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Josh Weinfuss
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Kyler Murray knows the Arizona Cardinals are playing with fire by not being able to close out games the way they want to.
A week after surviving a late-game push by New Orleans Saints, it happened again during the Cardinals’ home opener against the Carolina Panthers.
After jumping out to a 27-3 lead early in the third quarter thanks to a dominating defense and Murray orchestrating an offense to do whatever it pleased in the middle portion of the game, Arizona gave up 19 unanswered points in the second half but held off a Panthers comeback attempt thanks to a fourth-down sack in the final minute by Calais Campbell to win 27-22 on Sunday at State Farm Stadium.
With a Week 3 trip to face NFC West rivals the San Francisco 49ers coming up next weekend, Murray said improvements are needed — and soon.
“We could be 0-2, but we’re 2-0 with this issue,” Murray said. “I don’t want to make it a thing, but at the same time, yeah, we got to be better. We got to finish games. That’s the bottom line because it didn’t bite us in the ass today. Didn’t bite us in the ass last week, but you keep playing around, you get bit, so we got to be better.”
A combination of offensive miscommunications, a botched onside kick recovery, an interception and a slew of late-game penalties that kept Carolina’s hopes alive contributed to Arizona not being able to close out the game how it wanted.
After last week’s win in New Orleans, Murray said he’d like to finish games with the ball in Arizona’s hands. Technically, the Cardinals did that, getting the ball back after Campbell’s sack with 26 seconds left before Murray took a knee.
However, getting to that final kneel-down wasn’t easy.
After Arizona scored a touchdown with four seconds left in the first half and then marched the opening kickoff of the third quarter down for another TD, it was in control with a 24-point lead. But the Panthers responded in the third with a touchdown pass from Bryce Young to Hunter Renfrow to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 27-9.
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On the next series, Murray dazzled with a 30-yard scramble, evading three tackles and creating an instant highlight. Three plays later, however, he threw an interception while trying to toss the ball away, which the Panthers turned into another touchdown to pull within 27-15. Following a Cardinals punt, the Panthers scored again, making it 27-22.
Then Carolina declared an onside kick and was able to recover at its own 49 after the ball went off a member of Arizona’s return team.
Arizona’s defense appeared to regain its early-game dominance when linebacker Zaven Collins strip-sacked Young and rookie linebacker Jordan Burch recovered with 1:32 left in the game. However, a penalty on rookie cornerback Denzel Burke negated the play, giving the ball back to the Panthers.
What then ensued kept Carolina alive to the end.
A questionable roughing-the-passer penalty on Arizona edge rusher Josh Sweat turned what would have been a third-and-17 into a first down with 54 seconds left. Then, at 43 seconds, Arizona defensive lineman Dante Stills was flagged for being offside, turning a fourth-and-20 into a third-and-15 and giving the Panthers another down of hope.
“I don’t know how many penalties that was in a row, yeah, it was kind of a s— show to be honest,” Murray said. “But I’m just glad we got a win.”
Two plays later, Campbell sealed it.
“It was a lot of different factors,” defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson said. “Just discipline with technique and stuff like that.
“And just the flags. That’s another thing. We got to play within the rules there. We can’t be giving up penalties when we’re supposed to go off the field and stuff like that.”
It was “just sloppy ball,” wide receiver Michael Wilson said. And, he added, the Cardinals were not controlling what they could control.
Coach Jonathan Gannon took responsibility for the Cardinals’ late-game slips, saying at his postgame news conference that he needed to do better.
Sunday wouldn’t have gone the way it did if Arizona were able to get off the field on fourth down more, Gannon said.
“I got to coach us better to understand what’s going on in the game and what calls we need to execute to put games away,” he said. “So, the turning point to me was we just really never got that stop that we needed or to keep points off the board to let our offense go out there and really put the game away. And it’s not the players at all. They fought their butt off. It’s completely on me.”
Confronting their issues late in games will be easier this week at 2-0 than it would be at 0-2, Tomlinson said.
Arizona already takes time in practice to mock situations at the end of games and at the end of halves, and it dedicates an entire day to working on four-minute mechanics.
Wilson knew standing in front of his locker after the win that one of the focuses this week will be finishing games better in the fourth quarter.
“I think we need a little bit more emphasis on it because it’s kind of bitten us in the tail two weeks in a row,” Wilson said.
“But I think we can calm the storm by just executing a little bit better.”
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