If there’s an unfortunate staple of teams that Kliff Kingsbury’s coached, it’s that they tend to fade down the stretch.
That undoubtedly happened to the Cardinals last year, as the club started out 10-2 before dropping four of six games after their Week 12 bye to finish 11-6. Then Arizona fell to the Rams 34-11 in a non-competitive contest in the wild card round.
This week, safety Budda Baker said the Cardinals are putting last year behind them and are ready for a much better 2022.
“For us, we’re trying to get back to way past what we did last year,” Baker said, via Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic. “We’re taking it one day at a time, one week at a time, and if we can do that, we’ll win. You guys saw us do that the first eight, nine games last year and I felt like guys possibly might have gotten comfortable. A lot of headlines, a lot of wins, and all that type of stuff.
“But it’s up to us as professionals just to ignore the noise and just take it one week at a time. We believe we’re a great football team and this year I think we’re going to be a way better team than last year.”
The Cardinals still have many of their playmakers from last year. But they will have to find a way to replace edge defender Chandler Jones after he signed with the Raiders. And the club won’t have receiver DeAndre Hopkins for the first six games of the season for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy.
