Kyler Murray made a lot of nice plays on Monday night, but he sure made a big mistake on the last play of his Arizona Cardinals’ 30-23 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams.
The Cardinals were down 10 late in the game and kicked a field goal with 37 seconds left to make it 30-23. Arizona then improbably recovered an onside kick to give themselves a chance to tie the game. But their final possession went poorly.
Arizona had consecutive penalties to begin their possession — a holding call and then a false start. That put them in a 1st-and-25 situation. Murray then threw a check down pass to James Conner in the middle of the field even though Arizona did not have any timeouts left. The clock kept ticking and everyone was expecting the Cardinals to spike the ball.
Everyone thought a spike was coming … except for the guy in charge of the spike — Murray. He ended up taking the snap and being sacked because none of his linemen blocked. His receivers didn’t even run routes because they all thought a spike was coming.
What a blunder!
Murray rushed for 61 yards and passed for 383 yards. But between his two interceptions and mental mistakes like this one, he wasn’t his sharpest. Murray also took a sack on third down on the previous possession, costing his team about 30 seconds.
Beyond that, many people were questioning Kliff Kingsbury from not taking a field goal earlier in the team’s second-to-last possession in order to save more time. By going for the touchdown on the first possession when down by 10, they left themselves very little time left upon finally deciding to kick the field goal.
That was some poor clock management by Arizona. They didn’t deserve to win the game.
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