Episode 4 of "Hard Knocks In Season" featuring the Cardinals debuted on Wednesday night, and -- as we will do after every episode this season -- here are the top five takeaways from the show for your reading pleasure. Warning: Spoilers ahead.
"Hard Knocks In Season" can be seen every Wednesday at 8 p.m. Arizona time until the season ends, and is streaming on HBO Max.
(To purchase merchandise seen during Hard Knocks, go to azcardinals.com/shophardknocks.)
THEY COVERED THE TRANSITION TO STEVE HEIDEN AS OL COACH
While the Sean Kugler firing was briefly touched on the previous week's episode, it was how this week's episode open -- talking about the dismissal, the installation of Steve Heiden -- who had been the tight ends coach -- as the new offensive line coach. Heiden, who has been on staff since Bruce Arians was hired in 2013, made sure to tell the linemen he was used to different terminology and he wanted the group to pipe up if they were confused with anything. Obviously it worked out with the Cardinals running for 181 yards in the game against the Chargers.
ISAIAH SIMMONS WAS FRUSTRATED WITH HIS BENCHING, AND HIS COMEBACK
The show dialed back to early in the season, when linebacker Isaiah Simmons had his snaps reduced and had to earn them back. Simmons is shown talking to defensive backs coach Marcus Robertson from earlier in the season and Simmons seemed exasperated with the situation. Flash-forward to the game, when Simmons had the huge sack late that should've ended Chargers hopes. But they also showed the 33-yard L.A. TD pass in which Simmons seemed to get lost in his coverage -- they showed Zaven Collins yelling, "Zay!" after it happened -- and then they showed the two-point conversion that beat them, when both Collins and Simmons at first moved to cover running back Austin Ekeler -- a split-second decision to leave Gerald Everett wide open.
ANTONIO HAMILTON WAS STILL BOTHERED BY HIS TACKLE-TURNDOWN AGAINST NINERS
The show covered last week when cornerback Antonio Hamilton decided not to tackle San Francisco tight end George KIttle on the sideline before a touchdown. It was clearly still in his head the following week. "I owe everybody," Hamilton says to Kliff Kingsbury. "I can't wait on nobody else to make that play. Can't hesitate, can't flinch. I own that. That s**t has been eating me up." Kingsbury told him not to worry about it, and frankly Hamilton has earned one mulligan.
THE FOURTH-DOWN INTERCEPTION DREW INTERESTING IF EXPECTED REACTIONS
On the fourth-and-1 -- the one that had an option to hand off to James Conner or throw a flare to tight end Trey McBride and neither were open, leading to the deep pass try to DeAndre Hopkins that was picked off by Derwin James -- Kingsbury wasn't happy. The cameras caught him yelling one word, and it wasn't "duck." Hopkins also came over to Kyler Murray after the play apologizing (although I'm not sure for what, unless it was his attempt to make the catch rather than just break up the pass and since it was fourth down, it didn't really matter.)
HOPKINS SPENT THANKSGIVING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS
Hopkins' mom lost her sight many years ago because of a domestic violence situation, and so he spent his Thanksgiving afternoon serving dinner at a DV shelter and meeting people. He also brought along teammates and Kingsbury at one point at practice earlier asked Hop to text him the information so he could show up as well.
