News » It couldn’t have gone much better for the Cardinals as they started

Sunday’s game in Atlanta by forcing two punts. In between Kendall Sheffield Jersey , they drove 64 yards in eight plays to take a 7-0 lead on David Johnson’s 1-yard run.But everything went haywire from there.The Falcons (5-9) scored the game’s next 40 points — 21 off Arizona turnovers — and the Cardinals (3-11) fell 40-14 to a team that had lost its previous five games.Arizona surrendered a season-high seven sacks behind an entire line of replacements. Rookie quarterback Josh Rosen turned over the ball three times, and the Cardinals allowed 215 rushing yards to the only NFL team with fewer yards on the ground than they had.This was a miserable road trip to a gray, cold, rainy place, although at least the roof was closed in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.“I look at it like the Chargers game a few weeks ago, we started out real fast, put 10 points up, and then something bad happens and we’re not able to weather the storm,” said wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. “. . . It was just an avalanche after the start.”Moments after blunting Atlanta’s second possession with a third-down sack by linebacker Haason Reddick, the Cardinals took over with good field position at their 43. On the second play, though, Rosen threw right toward Johnson, and Falcons end Vic Beasley Jr. batted the ball in the air. Linebacker Deion Jones picked it off and rambled 41 yards for a score.Just as the Cardinals went on to lose 45-10 to the Chargers, Arizona imploded again.The Cardinals’ next possession ended when Bruce Irvin and De’Vondre Campbell sacked Rosen.On the next play, Falcons running back Tevin Coleman went around right end for 65 yards on the way to a career-best 145 rushing yards on just 11 carries.Atlanta entered the game ranked dead last in the NFL in rushing, averaging 82.1 yards per game, but “defensively, we didn’t do a great job of stopping the run . . . ” Cardinals coach Steve Wilks said.“We’ve got to do a much better job http://www.falconscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-john-cominsky-jersey , and like I said, all that starts with me.”Soon after a short field goal gave Atlanta a 10-7 lead, Rosen was sacked and stripped by tackle Grady Jarrett, and nickel cornerback Bryan Poole recovered at the Arizona 34.Maybe Atlanta’s pressure didn’t count as a surprise. Four of Arizona’s starting offensive linemen are on injured reserve, and the team cut a right tackle several weeks ago. Plus, two key reserves are on the injured list.So the Cardinals rolled out rookies Korey Cunningham, Colby Gossett and Mason Cole at left tackle, guard and center, along with right guard Oday Aboushi and right tackle Joe Barksdale, who left with concussion symptoms.Was it any wonder Arizona rushed for just 60 yards on 22 carries?“It has a lot to do with everybody, really: the timing, blocking, communicating and stuff like that, ” said Aboushi, who was signed on Oct. 23. “A lot of it comes with shooting ourselves in the foot.”Not long after Rosen’s fumble, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan scored on a 1-yard sneak for a 17-7 lead, and then another Arizona drive fizzled in part because Rosen was sacked by Poole, who was unblocked on a blitz when the quarterback forgot to check his left side.“I took a couple of other sacks on myself when they were battling their butts off up front Qadree Ollison Jersey , and I’ve just got to play better,” Rosen said after completing 13 of 22 passes for 132 yards, including a 40-yard completion to Johnson on his second throw of the game. “We’ve all got to play better, but I don’t want anyone to look at those stats and think everything’s on the O-line. In this game there were a couple where I was just a little mentally slow on things.”The Falcons went fast tempo after Rosen’s second pick, which set up Ryan’s 21-yard pinpoint pass down the left sideline to Julio Jones. He scored on a diving catch with Arizona cornerback Patrick Peterson attached like Velcro.Not for the first time the Cardinals were undone by the second quarter, outscored 16-0 on this day and 137-34 on the season.At least the end is near.“It’s disturbing, frustrating, you hate it, but I try to find the silver lining in everything,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s the holiday season, my kids are healthy . . . I’m no different than anybody else; I’m frustrated at work, but there’s a lot to be thankful for.” Jon Kitna unfolded a piece of paper detailing that day’s practice plan because he thought it was a good way to illustrate why the former Dallas quarterback was back in the NFL with the Cowboys after coaching high school football for seven years.Dak Prescott‘s new position coach never stopped communicating with Jason Garrett, who replaced the fired Wade Phillips as head coach while Kitna was starting for an injured Tony Romo halfway through a lost season in 2010. Now Kitna is on the staff of a man he calls a mentor �? even though Garrett is only seven years older.