The Arizona Cardinals fired head coach Kliff Kingsbury on Monday, a day after the team wrapped up a disappointing season with a drubbing against the San Francisco 49ers.
Statement regarding Kingsbury
A brief statement from the Cardinals confirmed Kingsbury’s departure while adding that general manager Steve Keim stepped down due to health issues.
“We have announced that head coach Kliff Kingsbury has been relieved of his duties,” the Cardinals statement said.
“In addition general manager Steve Keim has decided to step away from his position in order to focus on his health.
“The team wishes them well and thanks both of them for their contributions.”
His departure comes less than a year after he inked a contract extension that would have kept him in Arizona through to the end of the 2027 season.
However pressure had mounted on the 43-year-old after a dismal season that concluded with a 38-13 hammering by divisional rivals San Francisco on Sunday.
That left the Cardinals bottom of the NFC West with a 4-13 record — the worst season of Kingsbury’s four-year reign.
Kingsbury’s relationship with star quarterback Kyler Murray has also come under scrutiny this season.
Recent US media reports have said the duo had grown “increasingly distant” this season, with the two men at odds over the nature of Arizona’s offensive game.
Murray has not played since suffering a knee injury against the New England Patriots last month, and is expected to miss the start of the 2023 campaign.
The New England Patriots kept themselves in the NFL playoff picture with a 27-13 victory on Monday over the Arizona Cardinals, who lost quarterback Kyler Murray to injury on their opening drive.
Murray’s injury
Murray was carted off the field with a knee injury and was visibly upset after going down without contact on the third play from scrimmage, his right leg buckling beneath him.
He was to have an MRI exam on Tuesday to confirm the extent of the injury, which made a disappointing season worse for the Cardinals, who fell to 4-9 with the defeat.
“It doesn’t look good,” Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “But we’ll know more in the morning.
“It’s tough, no doubt,” Kingsbury said. “You see teams go through it every week but you lose your starter on third play of the game, non-contact, it’s just tough to watch.
“I’ve never seen him (Murray) in that type of shape,” Kingsbury added. “So I assumed it wasn’t good.”
New England improved to 7-6 to remain in the hunt for a wild card berth.
The Patriots defense had six sacks and an interception, forcing one fumble and coming up with four fourth-down stops and one touchdown.
Josh Uche sacked Cardinals backup quarterback Colt McCoy three times.
Linebacker Raekwon McMillan gave the Patriots a 20-13 lead when he collected DeAndre Hopkins’s fumble and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.
Patriots quarterback Mac Jones connected on 24 of 35 passes for 235 yards and an interception and rookie running back Pierre Strong rushed for 70 yards and a TD.
“Shout out to the defense,” Jones said. “Had some great stops. We’re still working through it but we came here to win and we got the ‘W.'”
With that in the books, Jones said, a relative lack of offensive production was beside the point.
“We came here, we just wanted to win the game. That’s all we cared about,” he said. “To do that you’ve got to execute on a play-by-play basis, and we did that pretty well.”
The Las Vegas Raiders have benched quarterback Derek Carr for the final two games of the NFL season with Jarrett Stidham given the starting role for Sunday’s game with the San Francisco 49ers.
Last week’s defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers leaves the Raiders with a 6-9 record and only the slimmest of outside chances of making the post-season.
Carr threw three interceptions in the 13-10 loss to the Steelers and his 14 interceptions this season ara a league high.
In his ninth season with the franchise, Carr’s pass completion rate of 60.8% is his worse since his first year.
Remarks by the Raiders’ coach
“None of us is happy with where we’re at, but we think it’s an opportunity to evaluate a younger player who hasn’t had much time to play,” Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels said on Wednesday.
“Talking to Derek — who was great — he understands the scenario that we’re in and the situation,” he added.
Carr signed a three year $121.5 million contract extension in April but the deal is structured in a way which provides a relatively painless way out for the Raiders if they wish to move on from their quarterback.
Reports say that the Raiders would have to pay a relatively low $5.625 million if he is cut or traded within three days of February’s Super Bowl.
However Carr’s entire 2023 salary ($32.9 million) plus $7.5 million of his 2024 salary is fully guaranteed if he were to get injured in the remainder of this season, NFL.com reported.
