For most of the first three quarters on Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals were in control, largely thanks to strong play from quarterback Kyler Murray.
But the Minnesota Vikings made a comeback, scoring 17 points in their final three possessions to win 23-22. Some of the blame for this collapse falls on Murray.
With the loss, Arizona (6-6) dropped to second place in the NFC West, one game behind Seattle. They will face the Seahawks at home next week.
Murray threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison Jr., putting the Cardinals ahead 19-6 with 4:37 left in the third quarter. At that point, Murray had completed 24 of 32 passes for 206 yards, a touchdown, and no interceptions, plus five carries for 40 yards.
However, the focus shifted to Murray’s performance in the fourth quarter, where he completed 6 of 12 passes for 51 yards and two interceptions, leading to a passer rating of 21.9. After the Vikings matched Harrison’s touchdown with one of their own, the Cardinals tried to run some clock and add more points. Instead, just four plays later, Murray gave the ball back to Minnesota.
In the second play of the fourth quarter, Murray was forced out of the pocket and threw a desperation pass toward the sideline. It was intercepted by Byron Murphy Jr. at the Vikings’ 32-yard line.
“I was trying to throw the ball away, so that’s on me,” said Murray, who had already led four drives that stalled in the red zone during the first three quarters.
Minnesota turned the interception into a field goal, cutting Arizona’s lead to 19-16 with 11:08 remaining.
Murray then led the Cardinals on a 66-yard drive over 16 plays, burning 7:48 off the clock. But after reaching the Minnesota 5-yard line, Murray was called for intentional grounding, part of 10 penalties against the Cardinals totaling 96 yards, which pushed them out of the red zone. Chad Ryland’s fifth field goal of the day gave Arizona a 22-16 lead with 3:20 left to play.
The Vikings responded with a nine-play, 70-yard drive, ending in a touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to Aaron Jones. The extra point gave the Vikings their first lead of the game. They left 1:13 on the clock, giving the Cardinals — with all three timeouts — a chance to drive into field goal range.
However, Murray’s struggles continued in the final minutes. On the second play of the drive, Minnesota’s Jonathan Greenard knocked the ball out of Murray’s hands in the backfield. Murray fell on it, but the play resulted in an 8-yard loss, the Vikings’ first sack of the game. On third-and-13, Murray ran for 3 yards but burned 8 seconds and failed to get out of bounds, as Greenard chased him down.
“It just so happened that he cut back, and I was like, ‘Oh, perfect,’” Greenard said.
On fourth down, Murray tried to throw to Harrison on the right sideline, but Minnesota’s Shaq Griffin intercepted the pass, sealing the win for the Vikings. Last week, Arizona’s four-game winning streak ended in a 16-6 loss to Seattle, where Murray had a pick-6.
“I’m sure he’ll want some plays back, but I thought he made plays with his legs, the touchdown pass, a couple conversions in there,” said coach Jonathan Gannon. “I thought he played well enough to win.”
