- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 747,900
- Reaction score
- 52
In his press conference to open the week, Jonathan Gannon was asked what he liked most about the Arizona Cardinals' first two games.
After all, for all the consternation surrounding this team — about their near-collapses and Marvin Harrison Jr.’s usage and the secondary injuries and on and on — they are still 2-0, one of just 10 teams with an unblemished record.
Without hesitation, Gannon pointed to the play of Kyler Murray.
“For how many plays we had on offense, the amount of explosives we had, that's a big-time thing,” Gannon said. “And it was not through the ground, it's through the pass game. So that's good. I think Kyler's playing extremely well.”
Through two weeks, the Cardinals have not had to lean much on the passing game thanks to their early leads. But when they have, Murray has been effective. He ranks eighth in passer rating and ninth in expected points added per dropback.
From the film of their Week 2 win over the Carolina Panthers, it’s easy to see why, as Murray excelled in three key areas.
Throughout the afternoon, Murray made big-time throw after big-time throw. Encouragingly, they almost all came from inside the pocket, which is not typically where he has done his best work.
There wasn’t just one type of pass on which Murray excelled.
He made plays stepping into the pocket, like on a second-quarter throw to Trey McBride for a first down. He layered a perfect ball to Marvin Harrison Jr. on a comeback route, only for Harrison to drop it. He ripped a bullet pass into a tight window to Greg Dortch in the second half to turn a third-and-10 into a fourth-and-1 that the Cardinals converted en route to a touchdown.
Perhaps the most encouraging of those plays came on the final clip here.
Murray recognized pre-snap that the Panthers were bringing a blitz with linebacker Trevin Wallace, so he slid his protection to that side. That adjustment enabled the offensive line to keep Murray clean in the pocket, where he was able to wait for Harrison to come open on a crossing route for 15 yards. He then delivered yet another on-target throw into a tight window.
“I thought he played an unbelievable game of football, maybe minus one or two plays that I'm sure he'd like to have back,” said offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, likely referring to Murray’s fourth quarter interception.
Gannon said that Murray should have taken a sack on that play, rather than trying to throw the ball away, which led to him being hit as he threw.
There’s no doubting Murray’s ability to create when plays break down, as he did on one third-quarter dropback, when the Panthers surprised the Cardinals with a blitz up the middle. Trey Benson wasn’t able to pick up the rushing linebacker, and Murray had to use his legs to evade the sack and pick up 30 yards.
It was, as Gannon said, “an elite play” that can be “devastating” for an opposing defense. But given Murray’s historical strengths and weaknesses, it was just as encouraging to see his work on schedule, inside the pocket.
The fourth-quarter pass to Harrison wasn’t the only play on which Murray displayed strong pre-snap recognition.
With 9 seconds left in the first half and the ball at the Panthers 11-yard line, the Cardinals knew they had one chance for a shot to the end zone before settling for a field goal.
Initially, Gannon said, Murray’s first read here was not set to be Michael Wilson, who aligned in the slot to the left side.
But Murray saw a linebacker bracketing Harrison and a safety shading over the top of McBride. Meanwhile, Wilson was in one-on-one coverage against the slot cornerback. Plus, Wilson was running an in-breaking route, while the cornerback was playing with outside leverage.
All of that made Murray look for Wilson, who ran a nice route to gain a step on the cornerback. Murray then finished the job by delivering a perfect pass in the back of the end zone.
“They give us the coverage that says, okay, that's where the ball is dictated to go to, there's your one-on-one,” Gannon said. “And the ball goes to Mike Wilson. I thought the quarterback did a really outstanding job of that yesterday.”
Against the Panthers, Murray showed a willingness to work away from his first option and calmly wait for another receiver to come open.
Per Fantasy Points Data, he only threw to his first read on 13 of 25 dropbacks — the third-lowest rate in the NFL in Week 2. Of course, the Cardinals would prefer Murray’s first read to come open. But if that doesn’t happen, they want him to take what’s available, as he did against the Panthers.
The two best examples came on the Cardinals' touchdown drive to open the second half.
On first-and-10 from the Cardinals' 40-yard line, Murray wanted to rip a ball to Harrison on a curl route. But at the last second, he saw the Panthers' middle linebacker dropping toward Harrison, so he instead tucked the ball, got his eyes up, and saw tight end Elijah Higgins coming open over the middle on a dig route. Despite left guard Evan Brown being pushed back into his feet, Murray was able to hit Higgins for an 18-yard gain.
