Murray, Cardinals should be humbled after face-planting
If going 3-13 last year wasn’t enough for Cardinals fans to put a governor on their expectations for 2019, coach Kliff Kingsbury, quarterback Kyler Murray and most others in the team’s employ provided additional reasons Thursday night.
The only way the game against the Raiders could have gone worse is if someone had been injured. That was not the case, but the Cardinals' performance was so bad that it should have set off the alarm system at State Farm Stadium.
The Cardinals “amassed” just 12 yards in the four possessions Murray played. They played with their backs bumped against the north end zone the entire first quarter and gained only two first downs.
Both those came courtesy of Raiders defensive end Clelin Ferrell, who was penalized twice for hands to the face.
Cardinals fans know that feeling, because they had to be putting palms to forehead after watching their team fall behind 26-0 in the first half.
The Cardinals, no doubt, will emphasize that August football is all about the fine print that comes attached to these games:
❚ The final result doesn’t count.
❚ Teams don’t game plan.
❚ Many starters don’t play.
❚ Results may vary.
While true, those qualifiers don’t deodorize what happened against the Raiders.
Kingsbury was hired because of his reputation as an offensive innovator. Murray was drafted because the Cardinals believe he is a “generational” player, a word used by General Manager Steve Keim.
And it's true we were not going to see the Cardinals at full Kyler.
Watching him play football in the preseason is like opening a Christmas gift and then being told you can’t use all of its features for the next month.
Through two preseason games, we’ve seen Murray at full speed, but in beginner mode.
Last week against the Chargers, the results were encouraging.
Murray went 6 of 7 for 44 yards and looked like he had been in the NFL 10 years.
On Thursday, he looked like he had been there 10 minutes.
He was called for two false starts, although one appeared questionable, and overthrew receiver Christian Kirk on two of the few plays the Cardinals ran without a penalty being called.
Murray had no help. The offensive line hasn’t knocked a defender off the ball in two games, and the pass protection hasn't been much better.
Kingsbury’s offense is designed to spread defenses out and give playmakers room to operate. But against the Raiders, the field looked as big as the yard of a patio home when the Cardinals had the ball.
The Cardinals gained 22 yards on their first three possessions, so it made sense to bring Murray and the rest of the first team out for a fourth.
That didn’t go well, either. On third and 1 at the 9, Murray was sacked in the end zone for a safety, giving the Raiders a 26-0 lead.
If the Cardinals were looking to test their rookie with some adversity, they succeeded Thursday night.
Murray will have to deal with the sting of completing 3 of 8 passes for 12 yards and departing the game with his team behind 26-0. The starting offensive unit hasn't scored in five possessions this preseason.
Murray lost only three games as a starter in college, and if the Cardinals aren’t considerably better than they showed Thursday night, he’ll lose that many in the NFL by the end of September.
It’s fair to wonder how he will handle it, because Murray has been a phenom since he was a kid.
“He’s just a cool kid,” left tackle D.J. Humphries said earlier this week. “You ever meet the guy who has been cool his whole life? Some stuff is like, “I’ve been the man since I was four, bro. You don’t have to tell me I’m going to have a great game on Thursday night. I know that.”
There’s an old saying in football – in life, really – stay humble or be humbled. It applies here.
If Murray and the Cardinals weren’t humbled by Thursday night’s beatdown, they are in bigger trouble than we think. And that’s saying something, because so far this team doesn’t look improved from last year.
That can change. In 2018, the Cardinals were bad early and never improved.
That lack of growth was startling and is the reason Kingsbury and Murray were brought to Arizona.
Maybe the Cardinals aren’t as bad as they played on Thursday.
Maybe they are and will improve. Or maybe we will see many more games like Thursday's.
It’s still August.
That might a good thing for the Cardinals.
Or the worst of things.