The Arizona Cardinals saw a shaky start from their No. 1 draft pick Kyler Murray in Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions. However, he would overcome the early rookie jitters to rally his team back in the fourth quarter. A tie was the outcome, despite his team being down as much as 18 points.
The NFL’s top pick in this past April’s draft ended up recording 308 yards and two touchdowns on 29-for-54 passing. According to ESPN, Cardinals head coach Cliff Kingsbury praised Murray’s fourth-quarter rally. “Being down 18 in your first start, finding a way to get back, I mean that’s impressive, so I was really proud of his effort,” Kingsbury said.
In his first three quarters of action, Murray looked as if rookie jitters were affecting his game. He completed just 9-of-25 passes for 70 yards and was picked off once. However, coach Kingsbury blamed himself for the way the offense went early on, saying he was “trying to be too cute, over creative” with the plays.
The rookie’s performance put his name in the history books with former quarterback Jake Plummer. ESPN Stats & Information research indicates that Murray and Plummer are the only rookie quarterbacks in Cardinals history to throw for 300 yards and two touchdowns since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.
It was the fourth quarter which saw Murray shake off his poor performance for the first three-quarters of the game. He found David Johnson on a 27-yard touchdown strike making it 24-16. After a defensive stop, Murray guided the Cardinals on a nine-play, 60-yard drive. The end result was a four-yard TD pass to veteran Larry Fitzgerald. Murray connected with Christian Kirk on the two-point conversion and it was tied up with 43 seconds to go in regulation.
The game would head in overtime where both the Cardinals and Lions came up with field goals to make it 27-27. Neither team was able to figure out a way to score after that and it would remain the final score giving the league’s top pick an interesting storybook ending. Based on that first performance, Kyler Murray has plenty more highlight stories to create in his career.
Next up for Murray and the Cardinals, a 1 p.m. Eastern Time matchup against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, September 15. On the opposing side will be a quarterback Murray may be looking to emulate, as Lamar Jackson had a brilliant Week 1 performance with 324 yards and five touchdown passes in a 59-10 beatdown of the Miami Dolphins.
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