Cardinals 31, Jaguars 19
Q. Just opening thoughts?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Glad to get out of here with a win. I thought their team really played hard, played spirited. It was a heck of a ballgame.
Q. What was the thought process, obviously that long field goal attempt --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he has plenty of leg, and unfortunately didn't work out this time, but we trust Matt and we're going to give him more opportunities.
Q. Can you talk about what leaders told them at halftime and after the kick six?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Everybody, yeah. We've got a great group of vets and there was no panic. That's about as big a moment of adversity as you can face in an NFL football game, to have something like that happen right before the half, and guys didn't blink. Even when we went down two scores, guys didn't blink. I was really proud of that effort.
Q. You've been sort of in Urban's position, first-time NFL coach, No. 1 pick. In your experience what's the time table for a rebuild and what advice would you give him?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I would never try to give Urban Meyer advice, first off. He's one of the great college coaches of all time, and you can tell they're on the right track. They're playing at a high level. Their quarterback is incredibly talented, very special, unique ability. I see them progressing really quickly throughout the season.
Q. How long from your experience does it take to sort of switch your mindset from college to the NFL, the intricacies?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think you've just got to grind at it every day. I'm still learning. We still had a bunch of bad play calls out there, mistakes logistically that I made, and you just try to learn each day.
Q. How important is it to have guys like J.J. or AJ that can calm everybody down?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: That's big. I mean, those guys, Chandler, J.J., Rodney Hudson, all those guys have played so much football that they don't blink in adverse situations, and we have some young really ascending players that I think they've been a great influence on them.
Q. How would you describe your offensive performance today? You still get 30 points, 400 yards, but moved it at times --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, disjointed. Our 3rd down plan wasn't very good. I think we started 0-6, had a couple 3rd-and-1s there early that I'd like to have back and then get the one where you thought we had a big play and it gets called back and now you're in 3rd and 20 on the offensive PI. I thought it was disjointed. We've got to be better on 3rd down.
Q. You were right there on almost all of those; was it, okay, this is eventually going to break through?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I just know the type of weapons we have, so I knew we would be fine if we could just settle in and do what we do.
Q. Byron was banged up during the week and now he comes in and has -- how big of a play was that interception just in terms of mentally getting you guys over the hump?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: That was huge. You could feel the momentum change on that play. We had our hands on balls earlier and weren't able to put them away, and that really changed everything. I think everybody felt like we had it in control after that moment.
Q. It looks like you lost Justin Pugh. Murray was out, too. You guys kept Brian Winters. Explain why that decision was made and how thin are you at guard right now?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, the Brian Winters situation was just one of those deals that didn't work out, and I thought Sean Harlow and Max Garcia stepped in at a really high level in the second half. We got it rolling offensively and they were a big part of it.
Q. Was it a tough decision to kick the 68-yarder? I know you said last week that you made the 62-yarder and --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No. Like I said, we're going to be aggressive and he felt good about it in pregame, and it's just unfortunate that it worked out the way it did, but you've got to give them credit, that was a tremendous run and tremendous play and we had our shot to get them down and didn't do it.
Q. Does your mind go back to Alabama or anything like that?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, that was a different situation, end of the game, huge, huge game, all those postseason implications, so this was just end the half, we faced some adversity and made it work.
Q. Did he think that was his range today just being outdoors and --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, the ball carries in that stadium, talking to him and Coach Rodgers, so he felt confident if we get to the 50 we can give it a shot.
Q. Your run game obviously did well the second half.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: We've got to continue to be consistent. Our run game is really good when we run it 25 plus times and are effective, so we've just got to try to get to that number and keep spreading the touches around.
Q. Just adding different offensive pieces, how much does that help, like where Kyler is on a naked boot, knowing there's that many other options if he misses the field goal?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: It's huge, and Steve Keim has done a tremendous job of building this around him, progress in each year so far, and when you add guys like A.J. Green and DeAndre Hopkins and Rodney Hudson, that definitely makes my job easier calling plays.
Q. I think you guys know you can take it to another level with how you played last week and how you played the first three quarters. What's it going to take you to get there?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we've got to improve quickly because next week we start division play, play the LA Rams who are as good as anybody in the league and they've got it rolling. We know we've got to take a big step. We can't have the same type of costly mistakes we had today, and hopefully we have a good week of practice and see how it goes.
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