The Cardinals beat out the Panthers 26–16 for their second win of the 2022 season on Sunday, but the victory wasn’t without tension.
Early in the fourth quarter of the game, with the score knotted 10–10, Arizona was forced to call a timeout on second and goal to prevent taking a delay of game penalty. Quarterback Kyler Murray was visibly upset with the team’s lack of tempo and appeared on the broadcast to voice his frustrations with coach Kliff Kingsbury.
Even though the Cardinals would salvage a field goal out of the drive, the icy exchange quickly went viral as viewers wondered if there was any lingering tension between the two team leaders.
Both Murray and Kingsbury did their best to downplay the spat in their postgame press conferences. The Cardinals quarterback confirmed that he was frustrated with the offense’s lack of tempo, but didn’t imply that there was any larger issue afoot.
“I mean, you saw it. Yeah, just trying to get on the ball and go,” Murray said, per All Cardinals. “They’re one of the teams that struggle with tempo. If you let them get in third down, you let them get in their double bear package and let them do the things they want to do, give exotic looks and stuff like that. We had intended to get on the ball quick and go and we allowed them to do what they wanted to do for the majority of the first half.”
Kingsbury joked about the situation, saying that he was actually talking with Murray about their plans for the flight home.
“I was just seeing after the game what he wanted to eat. If [we] should bring him something separate. Or just kind of go with the standard team meal,” Kingsbury quipped.
When asked what he recommended for Murray in a follow-up question, Kingsbury said salmon.
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Kingsbury and Murray may have smoothed things over, but the pressure certainly is mounting in Arizona. Now in their fourth year together, the coach and quarterback duo will need to show that they can win this season after having played in just one playoff game since 2019.
The Cardinals (2–2) will look to maintain their momentum in Week 5 against the undefeated Eagles.
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