Cardinals notch 1st win of Kingsbury, Murray era by holding off Cincinnati

Kliff Kingsbury breathed a huge sigh of relief after a fourth down bootleg by quarterback Kyler Murray finished in the end zone early in the first quarter.

He breathed another sigh of relief at the end of the game as the head coach earned his first NFL victory as the Arizona Cardinals defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26-23 on the road.

The Cardinals racked up 266 yards on the ground as David Johnson, Chase Edmonds and Murray all ran for more than 60 yards, but still needed a game-winning drive from the rookie quarterback to seal the win.

After the Bengals tied the game with two minutes remaining, Arizona drove 62 yards in the final two minutes to set up a 31-yard field goal by Zane Gonzalez for the win. It was the kicker’s fourth field goal of the game.

Murray had his most successful day running the ball in his young NFL career finishing with the most attempts (10) and yards (93) in a game so far this season this season.

“I’m just proud of the team,” Murray said. “Going on the road, getting a tough W. For me personally, I felt like we needed to win this game. Just for the morale of the team.

“We felt like we were really close the past couple of weeks, and to put it all together, somewhat, it felt good today and glad we got a win.”

Edmonds also found the end zone on a 37-yard run in the fourth quarter to give the Cardinals a 23-9 cushion with 7:13 remaining in the game.

It was necessary as the Bengals would respond three minutes later with a touchdown to cut the lead to 23-16 and then tied the game with two minutes left. Both scores came on Andy Dalton touchdown passes as the Cardinals defense is still searching for its first interception of the season.

David Johnson had his best game of the season finishing with 91 yards rushing and led the Cardinals with 65 receiving yards. He ran for 82 yards in the season-opening tie against the Detroit Lions.

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