TEMPE, Ariz. — Two weeks into his third season with the Arizona Cardinals, quarterback Kyler Murray has complete control of the offense.
He knows what should and should not be happening and the Cardinals rank second in the league in total yards and points per game.
“I see it all out there,” Murray said. “I understand our offense, the guys understand what we’re trying to do, so we’re moving as one for the most part.”
But when Murray emerged from the locker room after Sunday’s 34-33 win over the Minnesota Vikings to meet with the media, he was more subdued than usual, frustrated with with the Cardinals’ self-inflicted penalties (5 for 40 yards), sacks (three) and interceptions (two).
“I tell you all the time, it comes down to shooting ourselves in the foot and stopping ourselves,” Murray said. “We score, it feels easy and it feels fun. And then when we turn the ball over, negative plays, it’s like, ‘Damn, that s— feels ugly.’ But it is what it is. We have to continue to get better and continue to practice.”
Murray had one of the best games of his career Sunday, throwing for 400 yards and three touchdowns while running for 31 yards and another score. And yet he was still bothered by the mistakes. It didn’t matter that he was 6-for-7 passing for 200 yards and two touchdowns on throws 15 yards or more downfield. It didn’t matter that he was seemingly unfazed on dropbacks when pressured. He was under duress on 13 of his 41 dropbacks Sunday but was able to complete 6-of-10 passes for 140 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
But there were mistakes. Arizona’s start was reminiscent of its start Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans, when the Cardinals had four penalties on their first drive with an early timeout thrown in. On Sunday, they had two penalties with a timeout during their first drive.
“We just got to clean a lot of stuff up,” Murray said. “It’s a long season.”
Throughout the offseason, Murray expressed his annoyance with correctable mistakes being an issue last season. That feeling hasn’t gone away.
“Oh, yeah, I’m definitely frustrated,” Murray said. “But, at the end of the day we got the dub so that’s really all that matters. We’re 1-0 [this week]. This is the NFL. It’s not easy to win and we’re 2-0 [overall].
“So, on to the next week. Soak it up, accept it, what happened today, and then we’re going to Jacksonville next week.”
Arizona’s offense did settle down after the first drive, much like it did in Week 1. Besides Murray’s three sacks for a combined 29 lost yards, Arizona had just two negative plays, both runs by James Conner for 4 lost yards in all.
“The game has really slowed down for him,” coach Kliff Kingsbury said of Murray. “You see him doing stuff that he did at the collegiate level. He’s very confident in his legs and moving around, and making throws, and extending plays. It’s Year 3 and hopefully we can keep it going.”