Cardinals, Kyler Murray saw progress despite loss in 3rd preseason game

Those who follow or are a part of the NFL might tell you the preseason is too long. If that’s the case, the silver lining is that the Arizona Cardinals got some use out of it on Saturday when they played the Minnesota Vikings for game No. 3.

The Cardinals, after putting up a clunker in a 33-26 loss at home to the Raiders in which both the offense and defense seemed out of sorts — especially the first teams — responded Saturday with improvement, first and foremost. Albeit, that improvement came in another loss, 20-9, but head coach Kliff Kingsbury told Bickley & Marotta on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station on Monday he was encouraged by what he saw.

“I think more than anything, we wanted to see progress and we wanted to see how we handled a true, mock game-week with installations and game-planning and different things,” Kingsbury said. “The first time we’d done that as a unit, and we definitely saw improvement in a lot of areas. So that was encouraging.”

Against the Raiders, Kyler Murray went 3-for-8 on pass attempts for a total of 12 yards, no touchdowns and no picks. Against Minnesota, Murray still didn’t find the end zone, but he thwarted a potential panic-button reaction from fans and media by completing 14 of 21 pass attempts for 137 yards.

“I like how he handled the entire week,” Kingsbury said. “Like I said, it was the first time we really game-planned and installed. I thought he did a good job with it. I thought during the game, he protected the football … but when the play wasn’t there, he was able to get out, make some plays or throw it away. And so I thought his decision-making for the most part was pretty good.

“We’ve got to be able to finish those drives in the red zone, but I thought there was some definite positives and things we can build off of.”

As for the infamous clap snap counts, an issue for Murray and the Cardinals in the preseason that has been the focal point of confusion and debate, Kingsbury told Bickley & Marotta the team feels like it has finality on the matter.

“I think just the ongoing conversation that we’ve had with the league, we know exactly what we can and can’t do,” Kingsbury said. “There’s no grey area moving forward. We’ll adjust and come up with our own solutions. So we feel good about it.”

Murray’s first preseason is done now, as Kingsbury said he won’t play in the fourth and final preseason game. Backup quarterback Brett Hundley will start that game, instead.

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