While the end left a bitter taste, the Cardinals did, in fact, have some sweet moments during the Kliff Kingsbury era.
The 7-0 start in 2021, the Hail Murray, the flickers of play-calling ingenuity that left defenses befuddled.
But no one would argue his team was ever a particularly organized bunch.
Arizona had 52 pre-snap penalties last year, the most in the NFL, and finished bottom-10 in all four seasons during Kingsbury’s reign.
So while very little can be taken from a preseason game, one aspect stood out during the Cardinals’ 18-17 win over the Broncos on Friday night: in a league where coaching matters, Jonathan Gannon looked more prepared and organized in his first game as a head coach than his predecessor did by Year 4.
Cardinals seemed quite organized in the first half, even with a first-time HC, OC and DC. A welcome change.
— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) August 12, 2023
The Cardinals had only one pre-snap penalty against Denver, a five-yard illegal formation early in the second quarter.
There weren’t issues getting the play in, which would often bog down the offense in past years. There wasn’t much confusion, even though it was a large group of players shuffling in and out of the lineup.
At age-40, Gannon is a young head coach. At 36 and 30, respectively, offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and defensive coordinator Nick Rallis are even younger, but none of them seemed rattled.
Hell, Rallis was even calling Cover 0 blitzes in an exhibition game, showing some youthful vigor where old-school coaches choose to stay vanilla.
Nick Rallis calling full house blitzes in the preseason baby 😂
— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) August 12, 2023
It’s possible the bright lights of the regular season will hit differently, and bring with them miscues. Gannon, of course, has been widely criticized for his inability to adjust against Kansas City in the Super Bowl.
And he did have one major blip against Denver, inexplicably calling a timeout as time was running down before the half that allowed the Broncos to take their time and kick a field goal when it would have been a race against the clock otherwise.
His postgame answer to the media was perplexing. On one hand, Gannon said he wanted the ball back to practice a kickoff return, but on the other said the decision was “probably a mistake.”
In the future, it would be better if he just owned up to the error.
Even so, the overall picture was encouraging.
The Cardinals are still woefully lacking in talent heading into 2023, and are not going to win many games.
But this year is less about victories and more about how they perform. There is a major difference between losing a game by 24 points amid myriad miscues, and losing it by seven because the opponent had better players.
If the Cardinals can play disciplined football this season, and if the coaching staff can show off its acumen by accentuating the team’s strengths and attacking opponent weaknesses, it will bode well for 2024 and beyond, when the talent catches up.
Gannon will need to prove all of this when the season gets here, but he got off to a good start Friday.
