Cardinals fall to Dolphins, 34-31
The Cardinals remain one game behind the Seahawks in a second-place tie with the Rams after defeat.
They knew it before kickoff. It was in their heads and it wasn’t going to leave.
When the Seahawks lost to the Bills earlier in the day, 44-34, it meant all the Cardinals needed to do to wrestle away first place in the NFC West from Seattle was find a way to defeat the Dolphins on
Sunday at State Farm Stadium.
It turned out to be a more difficult task than the Cardinals may have ex
pected.
Despite losing players to injuries throughout the game, already being without their top two running backs because of injuries and playing without five assistant coaches because of COVID-19, the Dolphins kept bringing the fight and they stunned the Cardinals in a thriller, 34-31.
Jason Sanders kicked a 50-yard field with 3:30 left to play as Miami (5-3) won its fourth straight and handed Arizona (5-3) its first loss in four weeks. The Cardinals remain one game behind the Seahawks (6-2) in a second-place tie with the Rams (5-3)
“Yeah, it wasn’t talked about, but we all knew the opportunity that was at hand and if we won this game, what that would mean for us amongst the division,” said Cardinals receiver Christian Kirk, who finished with five receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown — a 56yard bomb from Kyler Murray.
“That’s why it’s so frustrating. Guys have every right to be as mad as they are because we all know how talented and how good we can be. It’s tough and it’s frustrating when we don’t do it. It’s just one of those things where we’ve got to check ourselves once again.”
The Cardinals had plenty of time left to either tie the score with a field goal or win the game with a touchdown and both opportunities appeared to be well in hand after Murray hit Kirk for a huge 35-yard pass play.
Two conservative run calls and an incomplete pass forced coach Kliff Kingsbury to decide to go for the tie and let Zane Gonzalez kick a 49-yard field goal. The snap looked good, so did the hold. But Gonzalez didn’t get enough of it and his attempt fell short, turning the ball back over to the Dolphins.
All Miami needed was one first down to salt the game away and rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa did the honors with a clutch, 1-yard sneak on third and 1 at the Dolphins’ 48-yard line. He completed 20 of 28 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns.
“You’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” Kingsbury said of the Dolphins. “They came in, created a takeaway early, which were big points there. They played good, played physical, had a rookie quarterback who protected the ball and didn’t turn it over one time.
“We had some bad calls late on fourth and 1, third and 1 and it turned us over. They got it done, we didn’t.”
The Cardinals were forced to play catch up from the start, quickly falling behind 7-0 when Murray was stripsacked by Dolphins defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah and linebacker Shaq Lawson scooped up the fumble and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown.
Arizona didn’t take its first lead of the game until the tail end of the third quarter. That’s when Murray accounted for his fourth touchdown of the game, scrambling 12 yards untouched for a score with 2:28 left in the quarter. He had already thrown for three touchdowns, helping the Cardinals keep pace.
Arizona went ahead 31-24 on Murray’s eighth rushing touchdown of the year, which made him the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era to run for at least eight TDs through the first eight games of a season.
Combined with his passing touchdowns, Murray also became the first player ever to throw for at least one touchdown and rush for another seven times in the first eight games of a season.
Murray and the Cardinals needed more dynamic things to happen because the Dolphins managed to come back and tie the score at 31 on a 10-play, 93-yard drive. Tagovailoa capped it with an 11-yard pass to Mack Hollins with 11:19 left to play.
Just like they did on their own previous scoring drive, the Cardinals elected to go for it on fourth and short and were successful yet again. But the same situation presented itself a second time and Edmonds got stuffed on fourth and inches at the Miami 40-yard line.
The Dolphins got the ball back with 5:15 remaining in regulation and had excellent field position. But after a 19-yard strike to tight Mike Gesicki, Tagovailoa threw consecutive incompletions and his third-down pass to Jakeem Grant Sr. was a yard short of the first.
Miami had to settle for a field goal, but Sanders nailed the 50-yarder to put the Dolphins back on top, 34-31, with 3:30 remaining. It was Sanders’ 20th consecutive field goal without a miss, setting a new franchise record.
The Cardinals needed to respond, or it was over. The three-game winning streak would be done. The chance to improve to 6-2 for just the third time since 1988 would be toast. And along with it, so would the opportunity to take control of first place in the NFC West.
Gonzalez hit the game-winner in overtime for the Cardinals their last time out in a huge victory over the Seahawks, but it wasn’t meant to be this time. His 49-yard miss on Sunday ended it for Arizona.
“Me personally, I wasn’t really worried about first place in the division,” said Murray, who completed 21 of 26 passes for 283 yards and rushed 11 times for a career-high106 yards. “I don’t think anybody should be worried about that.
“We came out here and laid an egg. I don’t know. I don’t know. We’ve got to be better.”
Things don’t get any easier from here, as the Cardinals host the surging Bills (7-2) next Sunday before hitting the road on a short week to face the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football.
“We’ve got to bounce back. We can’t let one loss turn into two,” Cardinals linebacker Jordan Hicks said, adding, “At the end of the day, we’re still in a great position, we’re still in a great spot to make a run at this thing. We have to learn from this game, we have to figure out what went wrong and fix it. But we’re all eyes forward and looking at Buffalo.”