Arizona Cardinals' disappointing season has eerie similarities to 3-13 team in 2018

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Cardinals have used several colorful adjectives to describe their turbulent and disappointing season to date, which mercifully will finally come to an end here Sunday against the NFC West champion San Francisco 49ers.

Among other things, they’ve called it “treacherous” and “devastating,” a “roller coaster” and “a bad dream.”

After a Week 6 loss to Seattle in which Arizona failed to score a touchdown on offense against a Seahawks’ defense that had been allowing 37 points a game during the previous three weeks, quarterback Kyler Murray, who would later suffer a season-ending torn ACL in his right knee, might have said it all:

“Probably rookie year, that’s probably the last time (expletive) has felt this hard,” he said.

Actually, it was worse a year before that in 2018 when the Cardinals finished 3-13, fired head coach Steve Wilks after just one season and secured the No .1 overall pick in the NFL draft to eventually select Murray.

In a strange twist of fate, this season has been eerily similar to that one.

If the Cardinals (4-12) lose their regular-season finale here at Levi’s Stadium, where they are double-digit underdogs, they will match the 2018 team and tie the 2000 team for the most losses in franchise history. That would be a monumental blemish for a club coming off an impressive, 11-win season that included reaching the postseason a year ago for the first time in six seasons.

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But this year’s team has other dim remindful ties to that doomed Cardinals’ club of 2018. Back then, one of its superstar players (cornerback Patrick Peterson) publicly went bonkers by demanding a trade, not unlike the bizarre way Murray and his agent went about expressing their demand for a massive contract extension.

Like five years ago, the Cardinals also fired one of their top assistant coaches (offensive coordinator Mike McCoy) at the midseason mark just like the franchise did this year with offensive line coach and run game coordinator Sean Kugler, who since has filed a legal request for an arbitration hearing for wrongful dismissal.

And much like 2018, which saw 18 players finish the season on injured reserve, the Cardinals have had a franchise-record 81 different players see action this season. Like then, they’ll also finish the campaign with 18 players on season-ending IR, the third most in the league behind only the Titans (22) and Broncos (21).

“It’s been wild, man. It’s been wild,” veteran right tackle Kelvin Beachum said. “You had everything that was going on with the contract situation with the quarterback to start the year off. We had a death by one of our teammates (cornerback Jeff Gladney). We had speed racers (wide receiver Marquise Brown getting arrested for criminal speeding) that were going on before training camp. You had ‘hold-ins’ that were happening in training camp.

“It’s been a whirlwind and I mean, that’s just for starters. It’s been treacherous, to say the least.”

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Wait a minute, back up. When Beachum mentioned the phrase “hold-ins,” it marked the first time anyone in the organization publicly referenced the contract disputes that kept left tackle D.J. Humphries and outside linebacker Markus Golden from participating in training camp until they both got new deals.

“I probably wasn’t supposed to say that,” Beachum said, laughing.

There hasn’t been much to smile about in Cardinalsville these days, not with three players recovering from ACL surgery in Murray, guard Justin Pugh and tight end Zach Ertz. Not with the heart and soul of Arizona’s defense, safety Budda Baker, on injured reserve with a fractured shoulder.

Not with General Manager Steve Keim taking a leave of absence from the team for health reasons, either. Not with head coach Kliff Kingsbury teetering on the hot seat amid rumors he could get fired come Monday by Owner Michael Bidwill. And certainly not with 13 potential losses staring them all squarely in the face.

It feels like 2018 all over again.

“I wasn’t there that year, so I wouldn’t say we’re back to where we were,” Kingsbury said. “But yeah, it’s a year you learn from. It’s one of those deals where, perspective-wise, it’s like things either happen for you or to you. I choose to see them as happening for us and lessons that we’ve got to learn and be better moving forward.

“Sometimes, you have to face adversity and you have to have a season like this to find the things you’ve really got to get fixed and get corrected. I think organizationally we have a chance to get it right, move forward and try to be better.”

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Kingsbury referenced Baker, the Cardinals’ lone Pro Bowl selection this year, who not only kept playing after fracturing his shoulder in a Christmas night loss to the Buccaneers, but also kept playing despite a painful high ankle sprain weeks earlier, as a reason to keep fighting.

Players like Baker, he said, “deserve a winning culture and a winning organization. Those are the guys that you want to be really good for.”

According to defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, who has been on Kingsbury’s staff from the beginning in 2019, the Cardinals’ culture isn’t in need of repair.

“The culture, if that breaks down, as a coach that can be your demise,” Joseph said. “I think here that hasn’t happened. The guys are playing hard. The guys love playing for coach (Kingsbury) and he hasn’t changed one bit from last year winning to this year not winning. He’s been the same guy every day and I think the players respect that.”

Andy Lee, the Cardinals’ veteran punter who is wrapping up his 19^th NFL season, can testify to that.

“I love playing for him and I think he’s a great head coach,” Lee said. “Obviously, I’m not an offensive player, I’m not in the meetings with that group, but as far as how he handles himself as a head coach and how he handles this team, I feel like he does a great job.

“He’s even-keeled and I respect that because being a punter and being a specialist in this league, you can’t get too high on the highs, don’t get too low on the lows. You kind of stay flat-lined, take one day at a time and I feel like that’s the type of person he is. I feel like he’s done a standup job, in my opinion.”

Lee was on that 2018 Cardinals team that finished the season ranked last in total offense, last in passing offense, last in rushing offense, last in scoring and last against the run. Arizona’s numbers aren’t nearly that bad in those areas this season, though, and unlike five years ago, the Cardinals haven’t lost three games by at least 34 points, five games by at least 22 or nine by double digits.

Six of their losses this season were decided by eight points or less.

“Things could have been totally different if a play went here or a play went that way,” Lee said, adding, “Even with all the injuries we’ve had, I don’t think we’ve ever had on offense or defense or even special teams, the full team that was expected to be out there. I think that obviously has contributed to some of the struggles and some of the things we’ve had to deal with.”

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Joseph, who said he has received no assurances about his job security despite revealing he signed a two-year extension with the Cardinals a year ago, said “absolutely” things can be fixed in time for next season, adding the team is not far off from becoming a playoff contender once again.

“Having a chance to come back and fix this is our goal as a staff, obviously,” he said. “… This league is about winning. Sometimes, they ask you to move on before your time. As a coach and a player, you just kind of cherish every moment you have. You move on when it’s time to move on, but right now we’re focused on winning and focused on fixing this thing for next year.

“Monday morning, we’ll know obviously what’s going on. It’s been honest all year. We’ve coached hard, we’ve played hard all year, so I have no regrets.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals' 2022 season has eerie similarities to 2018 flop