The Arizona Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1 26-14, and by so doing, they accomplished something with first-year head coach Mike LaFleur that hadn't happened for the organization since the mid-1970s.
LaFleur became the first non-interim Cardinals head coach to win his first game since Don Coryell. That was in 1973 when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles 34-23 in Week 1. They actually started 2-0 that season before going 4-9-1.
It has been 53 years.
How did the other coaches do in their first game?
- Bud Wilkinson, 1978: 17-10 loss to Chicago Bears
- Jim Hanifan: 1980: 41-35 loss to New York Giants
- Gene Stallings, 1986: 16-10 loss to L.A. Rams
- Joe Bugel, 1991: 31-0 loss to Washington Redskins
- Buddy Ryan, 1994: 14-12 loss to L.A. Rams
- Vince Tobin, 1996: 20-13 loss to Indianapolis Colts
- Dave McGinnis, 2001: 38-17 loss to Denver Broncos
- Dennis Green, 2004: 17-10 loss to St. Louis Rams
- Ken Whisenhunt, 2007: 20-17 loss to San Francisco 49ers
- Bruce Arians, 2013: 27-24 loss to St. Louis Rams
- Steve Wilks, 2018: 24-6 loss to Washington Redskins
- Kliff Kingsbury, 2019: 27-27 tie with Detroit Lions
- Jonathan Gannon, 2023: 20-16 loss to Washington Commanders
The only win in a coaching debut came in 1979 when Larry Wilson was named interim head coach after Wilkinson was fired. They beat the 49ers 13-10 in his debut.
Before Sunday, new head coaches were 0-12-1 since Coryell
in their debuts. Now it is 1-12-1.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Mike LaFleur accomplishes something not done in Cardinals history in over 50 years
