Kyler Murray Was Awful, Was It As Bad As It Looked?

Kyler Murray had a very rough go in his next preseason game as a master, departing the game down 26–finishing the night with adverse yardage. Murray wasn’t good — but had been everything as bad as it seemed, or is there some reason for hope?
Kyler Murray had a rough Thursday night, along with the web is freaking out. It all started out so well this past week. Murray played only one show in his first game as a pro, finishing his first six passes and contributing his Arizona Cardinals to the edge of scoring position before exiting.
Murray had a much worse outing Thursday against the Oakland Raiders. He played much of their first halfand by the time he left, Murray along with the Cards trailed the Raiders 26 to zip.
And the internet, naturally, melted.
Let us start with the damage. There is a great deal of it.
Murray played drives from the Raiders. These drives obtained -10, and 13, -6, -10 yards. Absolutely, Murray played most of the first half, leaving the game almost exactly halfway through the next quarter. The Cardinals had just 8 minutes and 21 minutes of possession in four possessions. In 15 plays that were offensive, they combined to lose 13 yards.
Murray ran for 3 yards, a built run on his first play from scrimmage. He finished just 3 of 8 passes for only 12 yards, a measly 1.5 yards per attempt. Murray had a 45.8 quarterback speed for the day. He had three penalties himself — a delay of game and also two false starts — and was sacked twice. One of these was his final play of the day, an 11-yard sofa in the end zone for a safety that ended his night. After he left the game, the Cardinals were trailing 26–0.
At the center of the next quarter –into the RAIDERS.
Calling Murray’s consequences ugly is a insult to the word ugly. But was it all as bad as it seemed?
Let us dig a bit deeper into the conditions. There’s some good and some awful. The poor? Murray played with all his time with David Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald on the field, so it is not like he didn’t have any talent around him. Fitz and DJ shared three goals. They grabbed one of them lost three yards. Welp. Johnson rushed four times for six yards. Lots of digits to go around for everybody.
The Cardinals had just one first down at Murray’s time on the field. It came out of a defensive penalty, illegal hands to the facearea. Remember how Murray left the game down 26–0? On the next play the Cards conducted, copy QB Brett Hundley threw a touchdown. Arizona outscored Oakland 26–7 without Murray.
But there was really a little maybe not in Murray’s prefer also. The run game couldn’t get anything going, along with the offensive line place in a miserable performance. Oakland blitzed Murray early and frequently, hoping to force the newcomer into rapid decisions, and he was throwing off his back foot all game.
The four drives that were Murray of arizona began to 25 the 10, 24, along with line. He faced a 3rd and 11, both 3rd and 12, 3rd and 13, both 3rd and 17, as well as 3rd and 25 on various forces. That’s a good deal of dreadful field places and disadvantageous scenarios for any outsider to maintain, let alone one as green as Murray. The 1 time Murray faced a 3rd and short, David Johnson ripped off a huge run for a first down… and got called back on a holding penalty. The Cardinals simply couldn’t catch any rhythm.
The simple truth is that any quarterback would have fought in Murray’s location. The Arizona offensive line was awful, and Murray had a guy or two in his face over minutes after the snap pretty much every single play. He performed every snap together with his back against his own goal line and’d almost zero plays at a place where the crime had an advantage. He did not play per se, however quarterbacks could have.
Murray’s match wasn’t an indictment on his height or his armhis decisions, nor his future. If anything, it might have been an indictment of Kliff Kingsbury’s offense — though that struggles to hold up if the Cardinals scored 26 points later Murray left. Possibly the Raiders defense is simply that good. Perhaps it was just four bad drives.
More probable than anything else is the fact that Kingsbury is likely keeping things fairly vanilla from the preseason. Why roll out your very best plays once the games don’t matter and give your winning script? There is no reason to run Murray and place him at risk with nothing on the line.
Murray wasn’t great Thursday night but that he wasn’t bad either. He just never had much of a chance to start with. It’s far too soon to draw some conclusions.
Murray stays the significant Rookie of the Year preferred, +165 at Bovada. The Cardinals are +600 to make the match, or +10000 to win the Super Bowl, in case you are feeling lucky. If you are a bit more bearish on Arizona’s chances, they’re +750 to finish with the worst record in the NFL. Happy betting.