Kingsbury: Cardinals must focus on a play at a time to curb slow starts

TEMPE — The Arizona Cardinals haven’t been able to utilize game plans in their entirety thanks to slow starts in each of their first three contests of 2022.

Down from the jump in all three, the Cardinals have cut their original plan of attack in half as they’ve tried to claw their way back into games.

It’s hard to dictate a game when you’re chasing offensively and defensively.

Fixing the slow starts continues to elude head coach Kliff Kingsbury and Co. as the Cardinals head back to the drawing board once more with the Carolina Panthers up next. It’s another pivotal week of practice from a self-reflection standpoint for the Cardinals.

“I think there’s a couple of different approaches,” Kingsbury said Monday. “One is ignore it like it didn’t happen after you’ve overtalked it. But we’ve definitely addressed it, we talked through it and we know to be the team we want to be, we’ve got to start faster.

“Getting behind the teams we’ve gotten behind the first three weeks and the amount it has happened, it’s not sustainable to win many games in this league.”

The Cardinals have been outscored in the first quarters 31-0, a deficit of 10.3 points through 15 minutes of game action during their 1-2 start.

By halftime, Arizona has been outscored 56-13 — an average of being down 14.3 points.

But while many have latched onto the notion that the Cardinals aren’t fully engaged coming out of the gate, could it be that the team looking for early success is pressing too much?

Kingsbury believes that could be a big factor in Arizona’s ugly starts.

“I wouldn’t say (it’s a lack of urgency), almost maybe the opposite,” Kingsbury said. “Trying too hard, too juiced up, jacked up, ‘Hey, we’re going to score a 14-point touchdown on this play.’

“We just got to take it one play at a time and focus and not try to do too much early.”

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