Stock Report: Who Impressed/Disappointed in Cardinals Loss vs 49ers

The first, and frankly most critical area of the team that I’ll mention is the offense at large. I use the term “Murray-led” because as the distributor, he has to be held accountable for his offense’s struggles.

Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing deserves blame himself, but as the one who actually goes out onto the field, Murray is the one actually leading the offense.

Murray averaged just 4.5 yards per passing attempt against the Niners, a number that simply won’t cut it, especially when a backup in Mac Jones averaged 6.9 yards per attempt for San Francisco.

The Arizona quarterback threw for 159 total yards, more than 100 fewer than Jones, and while he did throw a touchdown, that was the only TD the Cardinals managed to score all game long. His 22-for-35 accuracy wasn’t great either, as Murray struggled at times to complete passes.

There were moments where Murray did look composed, but those were few and far between, as he frequently found himself making hurried decisions when he didn’t have to, but also holding onto the ball for far too long in some instances.

This combination has haunted Murray for years, and it was on full display here. In the fourth quarter, Murray did lead the Cardinals down the field to tie the game at 13, but with an opportunity to bury the 49ers, he and his offense couldn’t execute.

The offense’s failures aren’t solely on Murray — that would be unfair — but as the quarterback, he’s front and center after a performance like the one seen on Sunday afternoon. There’s a lot more that went into Arizona’s loss, but first and foremost, Murray needed to be better leading the offense.

Stock up: Run defense

There wasn’t a better facet of Arizona’s game than its rush prevention against the 49ers.

In 60 minutes of football, the Cardinals allowed just 77 yards on the ground, with San Francisco averaging 3.7 yards per rush. Even with an All-Pro back in Christian McCaffrey, the Niners couldn’t seem to run the ball effectively, and that played into the Cardinals’ favor in a few major situations.

The 49ers went just 2 of 10 on third down, with the lack of a running game being a prime reason why. The defensive front had eight QB hits, three tackles for loss and one sack to round out its showing against San Francisco, and while Jones had a productive day, the front four wreaked havoc on the rushing game all afternoon long.

Josh Sweat, Dalvin Tomlinson and Mack Wilson Sr. are key names to mention, but it was a total team effort in what certainly was the most impressive area of Arizona’s game on Sunday.

Stock down: Receivers’ ability to haul in passes

I did put a lot of the blame on Murray, but an almost equal amount of scrutiny should be put on how Arizona’s receivers were able to help out their quarterback against the 49ers.

While an official total of “drops” is always subjective, there were a number of passes that Cardinals receivers should have caught. Two of them stood out, one being a Marvin Harrison Jr. target in the third quarter that could’ve resulted in a touchdown if he would’ve been able to haul in the pass in stride.

A second touchdown was left on the table on the same drive when Emari Demercado dropped a screen pass where no San Francisco defender stood between him and the end zone. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the pass slipped through his fingers and fell incomplete, forcing a field goal instead of a touchdown.

These were the two most egregious instances, but at several points throughout the game, Arizona’s receivers couldn’t make the plays they needed to. Even on the last offensive drive of the game, Zay Jones could’ve come down with the ball on third down to seal the game, but he allowed his defender to make a play on a ball he could’ve certainly caught.

With the issues I already mentioned with Murray, coupled with the receiving corps not picking up the slack, the result was a largely inept offensive performance. Just 13 points were scored on the offensive side of the ball for Arizona, and if the receivers executed, that number could’ve been a lot higher.

Stock up: Entertainment factor late in games

It was hard to find another concrete aspect of the Cardinals’ performance on Sunday that warranted its stock to go up, but I’ll try to speak some optimism into existence here.

For as frustrating as the first three weeks have been, the Cardinals have competed in all three games. In the two wins to begin the season, Arizona went down to the wire and was able to secure victories.

While the Cardinals weren’t able to defeat the 49ers, they were in it until the final moment, even given how poorly they played at times.

When San Francisco scored the first touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals immediately responded with a touchdown of their own. When the defense needed to pick up a big play when the 49ers were deep in their territory, it was able to generate a safety on a holding call in the end zone.

I understand that Arizona didn’t play as well as it should’ve, but if it had been so bad, you would figure that it would’ve been beaten badly by now. That hasn’t been the case, and there was a real possibility the Cardinals walked out of San Francisco with a 3-0 record.

They didn’t, and that was largely because of the offensive issues we’ve discussed, but at the very least you have to appreciate that in three straight games, Arizona has competed and not let its shortcomings beat it early in the ballgame.

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