No NFL team’s season is decided in Week 1, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to comments Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim made Monday.
Keim went off on his team during a local radio interview one day after its season-opening loss to the New England Patriots.
The Patriots entered Sunday night’s game as 9 1/2-point underdogs and were without quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski yet still managed to leave University of Phoenix Stadium with a 23-21 victory.
Clearly displeased with the Cardinals’ performance, Keim called the following morning a “sky-is-falling Monday” and disputed the notion that the defeat could be viewed as “a good loss.”
“Not when you are playing a backup quarterback missing some playmakers, and it’s a home game,” Keim said on Arizona Sports 98.7’s “Doug and Wolf,” as transcribed by the Cardinals’ official website.
“You wake up Monday morning angry, disappointed, embarrassed, and that’s the way we all should feel.”
Keim went on to criticize Arizona’s special teams (“very disappointing, in every area”), its third-down defense (“very frustrating”; “extremely disappointing”) and the play of rookie cornerback Brandon Williams (“there were some mistakes he made that were very, very critical to the game”).
Cardinals kicker Chandler Catanzaro missed a potential game-winning field goal with less than a minute remaining, the Cardinals allowed the Patriots to convert 10 of 16 third downs, and Williams was left in the dust on Jimmy Garoppolo’s early touchdown pass to Chris Hogan.
Thumbnail photo via Matt Kartozian/USA TODAY Sports Images