On the very next play, the Cardinals faced first-and-15 after a penalty. This time, Murray had four receivers running vertical routes and likely wanted to go to either Harrison or McBride. The Panthers, though, combatted that playcall perfectly with a Cover-4 look.
Seeing that, Murray worked through his reads, where Higgins was again coming open, this time on a pivot route. Murray couldn’t wait for that route to develop, though, because he had pressure in his face after right guard Isaiah Adams was quickly beaten. So he rolled out of the pocket, buying time to find Higgins, who picked up 27 yards.
“He's getting later in the read and making some big plays for us in the passing game,” Petzing said. “Or pulling the ball down because it's not open, knowing how he can get out of the pocket and extend some plays.”
Murray’s willingness to work through his reads also helps explain why Harrison was targeted just five times on 25 pass attempts.
On the touchdown drive at the end of the first half, the Cardinals repeatedly tried to get Harrison open on downfield routes. But the Panthers played that drive conservatively, so Murray correctly checked the ball down on five consecutive plays prior to the touchdown. Those five plays enabled the Cardinals to gain 34 yards in just 42 seconds.
Quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork told The Arizona Republic during training camp that this has been a focus with Murray since the current coaching staff was hired before the 2023 season.
"It's just taking what the defense allows you," Woolfork said. "Chip away slowly. There's gonna be looks where we can't create explosives down the field but if they're deep, check the ball down, get the ball in James (Conner) and Trey (Benson)'s hands where they can get yards after catch."
Petzing echoed that sentiment this week, saying that Murray is now "more confident" working quickly through his progressions.
Murray displayed that all afternoon against the Panthers. Whenever they took Harrison away, shading his side of the field with extra defenders, Murray was able to beat them with his other receivers.
“Yeah, we still want to make sure that we do things to move (Harrison) around the formation and make him too difficult to defend,” Petzing said. “But we're also, as the play is called, not just going to — once the play is snapped — just throw the ball to him at all costs. I think that creates some issues.”
Against the Panthers, Murray avoided those issues, helping lead the Cardinals to a 2-0 start.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 3 key areas in which Kyler Murray excelled in Cardinals win
Continue reading...
After all, for all the consternation surrounding this team — about their near-collapses and Marvin Harrison Jr.’s usage and the secondary injuries and on and on — they are still 2-0, one of just 10 teams with an unblemished record.
Without hesitation, Gannon pointed to the play of Kyler Murray.
“For how many plays we had on offense, the amount of explosives we had, that's a big-time thing,” Gannon said. “And it was not through the ground, it's through the pass game. So that's good. I think Kyler's playing extremely well.”
Through two weeks, the Cardinals have not had to lean much on the passing game thanks to their early leads. But when they have, Murray has been effective. He ranks eighth in passer rating and ninth in expected points added per dropback.
From the film of their Week 2 win over the Carolina Panthers, it’s easy to see why, as Murray excelled in three key areas.
High-level accuracy
Throughout the afternoon, Murray made big-time throw after big-time throw. Encouragingly, they almost all came from inside the pocket, which is not typically where he has done his best work.
There wasn’t just one type of pass on which Murray excelled.
He made plays stepping into the pocket, like on a second-quarter throw to Trey McBride for a first down. He layered a perfect ball to Marvin Harrison Jr. on a comeback route, only for Harrison to drop it. He ripped a bullet pass into a tight window to Greg Dortch in the second half to turn a third-and-10 into a fourth-and-1 that the Cardinals converted en route to a touchdown.
Perhaps the most encouraging of those plays came on the final clip here.
Murray recognized pre-snap that the Panthers were bringing a blitz with linebacker Trevin Wallace, so he slid his protection to that side. That adjustment enabled the offensive line to keep Murray clean in the pocket, where he was able to wait for Harrison to come open on a crossing route for 15 yards. He then delivered yet another on-target throw into a tight window.
“I thought he played an unbelievable game of football, maybe minus one or two plays that I'm sure he'd like to have back,” said offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, likely referring to Murray’s fourth quarter interception.
Gannon said that Murray should have taken a sack on that play, rather than trying to throw the ball away, which led to him being hit as he threw.
There’s no doubting Murray’s ability to create when plays break down, as he did on one third-quarter dropback, when the Panthers surprised the Cardinals with a blitz up the middle. Trey Benson wasn’t able to pick up the rushing linebacker, and Murray had to use his legs to evade the sack and pick up 30 yards.
