Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was good but not great during his team’s 31-19 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The first two weeks of the 2021 NFL campaign went incredibly well for the starting quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals. Kyler Murray’s performance in week three, however, was solid but not spectacular.
In spite of Murray’s mediocre outing, the Cards managed to remain undefeated after a 31-19 victory over the winless Jacksonville Jaguars. A loss to the lowly Jags would’ve been a disaster, but Murray and his Arizona teammates played just well enough in Florida to prevent that from happening.
Murray was absolutely outstanding for the Redbirds during the first two matchups of the season. The MVP candidate completed 73.5 percent of his passes for 689 yards and seven touchdown tosses during the first couple of contests, and also added 51 yards and another two scores on the ground. Many were expecting Murray to keep the momentum going this past weekend, but the 5-foot-10, 207-pounder’s numbers were somewhat less impressive against Jacksonville.
Arizona Cardinals signal-caller comes down to earth a bit in Week 3
In all fairness, Murray did rack up 316 passing yards versus the Jaguars defensive unit. The Texas native also registered a stellar 82.4 completion percentage, finding the mark on an amazing 28 out of his 34 pass attempts on the day. Murray also recorded a touchdown on the ground in the opening quarter, his third in three games.
Those gaudy statistics were overshadowed a bit by the fact that Murray failed to register a single score through the air. There was another ill-advised interception from the diminutive passer as well, Murray’s fourth in three weeks.
Wide receivers A.J. Green and Christian Kirk certainly benefited from Murray’s strong arm throughout the afternoon. Green showed there’s still some juice left in his 33-year-old legs by hauling in five passes from Murray for 112 yards. Kirk continued his outstanding 2021 campaign by tallying seven receptions and 104 receiving yards for the Cards offense.
Murray was less phenomenal against Jacksonville than he was in Arizona’s wins over the Tennessee Titans and the Minnesota Vikings. But when all was said and done, his lack of passing touchdowns (along with the boneheaded pick) really didn’t matter. Murray did enough for his squad to win, and the Cardinals are out to their first 3-0 start since 2015.