Kliff Kingsbury's departure, J.J. Watt's last game highlight Cardinals 'Hard Knocks' final

The final episode of HBO’s and NFL Films’ “Hard Knocks – In Season with the Arizona Cardinals” was broadcast Wednesday night, and as epic as the chronicling of the last week of J.J. Watt’s career was, what everyone also wanted to see was how the program would tell the end of coach Kliff Kingsbury’s tenure.

“Hard Knocks” didn’t disappoint, even though the series didn’t always pull back the curtains as much as fans were hoping to see.

Before he was fired on Monday morning by team owner Michael Bidwill, the cameras caught Kingsbury addressing the team in the locker room at Levi’s Stadium following the Cardinals’ 38-13 loss to the 49ers, dropping them to 4-13 on the season.

“I’m disappointed for y'all, for y'all, because I know what you deserve,” Kingsbury told his players. “It just didn’t work this year, but it will! This year happened for us, not to us, and we’re going to learn from it and be better moving forward, I promise y'all.

“But I cannot tell you how much it meant to me how y'all (expletive) worked and showed up each and every week, man. It meant everything to me, so thank y'all.”

At the end of the show, following passages from Bidwill’s Monday news conference announcing the dismissal of Kingsbury and the resignation of General Manager Steve Keim, “Hard Knocks” showed a brief clip of Kingsbury addressing some of his players yet again in the auditorium at the team’s Tempe training facility.

He tells them what most of them have already heard: A change has been made.

“Just once again, thanks y'all. I can’t thank y'all enough for what y'all did,” he tells them. “You deserve better than this. y'alY worked your ass off and I’m forever in debt. If I can help you in any way, let me know. All right? Love y'all.”

A bright spot involving Kingsbury involved the “Joe Montana” play he drew up for quarterback David Blough and veteran wide receiver A.J. Green. The fleaflicker worked to perfection — on Sunday's second play from scrimmage, it went for a 77-yard touchdown.

Earlier, during a scene shot in his Paradise Valley home, Kingsbury reflected on what a trying season it had been, especially for him.

“I think it’s one of those years that has definitely tested my patience. For the first three years we’ve been going like this," he said, moving his hand in an upward motion. "Everybody (was happy) with the core and talent, the quarterback (Kyler Murray) is developing, everything is moving forward. This year, it was dramatically backwards.

“I think we were at a good place up until this season. We’ve just got to find a way to get back there.”

They’ll do it without Watt, the veteran defensive end and former three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who decided back in November he was going to retire after this season. And they might also have to do it without star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, whose name has been linked to multiple trade rumors.

“Hard Knocks” filmed Hopkins and linebacker Zaven Collins in a pottery studio and later filmed Hopkins at his home alone talking about Arizona’s disappointing season. He said his six-game suspension to start the year for testing positive for traces of PEDs was a big part of it.

“I was out six games and I feel like that kind of put us behind right there,” he said. “I have to take accountability for that. I gave my team a disadvantage from the jump. … It was a very (expletive) season. … The season has been (expletive) up.”

The most dramatic part of the “Hard Knocks” final episode, though, was snippets during the 49ers’ game and the pre- and postgame scenes featuring Watt, his teammates, and time with his wife, Kealia, and their newborn son, Koa.

The crescendo was cameras inside the team meeting room Saturday night at the hotel in which a video tribute made by defensive line coach Matt Burke was played for Watt and the entire team. It only lasted about six minutes, but Watt was sobbing seconds into it upon watching his brother, T.J., the All-Pro outside linebacker for the Steelers, explaining how much his big brother helped him on his way.

J.J. Watt could barely watch as players such as Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady weighed in with their personal messages, and the bawling continued when it got around to his parents and his wife offering their own praise and congratulations.

Watt addressed the team after the video tribute, saying among other things, “Nobody does it alone, man. People give me a (expletive) load of credit and I’m sure you guys are sick as (expletive) of hearing about me for the last two weeks and I apologize for that.”

He added, “I hope you take something from me. I don’t know it is, but I hope you take something from me and you pass it on to somebody else because that’s what it’s all about. At the end of the day, it’s about what you pass on to somebody else and the ripple effect that we create in this world.”

The sights and sounds the next day when Watt received a standing ovation and cheers from the entire crowd as he exited the game at the two-minute warning were tear-jerking moments as well.

Kealia Watt said she and the family were looking forward to taking their first real vacation together when J.J.’s training finally won’t be the No. 1 focus.

“I literally don’t know what people do in the month of August,” her husband said.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kingsbury, Watt departures highlight Cardinals 'Hard Knocks' final