TEMPE, Ariz. -- Yes, the they were talking about practice.

As the Arizona Cardinals pick up the pieces after getting blown out by the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, practice has become the focal point for what went wrong and how they can fix their troubled start.

After the game, coach Kliff Kingsbury said the road to improving begins with one thing: Practice habits, which includes, he added, a better sense of urgency.

His players felt the same way.

“We definitely could practice a lot harder,” wide receiver Marquise Brown said. “We definitely could practice a lot sharper and treat each route like a game rep.”

That the Cardinals’ practice habits have come under scrutiny a week into the season isn’t concerning to Kingsbury.

“I think it's a good thing,” Kingsbury said.

“At least it's kind of nowhere to go but up at this point with that performance. I think our guys understood that and it starts with practice. And, so, I'm glad they recognized it, and now it's about doing something about it.”

On Friday, he said the Cardinals had one of their better practices of the preseason.

Then on Monday, a day after Arizona’s 44-21 loss to the Chiefs, Kingsbury said practicing every rep like it’s a game rep is “the biggest deal.”

“Intensity has to pick up across the board,” Kingsbury said. “Just collectively, though, the little things at practice. Each and every rep has to get better, and you got to play fast and get your work in during the week to expect to come out and play well on Sunday.

“And, I think collectively, we know we've got to be better in that department, and I expect it to be better this week.”

He expects the film, which Arizona will watch as a team on Tuesday, will be enough motivation. But if the Cardinals will be looking for something on the screen to hang their hat on, they won’t find it, Kingsbury said.

While the Cardinals can start changing their practice ways on Wednesday, they’ll have to wait until Sunday in Las Vegas to see if they can take what they learn in practice and implement it in games. That was one of Kingsbury’s biggest frustrations, among many, on Sunday.

“The things that we had worked on, just not executing it at the level that we can,” Kingsbury said. “Things, whether we showed it to them defensively or offensively, knew things were coming and still weren't able to execute, and you gotta give Kansas City credit. They played at a high level and they did what they're supposed to do.”

The Cardinals have seen how quickly their fortunes can turn in Week 2.

After beating the Tennessee Titans soundly in last season’s opener, they beat the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2 only because of a missed field goal.

Sunday could be the type of game that Arizona can parlay into a turnaround.

“I think it was good for us for this to happen to us,” quarterback Kyler Murray said. “You can't feel yourself in his league. You get embarrassed, and that's kind of what happened today.

“Good team over there [in the Chiefs]. They executed. You can tell there's [a] complete difference. Energy was higher and they didn't shoot themselves in the foot.”

The film reaffirmed one thing to Kingsbury: Arizona ran into a well-oiled machine. It didn’t help, however, that the Cardinals played like it was “preseason game No. 1, for whatever reason,” Kingsbury said.

Was Sunday just chock-full of Week 1 mistakes that need to be cleaned up or was it a sign of large-scale issues that need be addressed?

“We'll get better,” Kingsbury said. “So I anticipate us getting better, and last year we started hot and didn’t end really well, so hopefully we can kind of flip that trend.”