“Like, literally, I could bring one of my coaches here from the last seven years and I could hand them this, and they’d know exactly what this is and how it works and what we’re doing,” Kitna said as he held out the paper. “He gave me all that stuff.”When Garrett and the Cowboys were dealing with another Romo injury and needed an emergency backup for a 2013 regular-season finale with a playoff berth on the line, Kitna traveled from Washington state Rashan Gary Jersey , where he was coaching his high school alma mater, to wear the headset for one Sunday.A year later, Kitna returned to Texas as coach at Waxahachie High School, just south of Dallas. After three years there, he coached at a private school in Arizona before the Cowboys promoted Kellen Moore to offensive coordinator after just one year as QB coach.Re-enter Kitna, whose playing career overlapped with Garrett’s for almost a decade �? although they were never teammates �? before Garrett became his offensive coordinator in Dallas.“At that time, I always said to myself at some point he is going to stop playing,” Garrett said. “At some point we got to get him back on board. He’s got great knowledge of the game. He’s got a great way to connect with people. The way he interacts with players. The way he interacts with coaches.”Garrett’s been known to say many of the same things about Prescott after two NFC East titles in three seasons, along with NFL Rookie of the Year honors in 2016 when he led Dallas to a franchise-record 11-game winning streak.Kitna is coming along at an important time, the 46-year-old looking like the perfect complement for someone exactly 20 years younger.Viewed by the front office as the face of the franchise for the next decade and perhaps beyond, Prescott seeks his first big contract after significantly outplaying his fourth-round rookie deal. The Cowboys believe they have the pieces to end a nearly 25-year Super Bowl drought.Prescott keeps coming back to footwork when asked how he thinks Kitna is going to make him better.“He does a great job of staying on top of us every practice, going in the film room and making sure we touch up on it as well,” Prescott said. “I’m seeing the improvement. It feels great.”When he finally decided to make the jump, Kitna went from coaching teenagers to a two-time Pro Bowler looking for answers on how to get past the divisional playoffs after losing in that round twice.The difference wasn’t lost on a former player who never made the Pro Bowl, had a losing record (54-70), lost both his playoff starts and threw almost as many interceptions (165) as touchdowns (169). A career that spanned 14 seasons also included stops in Seattle, Cincinnati and Detroit.“The thing I had to get over was, and it was quick Hakeem Butler Jersey , ‘I have something to offer,'” Kitna said, chuckling at the memory of showing up with Garrett’s staff at the Pro Bowl before the Cowboys had announced his hiring, feeling as if “the staff doesn’t even know who you are.”“Especially for me, I’m a severe introvert. I set the scale for it. I just had to get over it. And Dak’s been great. I do have not only something to offer. I think I have a lot to offer. And I think we’re growing together.”Kitna has another duty in helping the Cowboys settle on Prescott’s backup. Cooper Rush had the job the past two seasons and appears in line for a third, particularly after Mike White struggled in the preseason opener at San Francisco last weekend.Rush and White were on the roster last season, but the Cowboys might not have the luxury of keeping three quarterbacks this season. This is where Kitna’s voice becomes important again.“At the end of the day, this is Dak’s team and we need to make sure that he’s ready to go come Week 1,” White said. “I think (Kitna) does a great job of spending time with me and Coop as well, whether it was extra meeting times on the field after practice, before practice. He’s really dialed in with it all.”During his three years as a high school coach in Texas, Kitna usually took at least a day each season to bring his staff to a Cowboys practice. His last two years of that were Prescott’s first two seasons in the NFL. For Kitna, the familiarity ran deeper than that.“I don’t know that I ever stopped coaching high school kids like I was in the NFL,” Kitna said. “My high school kids would come here right now and go, ‘Oh, that’s that play. That’s that play. That’s that play.’ We didn’t have quite the volume. But we had heavy volume.“At the end of the day, you have to be able to teach what you have up here. It’s not OK to just have knowledge. You have to be able to give knowledge. I think that’s the same way as high school or here.”51<button class="view-gallery">View Gallery</button> Gallery:PHOTOS: Dallas Cowboys Training Camp In OxnardKelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports | Kelvin Kuo