McDaniels was wary of discussing what moves the Raiders might make over Carr’s future.
“We’ll see how this goes going forward. I’m not going to sit here and predict the future. There’s a lot that could happen and we’re gonna take those things one day at a time, and right now we’re going to get ready for the 49ers,” he said.
The 26-year-old Stidham, who played college football with Auburn, joined the Raiders in May after three years as a back-up with the New England Patriots and will be making his first start in the NFL.
The Los Angeles Rams said on Friday that head coach Sean McVay would be continuing in his role and would be in charge for the 2023 NFL season.
Remarks regarding Sean McVay
“Sean McVay informed the team he is excited to return next season,” the team said in a brief statement on twitter.
After a disappointing 5-12 season concluded on Sunday, he had said he was going to take his time to make a decision over his future plans.
McVay, who led the Rams to a Super Bowl triumph last season, has a contract that runs until the end of the 2026 season.
The 36-year-old has been in charge of the Rams since 2017 having previously been offensive coordinator with Washington.
Speaking on Monday at his end of season press conference, McVay said that he needed time to process his thinking.
“I don’t get the sense in the least bit I’m done coaching,” McVay said. “It’s just a matter of what does that look like as it relates to the immediate future is more about what you’re really working through right now.”
He said that he felt “unconditional support” from the team’s owner Stan Kroenke and top executives.
“In some instances, it almost creates more challenges. But you are so grateful, and I couldn’t be more appreciative of the unconditional support that I feel from Mr. Kroenke and from those guys as it relates to how we move forward accordingly,” he said.
Patrick Mahomes threw for two touchdowns and ran for another on Sunday as the Kansas City Chiefs clinched an eighth straight NFL playoff berth.
Jerick McKinnon’s 26-yard touchdown run in overtime gave the Chiefs a hard-fought 30-24 victory at league-doormat Houston, clinching Kansas City’s seventh straight AFC West division title.
Mahomes completed 36-of-41 passes, including 20 in a row to finish the game, for 336 yards without an interception and ran for 33 yards to spark a second-half comeback.
“We’ll enjoy it, then we will get right back to it,” Mahomes said. “We’ll go back and watch some film. We’ve got to get better and better as we try to work our way into the playoffs.”
Mahomes was concerned about two lost fumbles and 10 penalties for 102 yards against a Texans team that fell to 1-12 with one draw.
“Guys had to continue to battle,” Mahomes said. “We hurt ourselves a lot. We’ve got to cut out the penalties, cut out the turnovers and be cleaner or there are going to be a lot more battles for us.”
The Chiefs followed the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings into the post-season, and the Dallas Cowboys also advanced with a little help from the New York Giants.
Dallas missed a chance to clinch a playoff spot by losing 40-34 at Jacksonville on a 52-yard overtime interception return touchdown by the Jaguars’ Rayshawn Jenkins.
The Cowboys lost another chance to reach the playoffs when Detroit edged the host New York Jets 20-17 on Jared Goff’s 51-yard touchdown pass to Brock Wright with 1:49 to play.
But the Cowboys claimed a spot when the New York Giants beat the Washington Commanders 20-12 in an NFC East division battle that capped the day’s action.
The Eagles improved the NFL’s best record to 13-1 with a 25-20 triumph at Chicago.
Jalen Hurts ran 17 times for 61 yards and three touchdowns while also throwing for 315 yards as Philadelphia won despite three turnovers.
“There was so much that we overcame. We persevered,” Hurts said. “It was ugly at times but we found a way. Great teams find a way.
“We stuck together. There was adversity. We turned it over. We gave them some things. When it mattered most, we found a way.”
Bengals beat Bucs
In a showdown of division leaders, Joe Burrow threw for four touchdowns and the Cincinnati Bengals won 34-23 at Tampa Bay.
A sixth consecutive victory put the Bengals at 10-4, one game ahead of Baltimore atop the AFC North, while Tom Brady’s Buccaneers fell to 6-8, one game atop the rest of the NFC South.
Seven-time Super Bowl champion Brady fell to 89-1 in home games when his team led by 17 or more points.
Two Brady touchdown passes helped lift the Bucs ahead 17-0, but then Brady made four consecutive turnovers — twice on lost fumbles plus two interceptions — and Cincinnati scored the next 34 points.
