Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals couldn’t have predicted how difficult their game against the Seattle Seahawks would be, especially since they had won four straight games and averaged 29.3 points over their last three.
But the Seahawks’ defense, led by first-year coach Mike Macdonald, wasn’t impressed with those numbers.
Murray was sacked five times and threw a 69-yard interception returned for a touchdown to Seahawks safety Coby Bryant in the third quarter. Defensive tackle Leonard Williams caused major problems for Murray and the Arizona offensive line, finishing with 2 1/2 sacks, four quarterback hits, three tackles for loss, and one pass deflection. The Seahawks won 16-6, tying the Cardinals (6-5) for the top spot in the NFC West.
Arizona, which had been averaging 149.4 rushing yards per game, couldn’t get the running game going. The Cardinals finished with just 49 yards on 14 carries, including only 8 yards from starting running back James Conner on seven carries. This left Murray even more vulnerable to Williams’ pressure.
“He’s a good player. I mean, we knew he’s a good player coming in,” said Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon. “He’s a premium player for a reason. Hats off to him, he’s always been a good player. We’ve got to look at that — how can we adjust and handle him a little bit better? Because I thought he wrecked the game.”
Arizona’s 6 points were their lowest scoring total of the season.
“We didn’t stay on the field. We just didn’t make it happen,” Murray said. “It was frustrating day, frustrating day offensively, especially the way we’ve been playing, to come out here and kind of lay an egg and just really get physically dominated in a sense. Like I said, credit to them.”
Murray finished the game completing 24 of 37 passes for 285 yards, but the interception by Bryant overshadowed those numbers. He threw the pass while under pressure from Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
“I feel like if I don’t do that, then we’re in the game four quarters. Because that’s the way it was trending,” Murray said. “The defense is battling their (butt) off, did everything that we needed for them to do to win the game. Offensively, we got to be better. We didn’t hold up our end of the bargain.”
In the second quarter, a touchdown catch by Michael Wilson was called back due to a holding penalty on left tackle Paris Johnson Jr.
“There’s a lot of things that feel like the flow of the game just wasn’t in our favor,” Wilson said. “And some games go like that, and then we didn’t execute enough to make up for the game sort of not going our way.”
