The Arizona Cardinals pulled out a surprisingly close 20-13 win on the road against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
Despite being added to the Cardinals’ injury report with an illness on Sunday, quarterback Kyler Murray threw for two touchdowns as Arizona survived despite Spencer Rattler and the Saints offense driving into the red zone for a potential game-tying touchdown as time expired.
Arizona Sports hosts gave their biggest takeaways from the Cardinals’ win:
Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta Mornings: You never have to apologize for winning a road game in the NFL, so hanging on for dear life in a 20-13 win over the lowly New Orleans Saints is something Cardinals fans would’ve signed up for.
It was a game of good and bad for Arizona. Kyler Murray played well. His 108.8 passer rating was the second-highest mark he’s had in six opening week starts. He threw two touchdown passes and his much talked-about second-year chemistry with Marvin Harrison Jr. was mostly a highlight. He used his legs effectively when needed and didn’t turn the ball over.
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Murray also didn’t do much to help his team ice the game away after the Cardinals built a 10-point lead with 9:31 to go in the third quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals had the ball deep in their own territory after a New Orleans punt and then a holding penalty on Hjalte Froholdt. On a first-and-13 on the 3-yard line, Murray missed a wide-open Harrison in the middle of the field that might’ve gone to the house. With a clean pocket (even from his own end zone), that’s a throw a seven-year veteran needs to make.
Elsewhere on offense, it wasn’t a banner game for the Arizona offensive line. Running room was hard to come by. Trey Benson had a 52-yard run in the third quarter, but most of that was individual effort once Benson got to the edge. Benson and James Conner combined for 56 yards on their other 19 combined carries. Murray was also under constant pressure as the Saints sacked him five times and harassed him regularly.
Defensively, there was a lot of bend but no breaking. The pass rush from the rebuilt (and heavily invested in) front seven was AWOL. Budda Baker was Budda Baker and made the huge play on the second-to-last play of the game, breaking up Spencer Rattler’s pass to Juwan Johnson in the end zone. Will Johnson stood out as a real star, even though he had an interception taken away on a soft illegal contact penalty on Max Melton away from the ball.
A win is a win. A lot to work on for Week 2 against Carolina.
Kellan Olson, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night:
This was OK. A shrug. I would have liked to see a talent or execution disparity show up more prominently, especially at the end of the game. The defense letting the Saints rip off a field goal in 1:52, and the offense failing to eliminate dramatics on the following drive that was also way too dramatic was something that good teams do not do. But it’s a win on the road in Week 1 the Cardinals were mostly in control of throughout.
It’s tough to read too much into the defense in the last six minutes because it was clearly a preventative play-calling strategy allowing New Orleans to take everything underneath. All the short dropbacks to intermediate throws didn’t allow the defensive line to get pressure and the pass rush had a fairly solid day before that. The worry was that the corners would stick out in a bad way, but if anything, it was the other way around. A decent day for that side of the ball as a whole.
The offense wasn’t able to rely on the running game too much, and with that came taking the dink-and-dunk we have come to know. The difference is if Marvin Harrison Jr. is more involved in that short-to-intermediate space, because him and Trey McBride means you can dink-and-dunk your way to a whole lot of wins no matter what.
It was a typical Kyler Murray game. He had all those throws, leaving the pocket early to where you wonder what he was seeing, some good plays with his legs and one great deep throw with one terrible miss. He didn’t win or lose them the game and was fine.
The only red flag of the day came from the offensive line, which was much more penalized than we’re used to and didn’t open up the running game as much as we’re used to, either. It’s a totally different football team if that is a below average unit as opposed to the above average unit it has been. New Orleans’ front seven was missing Chase Young and isn’t good at all, so let’s see if Arizona’s OL can reset against Carolina, a historically awful run defense last year.
Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf & Luke:
There’s definitely going to be a narrative out there that the Cardinals didn’t win by enough. I don’t buy it. Especially after what happened to ASU on Saturday night. Pick up victories however you can get them — particularly when you’re on the road.
