The Arizona Cardinals put up a brilliant fight but eventually fell against the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday. Kliff Kingsbury made decisions which hurt his team.
The 49ers managed to get a fresh set of downs late in the game to drain the clock. Some will blame Kliff Kingsbury's horrible challenge that cost the team 40 seconds they could have used to get the ball back for a tying field goal in a 28-25 game.
According to For The Win's Henry McKenna, Tevin Coleman ran the ball to the left sideline with just over 2:25 left. He picked up three yards on a 3rd and 3. Video evidence showed that he wasn't out of bounds when he reached the first-down marker.
You can see this YouTube video, at 9:55 of the 10-minute, 41-second package, to look at the play live and then get the replay.
Because Coleman stepped out of bounds, the clock was stopped. Arizona had two timeouts plus the two-minute warning, still plenty of time to get the ball back. Kliff Kingsbury insisted on making a challenge, though, and it predictably failed.
The Cardinals could have used their two timeouts on the other side of the two-minute warning and gained the ball back with a reasonable amount of time left. When using a timeout after the two-minute warning, a team saves a full 40 seconds. When a team uses a timeout in the 15 to 20 seconds before the two-minute warning, it doesn't get that same value.
The Cardinals used their third and final timeout before the two-minute warning, with the 49ers facing 3rd and 9 near midfield. The 49ers chose to be more aggressive on third down instead of being conservative. They converted, and since Arizona was out of timeouts, the game was over.
Football Twitter understandably went off on Kingsbury, blaming him for the team's failure to snatch the victory.
Kingsbury with an excellent first half timeout and challenge here, he gets a game ball from Shanahan.
— Steve Berman (@BASportsGuy) November 1, 2019
This is a horrendous challenge by Kingsbury
— Nick Kostos (@TheKostos) November 1, 2019
There are reasons for Cardinals fans to be positive despite their 3-5-1 record. Many of their players have performed well in the first half of the season. Kyler Murray is living up to his status as the first overall pick with his play. Kingsbury is leading the team to be competitive in what many think is the toughest division in football, the NFC West.
However, fans would love it if their head coach reduces avoidable mistakes like this.
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