the playoff
game. What's been the kind of vibe the atmosphere among them
on your you get ready to go at it again? Yeah, I mean, for us,
it's,
you know, we're trying to get back to
way past what we did last year and you know, of course, two
years ago, but of course for us, we're just taking it one
day at a time, you know, one week at a time and if we can do
that, you know,
will win. You know, you guys saw us
do that first, you know, eight.
Nine games of last year and I felt like
guys possibly might have got comfortable, you know, a lot of
headlines, a lot of guys a lot of wins, you know, and all that
type of stuff. But
it's up to, you know, us as professionals to,
you know,
ignore the noise and just to take it one week at a time.
Because if we do, you know, we believe we're a great football
team and this year.
I think we're going to be a
way better team than we were last year.
Interesting comments from Buddha Baker regarding
the regression of the Arizona Cardinals in 2022. Now look,
I want to be fair to everybody on this. But whenever I hear
comments like that, Peter about a team getting comfortable with
Team,
believing they did accomplish something before it. Did
I think about the coach?
It's always on the coach,
whether it's the Parcells mindset.
It's the Sean Payton. Don't take the cheese,
right? You got to find a way when a team is playing.
Well to keep the team from becoming complacent to keep
the team from getting comfortable, and we've got that graphic.
The Kliff Kingsbury nosedive. Graphic every year
that he's been a head coach dating back to Texas, Tech
call him a pretty good call him be what the hell happened.
So
this, you know, it can't just be
Bleep happens. There's a reason for these things and if Kliff
Kingsbury is looking for ways to improve himself.
He better be ready. There. It is. The can't finish. Cliff
can't finish Kingsbury.
Look at the right column. Look at what happens to his team's
Peter. It can't be a coincidence. It is abysmal.
Great. Start horrible finish last year from 10 and 2 to 1 in
5 and the Ugly exit in the playoff loss to the Rams.
Buddha Baker is speaking. The truth. That maybe Michael
Bidwell would have liked to have heard before. He gave
Kliff Kingsbury, an extension.
Look,
I'm just going to tell you this
one day. It's going to be one Monday. It's going to be 5 10
a.m.
And you're going to be sitting there. You're going to call up
my column
and you are going to see in my column that I call the numbers
game. You're going to see a little headline and it's going
to say the Kliff Kingsbury nosedive graphic,
and I'm not going to give you any credit for it at all
objects. Every because it's perfect
Kliff Kingsbury.
Look, I didn't come up with it. Five, get the credit that back
room.
They are 5 and 17 down the stretch in that graphic that
you just showed for
the Arizona Cardinals
and Mike. I'm just going to give you my one
little thought. I don't know why he finished 0 and 5 at
Texas Tech. I do, you know, I
have absolutely no idea.
But I am going to give you a little pet theory of mine
about why they get to the point that they get to.
Late in every year. And that is honestly they've got a small
quarterback
and they've got a quarterback who is a brave small
quarterback.
And what I mean by that is I think that the quarterback of
this team
Kyler Murray has taken an awful lot of hits and he wasn't built
to take an awful lot of hits.
Okay. So in my opinion, my opinion,
Kliff Kingsbury walked in there.
We'll never forget
in his rookie year
in 2019. He said to me when I visited them. He said to me is
we're going to have one of the best running games in
the league.
And he said our running game is our priority. That was
the word. He used our priority words, you use. And so
my only point about this Mike
is that I think this has to be a year.
And look, they lost Chase Edmunds to Miami. They need to
develop along with James Conner, who's not been the most
durable guy in his career, either.
They need to develop a two or even three headed running game
that and there's nothing wrong with winning a few games, 1:41
16,
you know, there.
There's nothing wrong
with killing the clock, eating the clock,
and winning the game because you run the ball. Great.
He's always It made that a priority and this year, if
I were Kliff Kingsbury, I would be looking
in the middle part
of my schedule, calendar,
to make sure that we are preaching to our team, run it,
run it, run it.
We want to have 35 runs every game minimum
with our team. And I know you've got an exciting electric
quarterback and you don't want to make Kyler Murray,
you know, into some sedentary pocket guy. I'm not saying To
do that. I'm saying please
for his sake and the excited,
state sake of exciting football
in December. And January.
Let's take better care of Kyler Murray
in the first three months of this season.
And
you know early in his career. It seemed like he was much more
wired to avoid contact. He was always smart about getting out
of bounds sliding. He still does that but there's a certain
amount of contacts unavoidable
the ankle injury suffered we
Last year on a Thursday night against the Packers.
That was just in the pocket. Got tackled Downey went and
that angle. I think bothered in the rest of the year. He missed
several games. They tried to downplay it. Like teams always
do. He'll be fine. He'll be fine. Then he wasn't fine
and he just couldn't run. He didn't have that explosion.
And when we got to the end of the season, we got to that
playoff game.
Peter. I said this earlier in the week, it he shrunk before
our eyes. He's a lot smaller when he can't
just take off like the Roadrunner,
whenever he It's and and he looked, he looked less than
ordinary against the Rams. So I agree with you. They got to
find a way to keep him healthy
and and
but on top of that,
when Buddha Bankers saying the team got comfortable, that's
a failure of coaching. Also,
whatever is working early in the year
defense is going to catch up with you. You got to stay ahead
of the curve, that's part of the challenge and you know, you
got a guy who was a college coach for a long time who still
adjusting to life in the NFL and
there's a ton of pressure on
This year, I think Kliff Kingsbury to get this right.
Which is why I think if he were to tell us the truth, he would
say, why in the hell are they doing the Hard Knocks in season
thing with my team? Why are they doing that?
Can't I can I just have a year
where I try to try to reverse the numbers on the nosedive.
Graphic without NFL films cameras and microphones
everywhere.
Agreed. And I think
this is the one thing.
And I'll just tell you this.
I don't, I really think that the effect of
the Hard Knocks stuff is a little bit overrated.
I talked to both Chris
Ballard, the GM of the cold sand Frank Wright, their
season, dissolved in collapsed, you know, with, with the Hard
Knocks cameras there. And to me,
I do That's a little bit
of a,
you know, it's a little bit of an overrated thing with teams.
And I also think it can do a team good because players like
being featured on this thing
and it's spruces up,
you know, the way they feel about certain things last year
on the in season Hard Knocks.
A bunch of players were shown
as being really kind of cool guys and responsible
off the field and all that.
Doing good, things off the field
and I totally get it.
I also get the hey, let's be private,
but I just don't think at the end of the day,
you know, I don't think you could ask the Colts.
I don't think they would say even privately that it had one
scintilla to do
with Carson. Wentz pit in the bid at Jacksonville and week 18.
Well, one thing the Kingsbury said this week as he spoke to
Balor in, there are positives and negatives and they asked
Kingsbury what the negatives are. And he did a very good job
of evading it all together and
saying, basically we'll find out.
I just think that from his perspective it introduces
an unknown and uncertainty that you just rather not if I had my
choice
of the way, I know things always are and I'm focused on
trying to do better there and introducing some
new factor that I really
You know what it's going to do, or what it's going to be. I'd
rather stick with
the way things are. Even though the way things are haven't been
great for Kliff Kingsbury over the past decade.