GRADES: Cardinals Underperform in Another Victory

Quarterback - C

This grade hurts to give out as Murray was playing a boring, but nearly unimpeachable game in the first half. There were some issues with a stagnant offense that can be discussed in other articles, but for the part of the quarterback Murray was doing his job.

He led a great drive to open the second half that was capped with a James Conner touchdown giving the Cardinals a dominant 27-3 lead that should have allowed the team to cruise to an easy, low-stress home opening win.

Things fell apart on the next drive when Murray, who just two plays earlier had demonstrated some of the remarkable elusivity that makes him a special athlete, chunked up a ball that should have been thrown out of bounds but ended up in the hands of the Panthers. There was a marked shift of momentum from this point forward and Carolina was able to get within a score of winning the whole contest.

Offensive Line - C+

The offensive line looked to show a very marginal improvement in pass protection this week while simultaneously looking even worse in run blocking than their last showing in New Orleans.

The right side of the line, Isaiah Adams and Jonah Williams, looked particularly rough for the second week in a row with Williams getting blown up by his man several times leading to pressure on Murray that had him scrambling in the backfield.

Running Back - B-

For the second week in a row the vaunted Cardinals rushing attack looked flaccid.

Conner, who is coming off back to back 1,000+ yard rushing seasons in the Drew Petzing offense finished the day with 34 rushing yards on 11 carries barely edging out Murray to be the game's leading rusher.

A lot of the blame for this particular performance lies with the offensive line which did a terrible job opening up holes for Conner and Benson.

Both running backs made some important contributions in the passing game that get their grade up in the B's.

Tight End - A

If anything feels certain this year for the Cardinals it is that Trey McBride will continue to be great week in and week out. He did not disappoint on Sunday.

Once again, McBride finished the afternoon as the team's leading receiver with six receptions for 78 yards. With Tip Reiman out for the week, Elijah Higgins stepped up and also contributed a few key catches and ended as the second leading receiver with 45 yards on two catches.

The absence of Reiman was noted in the running game, but overall the tight end group did a great job and were the highlight of the offense.

Wide Receiver - C-

The former No. 4 overall pick finishing this game with only 2 receptions for 27 yards is tantamount to criminal activity. There is an open question about who the perpetrator is here; Petzing, Murray, or Marvin Harrison, Jr. himself.

A clean ball went straight into Harrison, Jr.'s hand in the first quarter but still resulted in a drop. Just an example of the frustrating up and down performances Cardinals fans have seen from him in his professional tenure so far.

What is clear is that the Petzing offense holds almost no value in the wide receiver position as for the second week no other receiver on the team even surpassed two targets. Michael Wilson saw the ball come his way only two times and, to his credit, he caught the only passing touchdown of the day on his single reception.

Defense

Defensive Line - B+

Yet again, the defensive line did not play a flashy game but at the end of the day they did their job rather well.

They started blindingly hot with a forced fumble from Josh Sweat leading to a Zaven Collins touchdown on the first drive of the game. On the next defensive drive a batted pass led to a Baron Browning interception that gave the Cardinals great field position and an early 10 point lead.

The line got much quieter from that point forward, but that seemed like a philosophical switch from aggression to containment that, while boring, was effective. The Panthers leading rusher, Chuba Hubbard, finished the game with only 38 yards and was not a major contributor throughout.

Playing soft contains on Young kept him in the pocket and didn't allow him to become a rushing threat, forcing him to throw on the Cardinals, which he did effectively but that is not the fault of this position group. They did the job given to them and they did it rather well.

Would be very wrong to not mention the game-sealing sack from Calais Campbell. Nice to have the old man back in the building.

Linebacker - C-

The middle of the field was open for the Panthers the entire second half and led to several frustrating sustained drives on late downs. Hunter Renfrow and Tommy Tremble seemingly had their way with the linebackers.

The offense would have had at least two more chances to put the game away convincingly if the linebackers could have gotten stops on third and fourth down.

Secondary - B-

As far as play goes, the Cardinals' secondary seemed to be doing fine for the majority of the day, it was injuries that completely decimated this group.

Melton was the first to go down with a seeming knee injury but was followed in the second half by stud slot corner Garrett Williams also going down in obvious pain clutching his knee. Losing both players for any significant time would be a major blow to this young, thin cornerback room.

Rookie Denzel Burke had to come into the game in reserve duty and his play was up and down, but did show off some decent coverage at times and overall was not a complete liability. Will Johnson added onto his stellar Week One performance with good play across the board this Sunday.

Budda Baker did not have his most impressive game, but even down games are still pretty good for the All-Pro. Dadrion Taylor-Demerson saw the field a lot in three safety sets and even looked to fill in on some slot corner duties after Williams went down.

The future is scary, but in this game the secondary looked decent considering the adversity it went through from the Melton injury forward.

Special Teams - A

The Cardinals special teams looked more like the Jeff Rodgers-coached unit fans have become accustomed to over the past few years.

Chad Ryland hit on both field goal attempts and Blake Gillikin, dealing with an injury, still managed a very impressive punt average of 61.5 yards.

Greg Dortch had a great 29 yard punt return that gifted his offense with great field position.

TEAM GPA - 2.71

The best that can be said after another lackluster performance is this: last year's version of the Cardinals would have surrendered in the second half and lost this game.

They are not performing up to snuff, and deserve to be called out for that, but this version of the Arizona Cardinals does fight harder and that mindset will only help them grow as the season continues.