Kyler Murray on beating Jags: ‘We would have lost that game’ last 2 years

It wasn’t the prettiest win, but it’s still a victory.

The Arizona Cardinals entered Week 3’s matchup with the winless Jacksonville Jaguars looking full well like the superior team.

Thirty minutes of football later, however, and the score reflected anything but as Arizona stared at a 13-7 deficit highlighted by a kick-six to end the half and a lackluster start on the Cardinals’ part.

The wind appeared to be out of Arizona’s sails as it headed to the locker room.

But unlike previous seasons, the Cardinals didn’t let the momentum shift get to them as they turned it on in the second half on the way to a 31-19 victory.

“I think everybody, the first thing we thought about was we get the ball back as soon as we come out at the half,” offensive lineman D.J. Humphries told reporters Sunday. “We got into the locker room and everybody’s mindset was the same thing, ‘How we gonna respond to adversity? We got to go out there and swing first.’ We didn’t really start how we wanted to but we didn’t quit.”

There are obviously quite a few things to clean up, especially with the Los Angeles Rams next on the schedule, but 3-0 is 3-0.

“I’m frustrated, but as a team, I’ve been here three years now and the last two years we would have lost that game for sure,” quarterback Kyler Murray told reporters after the game.

“To see us fight through that and come on the road — obviously any given Sunday, not looking at anybody’s record, you can be beat by anybody. … It’s good to get a win any way you can and that’s what we came out here and did. That was the goal.”

After putting up 155 yards of total offense to go along with one touchdown offensively in the first half, the Cardinals responded with 252 yards, two rushing scores and a field goal in the second half.

“Nobody folded, everybody was still locked in from the go,” Humphries said. “This is the NFL, we know one thing for sure, those guys are good players also. They’re the best in the world, too. Sometimes the ball ain’t gonna go your way but everybody on our team had that look in their eye, nobody quit, so we were able to pull it out at the end.”

Defensively, cornerback Byron Murphy had his own momentum-shifting moment, getting the better of rookie Trevor Lawrence with a third-quarter pick-six. It marked his second interception of the afternoon.

From there, the Cardinals didn’t look back, looking like the team many expected to show up in Jacksonville from the jump.

“We got a great group of vets. There was no panic,” head coach Kliff Kingsbury told reporters Sunday. “That’s about as big of a moment of adversity as you could face in an NFL football game to have something like that happen right before the half. Guys didn’t blink. Even when we went down two scores, guys didn’t blink. I was really proud of that effort.”

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