Ten penalties, fifteen yards rushing for Kyler Murray and a host of mental mistakes. It only took four days but the Cardinals have come back to earth.
Riding the Hail Mary win over the Bills on Sunday, Arizona traveled to Seattle for a Thursday night game, and a chance to live up to the relentless, over-the-top, crazy hype that most of the national media bestowed on Murray and the Cardinals over the previous four days.
There is not much talk today. The Cardinals underperformed Thursday and lost to the Seahawks 28-21, falling to 6-4 on the year. Seattle is now 7-3.
Despite the lackluster play and the big 2nd half taunting penalty by Dre Kirkpatrick, the Cardinals still had the ball in the final seconds and had a chance to duplicate the magic from the Bills game on Sunday. They were driving for the tying or possibly the winning score (if the gambling Kliff Kingsbury was thinking two-point conversion).
Everyone will always remember the incredible catch Deandre Hopkins made Sunday against the Bills to win that game, but you have to credit Murray for escaping what would have been a game-ending sack.
Again, that was a long four days ago. The Seahawks aren’t the Bills. Thursday isn’t Sunday. Murray didn’t escape. He was sacked on 4th down and the Seahawks celebrated and got their revenge on the Big Red.
Kingsbury said after the game that the ten penalties were “unacceptable”. He was correct in that assessment, however most of the time, undisciplined play falls on the head coach. Kingsbury has always been accountable, so I’m assuming he’s including himself in that “unacceptable” aspect of this game.
As for Murray’s fifteen rushing yards, maybe it was just a snapshot speed bump. Or maybe Seattle figured out how to stop what has been somewhat unstoppable up to this point. If the latter is the case, it was on full display for every team in the league to see. If the latter is the case, the national media talk will cease altogether. Time will tell.