It’s the NFL. A win’s a win, and most of the games here come down to the wire anyway. The headline is the Cardinals are 1-0 – something they haven’t been able to say since 2021. That said, this was far from a perfect game. The O-line didn’t exactly protect Kyler Murray, and he wasn’t as elusive behind the line of scrimmage as he usually is. Maybe it’s because he was playing sick, or maybe Cameron Jordan really is that much of a menace. Either way, it all added up to five sacks for a New Orleans defense that averaged just 2.3 sacks per game a year ago.
On the other side, the Cardinals could only get to Spencer Rattler once. I’m all in on this defense this season, so that was disappointing. Overall though, they made plays when they had to. The only touchdown Arizona allowed came right after a pretty weak illegal contact call on Max Melton wiped out a Will Johnson interception. You only need about four seconds of video evidence to make a compelling argument that score never should have even happened. More importantly though, it’s the only time the defense let New Orleans get in the end zone anyway. You’ll win a lot of games doing that.
Offensively, nobody had crazy stats but the main characters stepped up to deliver the win. And Marvin Harrison Jr, in particular, was impactful. Aside from his touchdown and the fact he led the Cardinals with 71 receiving yards, he took over the second quarter and had at least one catch in every quarter except the first. Rather than disappearing for chunks of the game like he did at times as a rookie, he was a focal point of the offense without it feeling like they were forcing him the ball. That’s progress.
In the end, the Cardinals’ biggest names made plays in key moments. That’s what has to happen in this league, and it’s only fitting Budda Baker was the one knocking the ball away from Juwan Johnson in the end zone as time wound down.
Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: Winning on the road in the NFL is hard work.
In the first two years under Jonathan Gannon, the Cardinals had done it only four times. Sunday was number five and the first time the Cards opened the season 1-0 under Gannon. That is a thing to be celebrated despite the caliber of the opponent or the clunky finish. It might not be at the pace we’d prefer progress to happen but it is progress.
It was nice to see Kyler Murray find Marvin Harrison Jr. deep. Nice to see that Trey McBride is still one of the most reliable safety valves in the league. Nice to see Will Johnson pay immediate dividends and the Cards secondary as a whole leave their mark on this game.
But (and you knew this was coming) the offense had their chances to put the childproof lock on the game and instead the Saints got into nearly all the cabinets. Kyler’s overall game was good enough but that missed pass to Harrison Jr was yet another moment that leaves you wanting for more. Not perfection, just more. And when needed most, the Cards pass rush couldn’t help their secondary out by putting a little heat on Spencer Rattler. A 1-0 start and a win on the road is a good place to start; a more decisive finish would have made it great.
Tyler Drake, Arizona Sports Cardinals beat writer and Cardinals Corner co-host:
A win is a win. Let’s start there and get that out of the way right now.
The Cardinals for the first time since 2021 won their season opener. It was far from pretty. After slogging through the first quarter, Arizona’s offense finally woke up after Murray connected with
Harrison on a deep ball before scoring on a one-yard strike soon after.
The connection between the two looked much improved early on, save for one massive miss late.
With the game still very much in the balance, the Cardinals had a chance to get out from the shadow of their end zone and slam the door shut on any kind of Saints comeback.
Harrison did his job. Murray did not.
Instead of an explosive that had the chance to go the distance, the play resulted in a deflating incompletion. It marked the only miscue between the two.
As for the revamped pass rush, the Saints handled the barrage well, allowing just one sack and two QB hits on the afternoon. That statline might barely cut it against New Orleans.
Against most other teams on the schedule? That’s not going to cut it whatsoever.
On the other side of the rock, the offensive line could use a pep talk.
On top of Murray registering five sacks, three coming in the first quarter, Arizona’s run game struggled to find consistency.
Had it not been for Trey Benson’s 52-yard run, the Cardinals mustered just 94 yards on 26 carries. That’s a 3.6-yard average.
A lot to clean up ahead of another winnable game next week against Carolina.
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