Lazy narratives.

That was mentioned without explanation in my Wednesday analysis
of the Cardinals’ injury issues and how they seriously impacted
the team’s ability to win in the last six games of the 2021
season, including the dreadful playoff loss to the Rams.
In my mind, a lazy narrative is one that seeks to find one
reason, and one reason only, for why a team lost or, for that
matter, won.

There’s rarely only one reason for success or failure. Still, it
is said frequently, especially after a loss. It was the play-
calling, or the quarterback played poorly. We’ve all heard the
classic statement that a quarterback gets too much blame for a
loss and too much credit for a win, but “that’s the way it is.”
Really? Is it? It doesn’t have to be. While the quarterback
surely is a large factor in wins or losses, there are usually a
myriad of other factors that also lead to and determine the
outcome.

But I digress. What was I getting at when referencing the lazy
narrative of the Cardinals’ 1-5 record in those six games?

Simple.

The oft-repeated notion is that it’s all on Kliff Kingsbury’s
shoulders. After all, the “book” on him is that he’s a great
starter and poor finisher dating back to his six seasons as head
coach at Texas Tech. So, when a Cardinals season ends in
disappointment, it feeds the narrative.

It seems no one wants to look at the data and even attempt to
analyze why it really happened. Hey, we’ve got our narrative,
let’s ride it, baby. Don’t let facts get in the way of a good
headline.

So, let’s dispense with the Texas Tech narrative quickly. They
simply weren’t that good a team when compared to the class of
the Big 12. Kingsbury was 35-40 in his six seasons and there
were good starts including 7-0 in 2013.

However, 15 of his 35 wins were early in seasons against Kansas
(four), Texas-El Paso and Stephen F. Austin (two) and one each
over Texas State, Central Arkansas, Sam Houston State, Louisiana
Tech, Eastern Washington and Lamar.

Then, what happened? The schedule got tougher. Of his 40 losses,
23 were against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State
(five), Baylor and TCU (three) and Texas (two). There were 21
losses to top-25 teams with some ranked in the top 10.

In 2018, his final season, the Red Raiders were 5-2 when
sensational freshman quarterback Alan Bowman was lost for the
season because of a collapsed lung. Five consecutive losses
followed with two to top-15 teams and Kingsbury was fired. The
same pattern has occurred in two of the school’s last three
seasons when the overall record is 15-20.

The loss of Bowman in 2018 was instructive because the home
stretch of the Cardinals’ last two seasons were also compromised
because of injuries to quarterback Kyler Murray.

In 2020, a shoulder injury against Seattle in Week 11 was
followed by a 2-4 finish that included a leg injury early in the
season-finale loss to the Rams, a game in which a victory would
have put the team in the playoffs and knocked the Rams out.

Murray continued playing despite the injured shoulder and his
passer rating was 98.7 after the Seattle game, 86.8 in the final
six games, and he played differently.

Last season, his passer rating was 110.4 after the loss to Green
Bay that dropped the Cardinals to 7-1. When Murray returned with
remnants of the high-ankle sprain suffered against the Packers
still present, his rating was 89.3 in the final six games and
doesn’t include the microscopic 40.9 rating against the Rams.

Yes, there were other reasons detailed in the previous analysis.

However, a quarterback with Murray’s skills has to be healthy to
play up to expectations and give his team a chance.

It’s far-fetched to believe Kingsbury could have waved a magic
wand to make the outcome much different.

When Kingsbury was asked this week whether he thought Murray’s
late-season swoon the last two seasons was injury-related, he
said, “Definitely. You can see how he played and his style of
play even last year when he came back, trying to protect himself
a little bit more. And that’s human nature. And that’s what he
should do because we need him out there. But I don’t know how
many quarterbacks last year played the entire season. So it’s
the nature of the game. It’s a tough game; 17-game schedules.

It’s just one of those deals in this league; people are gonna
get hurt.”

But everyone prays it’s not the starting quarterback. Last
season, only 11 quarterbacks started all 17 regular-season games
and there were five that started 16, three with 15 and five
including Murray with 14. Unfortunately for Murray and the
Cardinals, six of the starts down the stretch were with him
hampered by injury.

Reflecting on last season this week, Murray said, “I had a good
start until I got hurt. And those things you can’t really
explain when you get hurt and try to come back and you try to
play the same. It’s tough to do, but hopefully I can stay
healthy this year and then play throughout the whole season.”

He understands that injuries simply happen and can be out of
your control. Notably, Murray is excellent at being smart while
running and the injuries have occurred while trying to escape
the pocket or being sacked.

“You get injured, you look at everything like that and there’s
nothing really that I would have done differently in those
situations,” he said. “(It was) unfortunate obviously. What
could have been if that doesn’t happen, who knows, but I’ll play
my game like I always do and I’m optimistic about health and
stuff like that. I don’t try to put the negative energy out
there.”

Follow me on Twitter @hbalzer721 and don’t hesitate to comment
there or ask questions.