TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona Cardinals start the most critical juncture of their season on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks but face some very familiar problems.

For the third-straight season, the Cardinals are plagued by self-inflicted mistakes. They're still figuring out how to correct some of the most basics aspects of football like getting playcalls in and simply snapping the ball on time.

The last two years, those mistakes torpedoed promising seasons in the final weeks. This season, however, they’ve bit the Cardinals early and often, leading to a 3-5 start with three straight NFC West games coming up against the Seahawks (4:05 p.m. ET, Fox), Los Angeles Rams and then the San Francisco 49ers on "Monday Night Football" in Mexico City.

Coach Kliff Kingsbury addressed the situation and the opportunity with his players this week. To avoid the season being derailed by December, the Cardinals must find solutions soon.

“It's time to correct it,” right tackle Kelvin Beachum said. “We got an opportunity right in front of us, well, we have division games coming up. Those games mean a lot more.

“We got an opportunity to win at home and try to string a couple together. You can't have one week where it looks good, one week where it looks bad. The NFL is about consistency, and we just haven't been consistent consistently.”

The first eight games of this season have been a carryover of the first three under Kingsbury.

Arizona is tied for 30th in total offensive penalties and accepted offensive penalties, according to ESPN Stats & Information. But it’s the kind of penalties that have some Cardinals increasingly frustrated. They’re tied for sixth in the league with 11 false starts and 10 offensive holding penalties.

In his four seasons, the Cardinals lead the NFL in false starts and offensive holding penalties and are fourth in offensive pass interference.

Since 2019 when Kingsbury was hired, the Cardinals are the second-most penalized team in the league, both overall (behind the Las Vegas Raiders) and on offense (behind the Buffalo Bills). They also lead the league in accepted penalties and accepted offensive penalties.

Why the same mistakes keep recurring is the “million-dollar question,” Beachum said.

“We got to find a way to rectify it,” he said. “We got to find a way to get the play in. We got to find a way to call the play. We got to find a way to know what the cadence is. We got to find a way to know the adjustments once we get them on the sideline, and we're just not processing all those things, the basic things of football right now at a varsity level as one of my former coaches will say.”

The Cardinals have struggled at times with the basic concept of getting the play from sideline to the field. Kingsbury calls the play into Murray’s headset, which is embedded in his helmet. Murray then relays the play to the team.

However, the Cardinals have burned numerous timeouts this season late in the play clock, either because of confusion, problems relaying the call or the offense lined up incorrectly.

In an attempt to rectify the relay issues, especially with three new offensive linemen, a new receiver and a new running back in the mix, the Cardinals started to huddle more during their Thursday night game against the New Orleans Saints two weeks ago.

“I think everybody enjoyed it to get on the same page, break the huddle with confidence, understanding what we're trying to do,” quarterback Kyler Murray said.

Huddling has helped slow down the process, Beachum added, but “there’s been some growing pains,” Kingsbury said.

“We’ve got to be better with some of these new pieces and trying to calm people down because it has been late in the play clock when we’ve been getting up there, so that’s something we’ve continued to work on,” Kingsbury said.

Arizona works on huddling “a lot” during practice, he said, but a game atmosphere, especially on the road like Sunday in Minnesota, creates challenges the Cardinals can’t replicate in practice.

The self-inflicted errors have led the Cardinals to trail in games 91% of the time this season.

“It's amazing to even still have a chance to be in it,” Kingsbury said, referring to the division, in which just two games separate first and last. “It’s last in the league and we haven't been able to execute like we need to and, like I’ve said all along, when you're playing from behind that much, you don't even get into your game plan.

“You don't really get to see what type of team you have, I don't think. So, we've got to be able to stay in these ballgames.”

How can they fix these self-inflicted mistakes? The Cardinals are taking it one day at a time, Kingsbury said.

They started Wednesday, getting back to basics. There’s a focus on the little things, Kingsbury added, as well as the things Arizona can control.

Murray doesn’t blame his teammates for making the mistakes at full speed in games.

“You don't make those mistakes during the week,” he said. “So, you get in the game and then mental mistakes is where it's, that's where it's crucial -- the false starts or like lining up in an incorrect spot or stuff like that.

“That's kind of why we've been struggling this season is making these things happen during the game. It’s unusual of us to make these mistakes and that's kind of been killing us.”