Burrow answered with touchdown passes of three yards to Tyler Boyd, five yards to Tee Higgins, eight yards to Ja’Mar Chase and 12 yards to Mitchell Wilcox.
The wildest ending came in Las Vegas, where New England tried a rugby-style lateral on the last play of regulation in a deadlocked game.
An errant backward toss went to Raiders’ defender Chandler Jones and he ran 48 yards with the fumble recovery to give Vegas a 30-24 victory.
Cameron Dicker kicked a 43-yard field goal with four seconds remaining to give the Los Angeles Chargers a 17-14 victory over visiting Tennessee, trimming the Titans’ AFC South lead over Jacksonville to one game.
New Orleans edged visiting Atlanta 21-18 while Pittsburgh won 24-16 at Carolina and host Denver defeated Arizona 24-15 in matchups of clubs with losing records.
Patrick Mahomes leads the Kansas City Chiefs against San Francisco on Sunday in a rematch of his 2020 Super Bowl victory in a showdown of NFL division leaders.
The 27-year-old quarterback directs the NFL’s highest-scoring offensive unit against a 49ers side that allows the fewest yards and second-fewest points in the league.
“They are still a great football team,” Mahomes said Wednesday. “A lot of that team is still there and they have gotten better and better. So I understand it’s going to be a challenge because I’ve played against them before and know how many great players they have on that defense.”
Niners coach Kyle Shanahan hasn’t forgotten the masterful play of Super Bowl 54 Most Valuable Player Mahomes, whose 17 touchdown passes this year include 15 from 20 yards or fewer and only four to wide receivers.
“There are not many people in the history of football as good as him,” Shanahan said. “He’s a top thrower on the planet. And the way he can move. He’s not always doing it with a flat-out (sprint), just running away from people, but the way he fills space and creates time.”
At 4-2, the Chiefs sit atop the AFC West division while the 49ers, 3-3, top Atlanta and the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West thanks to a 2-0 mark in division games.
The Chiefs produce the most touchdowns of any NFL team when they get inside an opponent’s 20-yard line.
“We definitely have to be on alert for that,” 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw said.
If the 49ers can hold Kansas City to field goals after deep drives, it could be pivotal.
“We talked about that,” Niners defensive end Nick Bosa said. “That definitely could be a big turning point in the game, if we are able to keep them from getting seven.”
This season, the 49ers rank 13th at stopping teams that get inside their 20, with foes converting such trips into touchdowns 54% of the time.
Mahomes rallied the Chiefs with two touchdowns to beat the 49ers 31-20 in Super Bowl 54, a film Shanahan rewatched to analyze how to stop a repeat.
“I don’t like watching it. But this week wasn’t about that. I watched it for schematic reasons,” Shanahan said. “When you do stop stuff, that’s usually just when the play gets started. That’s why they’ve been consistently good.”
A top target for Mahomes is Travis Kelce, whose seven touchdown receptions this year include six from inside 10 yards.
The 49ers hope to prove they belong among the NFL’s top teams even after quarterback Trey Lance suffered a season-ending ankle injury in week two and was replaced by Jimmy Garoppolo, a starter for most of the past three seasons.
“We’re right there with everyone else. Most of this league is pretty close to the same spot,” Shanahan said. “A couple of teams are ahead of everyone, a couple behind everyone. We have as good a chance as anyone in this league.”
Unbeaten Eagles idle
Four division leaders are off this week — the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles (6-0), defending champion Rams, Buffalo Bills (5-1) and Minnesota Vikings (5-1).
The only team among the NFL’s four clubs with the best record to take the field this weekend is the New York Giants, who carry a 5-1 mark to Jacksonville (2-4).
The only game this week between teams with winning records sends Indianapolis (3-2 with a tie) to Tennessee (3-2).
Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa returns after missing two games with a concussion when the Dolphins host Pittsburgh.
Sunday’s other contests include Cleveland at Baltimore, Tampa Bay at Carolina, Atlanta at Cincinnati, Detroit at Dallas, Green Bay at Washington, the New York Jets at Denver, Houston at Las Vegas and Seattle at the Los Angeles Chargers. Chicago will visit New England on Monday.
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