It was, as Gannon said, “an elite play” that can be “devastating” for an opposing defense. But given Murray’s historical strengths and weaknesses, it was just as encouraging to see his work on schedule, inside the pocket.
Pre-snap decision making
The fourth-quarter pass to Harrison wasn’t the only play on which Murray displayed strong pre-snap recognition.
With 9 seconds left in the first half and the ball at the Panthers 11-yard line, the Cardinals knew they had one chance for a shot to the end zone before settling for a field goal.
Initially, Gannon said, Murray’s first read here was not set to be Michael Wilson, who aligned in the slot to the left side.
But Murray saw a linebacker bracketing Harrison and a safety shading over the top of McBride. Meanwhile, Wilson was in one-on-one coverage against the slot cornerback. Plus, Wilson was running an in-breaking route, while the cornerback was playing with outside leverage.
All of that made Murray look for Wilson, who ran a nice route to gain a step on the cornerback. Murray then finished the job by delivering a perfect pass in the back of the end zone.
“They give us the coverage that says, okay, that's where the ball is dictated to go to, there's your one-on-one,” Gannon said. “And the ball goes to Mike Wilson. I thought the quarterback did a really outstanding job of that yesterday.”
Post-snap decision making
Against the Panthers, Murray showed a willingness to work away from his first option and calmly wait for another receiver to come open.
Per Fantasy Points Data, he only threw to his first read on 13 of 25 dropbacks — the third-lowest rate in the NFL in Week 2. Of course, the Cardinals would prefer Murray’s first read to come open. But if that doesn’t happen, they want him to take what’s available, as he did against the Panthers.
The two best examples came on the Cardinals' touchdown drive to open the second half.
On first-and-10 from the Cardinals' 40-yard line, Murray wanted to rip a ball to Harrison on a curl route. But at the last second, he saw the Panthers' middle linebacker dropping toward Harrison, so he instead tucked the ball, got his eyes up, and saw tight end Elijah Higgins coming open over the middle on a dig route. Despite left guard Evan Brown being pushed back into his feet, Murray was able to hit Higgins for an 18-yard gain.
On the very next play, the Cardinals faced first-and-15 after a penalty. This time, Murray had four receivers running vertical routes and likely wanted to go to either Harrison or McBride. The Panthers, though, combatted that playcall perfectly with a Cover-4 look.
Seeing that, Murray worked through his reads, where Higgins was again coming open, this time on a pivot route. Murray couldn’t wait for that route to develop, though, because he had pressure in his face after right guard Isaiah Adams was quickly beaten. So he rolled out of the pocket, buying time to find Higgins, who picked up 27 yards.
“He's getting later in the read and making some big plays for us in the passing game,” Petzing said. “Or pulling the ball down because it's not open, knowing how he can get out of the pocket and extend some plays.”
Murray’s willingness to work through his reads also helps explain why Harrison was targeted just five times on 25 pass attempts.
On the touchdown drive at the end of the first half, the Cardinals repeatedly tried to get Harrison open on downfield routes. But the Panthers played that drive conservatively, so Murray correctly checked the ball down on five consecutive plays prior to the touchdown. Those five plays enabled the Cardinals to gain 34 yards in just 42 seconds.
Quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork told The Arizona Republic during training camp that this has been a focus with Murray since the current coaching staff was hired before the 2023 season.
"It's just taking what the defense allows you," Woolfork said. "Chip away slowly. There's gonna be looks where we can't create explosives down the field but if they're deep, check the ball down, get the ball in James (Conner) and Trey (Benson)'s hands where they can get yards after catch."
Petzing echoed that sentiment this week, saying that Murray is now "more confident" working quickly through his progressions.
Murray displayed that all afternoon against the Panthers. Whenever they took Harrison away, shading his side of the field with extra defenders, Murray was able to beat them with his other receivers.
“Yeah, we still want to make sure that we do things to move (Harrison) around the formation and make him too difficult to defend,” Petzing said. “But we're also, as the play is called, not just going to — once the play is snapped — just throw the ball to him at all costs. I think that creates some issues.”
Against the Panthers, Murray avoided those issues, helping lead the Cardinals to a 2-0 start.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 3 key areas in which Kyler Murray excelled in Cardinals win
Continue reading...
