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Kyler Murray is taking deserved criticism for his late-game mistakes in Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Arizona Cardinals aren’t placing all the blame on their franchise quarterback.
Murray and the Arizona offense had Philadelphia on the ropes, facing a second-and-10 on the Eagles’ 34-yard line with 36 seconds left. Murray had a nine-yard run and slid too early, so he didn’t get Arizona the first down at the Eagles’ 25. Instead of running on third-and-1, Murray spiked the ball in a 20-17 game — forcing the Cardinals to attempt a field goal for the tie.
The decision for Murray to spike the ball? Kingsbury said that was a coach’s call.
“I was right there. I thought he was clearly past and they brought it back, and by that time we’d committed to clocking it,” Kingsbury said Sunday in defense of his quarterback. “Twenty-two seconds left he ran there and didn’t get it. We’d have a hurricane field goal with a new kicker, so it was just past the point in overtime.”
Matt Ammendola, filling in for the injured Matt Prater, missed the 43-yard field goal with 22 seconds left — giving the Eagles the 20-17 victory. The Cardinals moved the ball eight plays for 55 yards in 1:08 to get into field goal range to set up a chance to tie it prior to Murray’s slide and spike.
Kingsbury clearly thought Murray had the first down, which is why Murray spiked the ball in the first place. Neither Murray nor the Cardinals coaches knew the situation.
“‘ll have to look at it, but they brought it back a few yards and that was just tough,” Kingsbury said. “Like I said, we’d committed to it at that point. If we were to try to switch with no run and didn’t get it, we were scrambling with 20 seconds left to get your kicker and hurricane field goal.
“We would have kicked a field goal around that area either way. The risk-reward wasn’t good enough at that point once we’d committed to clock it.”
Murray thought he had the first down as well, admitting multiple coaches were screaming in his ear to spike the ball. After he spiked the ball, Murray discovered he was short of the first down — forcing him off the field as the Cardinals had to play for the tie and overtime.
“We had 20 seconds left, again they were calling clock. So, it’s not in the moment,” Murray said. “After the play was over, everybody was screaming clock. We had practiced it all the time. They had obviously thought we had the first down, so that’s what we went with.
“Hindsight would’ve loved to get a couple more yards, one yard, whatever it was. You have the rule when you start the slide you stop the ball, so it’s unfortunate.”
Murray is going to take the heat for the loss, yet it appears the Cardinals have too many voices in his ear that is assisting with the mistakes on the field. Kingsbury and the Cardinals coaching staff aren’t doing Murray — or their team — any favors.
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