Josh Weinfuss, ESPN Staff WriterOct 12, 2024, 03:30 PM
CloseJosh Weinfuss is a staff writer who covers the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL at ESPN. Josh has covered the Cardinals since 2012, joining ESPN in 2013. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and a graduate of Indiana University. You can follow him via Twitter @joshweinfuss.
TEMPE, Ariz. — By early in the third quarter of the Arizona Cardinals’ win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, it was clear that it just wasn’t rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.’s day.
His 5-yard out to the left side of quarterback Kyler Murray with 14:17 left in that quarter was broken up by 49ers defensive back Deommodore Lenoir, dropping Harrison’s stat line to one catch on six targets for 14 yards. He wasn’t looked at again until late in the fourth quarter, when he made a game-saving 22-yard catch that extended the drive that led to Arizona’s game-winning field goal.
While the Cardinals (2-3) certainly missed Harrison’s contributions, Arizona showed it can still win even when the No. 4 pick of the 2024 draft has an off day. It was the type of game Arizona can build off of, coach Jonathan Gannon said. And it proved what Murray has been saying for months: He trusts everyone on offense. To him, building off Sunday will be fixing small mistakes but, “if we can execute at a higher clip next week, we’d be that much better.”
“That’s kind of football,” Murray said. “You want everybody to have 100 yards every game. You want everybody to eat every game, but it’s tough. Sometimes the other team takes away [options]. Sometimes you just don’t hit on those days, but when you get those opportunities, you make them count.
“I think that was kind of the situation on Sunday. Obviously, Marvin had two catches, but the two catches were probably two of the biggest in the game. Mike [Michael Wilson] had a couple kept more catches, Trey [McBride] had a couple. It’s just sometimes the flow of the game.”
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Wilson had five catches for 78 yards. McBride had six catches for 53. Elijah Higgins had a touchdown catch. James Conner ran 19 times for 86 yards. And Murray had seven runs for 83 yards.
Sunday was an example Arizona’s offensive depth and Murray’s ability to get a variety of people involved. By halftime, he had thrown to five different players, two with five targets and two with two. The variety of Murray’s options strained the 49ers defense throughout. It was the first time since the Cardinals’ season opener against the Buffalo Bills that the team had eight players catch a pass. Wilson had five catches for 78 yards.
“I think we’re the most difficult to defend when we’re spreading the ball around, when everyone has an impact on the offense,” offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said. “I think that’s when you’re difficult to defend is when you can’t just lock in [and] say, ‘We’re going to eliminate this guy or that guy.’ When guys are playing at a high level and the ball is going kind of around the field, I think it makes us hard to defend.”
Gannon feels when his team has everyone on the field, they can win, and that is comforting.
Getting everybody involved is as simple as just them making plays. The Cardinals “have a lot of pieces,” Higgins said, they just need to do their job.
“When the ball comes to them, just make the play that they need to make the play, and just don’t think too much about it,” he said.
Quarterback Kyler Murray ran for 83 yards and one touchdown against the 49ers. Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
In Arizona’s case, it understands that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
“It’s the mold of a great team,” Harrison said. “You can’t just have one playmaker out there. Got to be able to run the ball. Obviously, J.C. [Conner] did a great job of that this week. Obviously, Kyler had the long run, as well.
“And then we obviously have so many good receiving targets at Trey, Mike and [Greg] Dortch. It’s good to have Zay [Jones] back now too. So it definitely can’t be just one playmaker or a couple playmakers here, but I think just overall talent and skill that we have on this team definitely makes us very dangerous as an offense.”
And it’s going to get better this week against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox) when Jones, who was suspended in August for five games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, makes his debut with the team.
Jones will add a veteran’s presence to a passing game that’s already found its rhythm. Murray doesn’t think he and Jones will need much time to get on the same page.
“Zay’s played a lot of football,” Murray said. “He’s got a great feel for the game as a receiver. He understands. He’s played with a lot of different quarterbacks. He grew up in Texas, so I think growing up in a seven-on-seven culture and just having a feel for zones and being able to win against man, I think he’s capable of all that. I don’t think it’ll be an issue with Zay.”
Complementing Arizona’s wide-ranging passing attack Sunday was Conner, who exploded in the second half.
He finished the first quarter with seven yards on two carries and had just nine yards on six carries at halftime. Then he went out and carried 13 times for 77 yards in the second half, adding a different dimension in the last two quarters to a Cardinals’ offense that was down 13 when the third quarter.
It was a great complement to Murray’s run production, marking the second time in the last 10 seasons that Arizona had two players rush for 80-plus yards in the same game.
Conner’s resurrection in the second half gave life to Arizona, though.
“For me, I like to throw the ball around, so it’s a little tough,” Murray said laughing. “You feel it. I’ve played with him for multiple years now, so I kind of know when it’s that time.
“We kind of relied on him for the whole second half getting it going and finishing the game. He’s a workhorse and I think he gets stronger the more carries he gets. … There’s nothing I don’t think James can do. When you get a guy like him going, it’s beneficial for the offense for sure.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-11 23:06:00
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