Despite some positives, the Arizona Cardinals suffered a discouraging loss to the Seahawks. And blame drifted into the corners of the roster. Here are the Cardinals most to blame for the Thursday Night Football loss to the Seahawks.
After erasing a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit, the Cardinals could only watch as Jason Myers made a 52-yard field goal as time expired for a 23-20 Seahawks victory.
The loss dropped the Cardinals to 2-2. And it was the second straight division loss on a game-ending field goal.
Kicker Chad Ryland deserves his share of blame
With 28 seconds remaining in a tie game, there are only two ways a kicker can fail his team. He could kick the ball out of bounds or short of the landing zone.
Today’s kickers have so much accuracy that both of those possibilities are basically off the board in that situation. But Ryland wrote them on the board anyway. He landed the kickoff at the 21-yard line, giving the Seahawks the ball at their own 40-yard line. It gave them plenty of time to drive the short distance for the game-winning kick.
After an incompletion, quarterback Sam Darnold hit Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a 22-yard gain before running back Zach Charbonnet gained four yards to set up Myers.
Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon tried to take Ryland’s side, according to a post on X by the Arizona Cardinals via Sports Illustrated. Gannon said he gave Ryland a four-word plan.
“Keep it in play,” Gannon said when asked what Ryland was trying to do. “That's one of the things we talk about late in the game. There with the amount of timeouts, time, what they need at the line. We were trying to burn off some time there.”
However, the major failure by Ryland didn’t draw criticism from Gannon.
“Chad played his ass off,” Gannon said. “The game doesn't come down to one play. We didn't do enough collectively for 60 minutes to win the game.”
Just one question about Gannon’s assessment. How exactly does a kicker “play his ass off”? He kicked a couple of field goals and a couple of extra points. And he kicked off a few times. But he didn’t make any tackles or any other anything that would suggest he performed in such a gutsy manner. Gannon probably could have left that sentence out of the equation.
WR Marvin Harrison Jr. did play well until late
It’s just the truth of sports. Games can be lost in the first half just as easily as the second half.
The Cardinals were in field goal range when Harrison bobbled an easy slant-pass catch that turned into an interception. If he catches it, it’s close enough to a first down to consider going for it on fourth down. So he cost his team the chance at three points, or possibly seven.
Think about how valuable those points would have been at the end. Three would have Myers kick produce only overtime. Seven would have pretty much ended the Seahawks' hopes with 28 seconds remaining and needing a touchdown.
Of course, it’s not fair to ignore that Harrison did pretty much everything he needed to do to overcome the early mistake. And he deserves credit for that, according to a post on X by Jordan Schultz.
However, a strong finish does change things, according to a post on X by Jordan Schultz.
“I’ve gotta give a tremendous amount of credit and respect to Marvin Harrison Jr. He really hung in there, battled through a ton of adversity, and overcame it all to show why he’s a future star in this league. Marvin displayed true football character in every sense of the word — something we can all appreciate.”
QB Kyler Murray has limitations
Maybe the Cardinals don’t ask him to do enough. Or maybe Murray just can’t get it done. But his 200-yard passing effort against the Seahawks is more evidence that he’s far from elite.
This year, his passing totals of 163, 220, 159, and 200. And he’s only rushed 13 times for 83 yards through four games. Those are mediocre stats.
Last year, he reached the 300-yard passing mark only two times. So if the volume isn’t there, he needs to make big plays down the stretch. And he did a few times against the Seahawks. But it was too little, too late. And that’s kind of the story of his career thus far. Murray is now 2-9 in his career against the Seahawks.
And NFL observers are taking notice, according to NBC Sports.
“I don’t know if he lost a little of his zip,” Mike Florio said. “It’s kind of like guys come into the NFL with all this potential and hope. And some of them become stars. Some of them never do anything, typically when they’re drafted by the Jets. And then there’s the group of guys that just become part of the group between 10 and 20. The Kyler Murrays, Jimmy Garoppolos, the Tua Tagovailoas, the Brock Purdys. There’s no shame in that because there’s only 15 guys in the world that can do it better than you can. I think we’ve seen Kyler Murray settle into middle-of-the-pack quarterback.”
