Cardinals Carry Urgency, Focus Moving Forward
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TEMPE -- It was a message that needed to be heard.
The Arizona Cardinals believed they had a good week of practice leading into their 44-21 drubbing from the Kansas City Chiefs.
They quickly realized it wasn't up to par with a team that's considered to be, once again, a real contender to win their conference.
"We got our ass kicked," said quarterback Kyler Murray following the game before entering a rant on how it doesn't matter how you practice through the week if you don't execute.
Head coach Kliff Kingsbury extended that mantra when asked what the team needed to do to ensure Week 1 doesn't repeat itself.
“Just practice habits, having a sense of urgency,” Kingsbury said. “We got to practice better. There’s no doubt. You can’t say you’re gonna do it on game day and not do it in practice.”
It's been three days since that defeat, and the Cardinals say they've already stepped up in terms of how they've practiced.
"It's one of those deals where we understand now where we have to go, long ways. There's no doubt in a short time going against one of the established teams, one of the best teams in the league over the last five years. I think it can be a real wake up call and from what I saw today, hopefully it was," said Kingsbury.
Up next are the Las Vegas Raiders, who return to Allegiant Stadium in hopes of also securing their first win of the season.
There's no worry about the bright lights of Vegas derailing any focus while the team is there.
"I think with our locker room leadership and what happened last week, our focus is solely on winning the game and trying to be dramatically better than we were last week," said Kingsbury.
The Cardinals carry a different mentality from just a week ago. Murray says that's their only option to have a heightened sense of urgency moving forward.
"It's gotta be, it's gotta be. I think if there wasn't ... when you get to be like that, at home, game one, yeah it's gotta be a wake up call for whoever felt complacent or whatever internally. You got to look in the mirror individually. Do you really want to be here? Do you really want to be great? What drives you? Those are the questions I feel like need to be asked."
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