He made 3 mistakes in quick succession. He took the worst angle you could take at Kendrick attacking Kendrick’s albums which really opened up Cole for an uncomfortable conversation about his discography, went too far with a full song when they don’t have any real beef, and failed to cut Kendrick’s head off with the effort because it sounded halfhearted. He should have kept it competitive and bar him up (which is what he claims to want) or just stayed on the sidelines and let Kendrick and Drake have it out.
He may legitimately come out of this looking the worst which was absolutely unexpected 72 hours ago.