Cardinals players elated after Week 2 annihilation over Rams

The Arizona Cardinals could not have played a better game than their 41-10 Week 2 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.

Every facet of the team began clicking right away when Arizona forced a turnover on downs against Los Angeles on the very first set of downs for the game.

“Great game. Marvelous work out there,” Kyler Murray said postgame. “Great team effort, offense, defense, special teams. Great week of practice. Expect to come out here and play like this when you’re prepared, and you got a great feel for it.”

Murray finished with a perfect passer rating (third Cardinals QB ever to do so with 10+ pass attempts), going 17-for-21 on his throws for 266 yards and three touchdowns and rushing five times for 59 yards. The Cardinals had 237 rushing yards as a team, as James Conner had 21 carries for 122 yards and a touchdown. Rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. caught four passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns, all in the first quarter, after he only had one catch for four yards last week. Trey McBride had six receptions for 67 yards and scored a touchdown by recovering a Conner fumble in the end zone.

“Within the building, we think we have the best offense in the NFL, just from a talent standpoint, who the coaches are,” Harrison said postgame. “Obviously with 1 (Murray) back there, we can do anything. I think we got to continue to show that, improve that on a weekly basis, and we’ll continue to get better.”

Arizona outgained Los Angeles 489-245 in total yards and never looked back after a 24-3 halftime lead that included three-straight touchdowns to open the game.

“I expect greatness for this team, the way we work, the way we play for each other, the effort, the tenacity that we play with, I expect good things,” Murray said. “I’m not going to say we came out here trying to make a statement, but try to come out here, get a win at home, and continue to do that.”

The Cardinals took advantage of some injuries on the Rams offensive line, totaling 12 tackles for loss as a team and five sacks, three of which were by Dennis Gardeck, who had four tackles for loss total and forced the only turnover of the game for Los Angeles with a strip sack on Matthew Stafford in the fourth quarter. Budda Baker led the defense with eight tackles, including two big tackles for loss.

After his career game, Gardeck said he was driven by the fact the Cardinals had not beaten the Rams at home since way back on Nov. 11, 2014.

“That gave me extra motivation throughout the week to be dialed in Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,” Gardeck said. “It did mean something to play a division opponent that’s had your number at home, so to go out and do it was fun.”

Here were some of the players’ reactions to the game on social media: