Blocking for Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray is something you can’t teach
Sep 20, 2022, 3:15 PM
TEMPE — Everyone in attendance at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday got a refresher in what makes Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray so dangerous.
Down 20-0 entering the third quarter, Murray helped orchestrate one of the biggest comebacks in franchise history.
When the signal caller appeared dead to rights, he made something happen either through the air or on the ground. When it was clear the offense’s streak of good fortune was running out, Murray was right there to manufacture some of his own at a moment’s notice.
If there was one play to encapsulate the Cardinals’ victory on Sunday, it was Murray’s fourth-quarter scramble on a two-point conversion try to save the game for Arizona.
Needing the conversion to make it a one-score game, Murray took things into his own hands after failing to find an open receiver in the end zone.
Traveling nearly 85 yards as he worked to make something happen, Murray managed to find his opening to pay dirt. From snap to score, the play took 20.8 seconds.
Organized chaos at its finest:
Kyler Murray traveled 84.9 yards on his successful two-point conversion scramble, the most distance traveled by an offensive ball-carrier on a two-point conversion attempt in the NGS era (since 2016).#AZvsLV | @AZCardinals pic.twitter.com/tGeZvMgjdn
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 18, 2022
“It’s not how we drew it up, I’ll say that,” head coach Kliff Kingsbury said Monday. “When you have a guy like that you want to get him options and you talk about, ‘Hey, if it’s not there, make a play.’ It’s tough sledding down there when you’re on the (two-yard line), everybody’s packed in, and they know you’ve got to throw it.
“It was just a heck of an individual effort and guys continued to move the line, continued to block when you watch that play and kept fighting for him.”
Murray was a very busy man in the second half, becoming the first player in NFL history to pass and run for a touchdown on top of rushing and throwing for a pair of two-point conversions in a single game.
But while the signal caller filled up the stat sheet, a ton of credit should rightfully go to the team’s offensive line for its part during Murray’s magic. There’s more than just one Cardinals dot sporadically moving in the above clip after all.
“I thought the play was over like three times on the two-pointer,” offensive lineman D.J. Humphries said Tuesday. “When he took off running on that last one I was like, ‘I hope you get there, bud. I don’t know if I can get over there.’ He ran about 80 (yards), I had to run at least 50.
“There’s not teaching for that. There’s literally no clocks … when you’re blocking for Kyler,” the lineman added. “If he holds it longer than normal, something big is about to happen for the most part. That’s usually kind of how I gauge it. I’m going to hold on as long as I got to.”
As for working in some added conditioning at practice for when the moments arise later on in the season?
Humphries is more than OK with saving his energy for game days.
“I’d be mad if I had to practice (a 20-second scramble) and then we don’t do it. I’d be pretty pissed about that, I’ll be honest with you. That sucked, I’m not going to lie. That sucked doing that for 20 seconds.”
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