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Arizona Cardinals earn key win

Arizona Cardinals earn key win

The Arizona Cardinals scored another victory on the heels of their replacement kicker, Chad Ryland. This is the first consecutive win of the season and it produced some great performances, but also some particularly disappointing ones.

One thing is clear: even with this win, it’s still hard to really know what the identity of this team is; The good news, though, is that being .500 without thinking about it isn’t too shabby, and there’s room for tremendous growth.

What this team’s ceiling is for the season as a whole is still up in the air, but let’s focus and assess how the position groups performed today in Miami.

Quarterback – A-

kyler murray

October 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) throws the football against the Miami Dolphins during the second quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory credits: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Kyler Murray had a great game after a poor opening drive with consecutive batted passes.

Stats: 26/36, 307 yards, 2 TDs

His performance was made even more impressive by the poor performance of his offensive line, which seemed to be actively trying to sabotage his success. His ability to get himself out of the pockets is one of the few reasons the stat line doesn’t look much worse for that position group.

Murray started to come alive more in the second half and really started taking it to his favorite ball catchers, Trey McBride and Marvin Harrision, Jr. to swing. Unfortunately, there were no running heroes this week, but Murray looked good climbing the pocket and did his best to operate within it, even if the porous offensive line didn’t always allow it.

Maybe not the caliber of that Rams performance, hard to beat a perfect game, but a really solid performance from the growing quarterback who took his time and never seemed to get worn down in this game.

Offensive Line – C

hjalte froholdt

Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Hjalte Froholdt (72) celebrates a stop to end the first half by the defense as they play the Los Angeles Rams on September 15, 2024 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

For an offensive line that hadn’t given up a sack in two weeks, the expectation was that they would continue to play at a high level. Unfortunately, this is not the case today.

They haven’t given up a significant number of sacks, but that’s almost entirely due to Murray’s ability to single-handedly evade pass rushers. The Dolphins defensive front was under heavy pressure for most of the afternoon, putting pressure on Murray, leading to mistakes and stalled drives.

Paris Johnson Jr. has been good on penalties so far this year, but committed two uncharacteristic penalties in this outing, nearly robbing his team of a chance to win in the fourth quarter. Almost.

Disappointing decline for one of the offense’s shining acts so far in 2024.

Running back – B-

James Conner is coming off a huge game on Monday night in which he covered the ground for over 100 yards and his fighting spirit almost single-handedly lifted his team to victory.

The Dolphins obviously watched the tape a lot and did a great job of bottling up Conner for most of the game and he only managed 53 yards on 20 carries. Still, his fourth-quarter touchdown gave the Cardinals life and that’s hard to quantify.

Rookie Trey Benson is still largely a non-factor in the run game, but did have one Conner-like carry for 10 yards and first down.

Tight end – A

trey mcbrid

Trey McBride (85) of the Arizona Cardinals celebrates during their 17-15 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on October 21, 2024. / Joe Rondone / The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Trey McBride is HIM. It’s that simple.

Stats: 9 receptions, 124 yards, long of 37 yards

One more game as the leading receiver for his team and it all seems to be coming easy for him. His ability to open up and consistently knock down difficult shots is second to none and he is easily establishing himself as one of the best players in the league.

Wide receiver – A

marvin harrison jr

October 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (18) makes a catch against Miami Dolphins safety Jevon Holland (8) during the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory credits: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Marvin Harrison Jr. – the No. 4 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft – showed up to play today and showed what kind of player everyone expected him to be.

Instead of being ignored after the first quarter, Harrison Jr. seven targets and knocked down six to set up a 111-yard play with another sweet touchdown in the corner of the end zone to go with it.

Outside of Harrison Jr. Michael Wilson was consistent as he usually is and Greg Dortch even showed up with a key third down conversion in the third quarter.

Defensive line – D

Dante Stills

September 29, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Dante Stills (55) reacts in the second half against the Washington Commanders at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory credits: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images / Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images

The Cardinals defensive line had perhaps their best game of the season six days ago on Monday Night Football, putting pressure on Justin Herbert and shutting down the Chargers run game.

It was a very different story this Sunday in Miami, when the defensive line seemed to lose that identity completely and surrendered a monster game to De’Von Achane, who was having his way with this team.

That old enemy, Raheem Mostert, showed up early in the fourth quarter to give his team a critical score.

Tua Tagovailoa returned after several weeks on the bench due to a concussion, but faced nothing close to serious pressure from the Cardinals defensive line, the only sack coming from Dante Stills.

Linebackers – B-

kyzir white

Arizona Cardinals Kyzir White (7) talks with teammate Budda Baker (3) during training camp at State Farm Stadium on August 6, 2024 in Glendale, Ariz. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s been a solid year for the linebacker group so far, but today wasn’t their best moment.

It wasn’t even that the linebackers played particularly poorly, but they didn’t impact the game as much as in the past and didn’t clean up the defensive line’s miscues at the same rate as usual.

Kyzir White had a chance for an interception that hit his fingertips, but he can’t be judged too highly on what would have been a challenging catch for a professional pass catcher.

Mack Wilson tried to be around the ball but didn’t have the same impact as usual and Dennis Gardeck’s absence was noticeable as there was virtually no pressure on the edge all afternoon.

Secondary – C

Buddha baker

September 29, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) against the Washington Commanders at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory credits: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

What can one actually say here? Coming in after a long absence, Tagovailoa was determined to prove himself, and he did just that.

The Cardinals were missing their nominal CB1 in Sean Murphy-Bunting and rookie Max Melton faced a true baptism of fire and the Dolphins QB kept looking his way again and again.

Melton still had some decent moments, like a key tackle for a loss, but he showed his rookie colors and the best that could be said about the afternoon is that he got up every time he was knocked down.

The real star performer of the group could be none other than Budda Baker who truly played like a man with his life on the line. Baker played with reckless abandon, flying around the field and lighting up almost everyone on the Dolphins roster at times (including a big hit and some yapping with Tyreek Hill early in the first quarter).

Chad Ryland. MVP.

The fill-in kicker for an injured Matt Prater created magic again with his third game-winning kick of the season.

Another special teams shout out to Dortch for racing down the field with a punt and pushing the ball out of the end zone, giving the Dolphins bad position on their own 4-yard line. Playing heads up.