Ball don’t lie: Cardinals make up for questionable call, still fall to Texans

There were a lot of momentum swings throughout the Arizona Cardinals’ 21-16 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday.

But it was the series of events early on in the fourth quarter, spawned by a muffed (?) punt, that had a lot of heads spinning.

Arizona came out swinging on both sides of the football in the second half, with quarterback Kyler Murray finding paydirt with his legs before Arizona’s defense did its job by forcing the Texans to punt the following drive.

Then things got weird.

Looking to set a block for Greg Dortch, cornerback Antonio Hamilton found himself in no man’s land as the ball came down to earth, with the ball deflecting off the pair before the Texans jumped on the rock.

When the dust settled on the play, the deflection was ruled a muff, putting Houston in prime territory to add to its lead.

Things didn’t necessarily match up on replays, however, as it looked like the ball ricocheted off of the Texans defender first, not Hamilton.

The different angles did nothing to change the call, though, with the refs handing the rock to Stroud and the Texans with 10:37 to play.

But as they say, “Ball don’t lie.”

Four plays into Houston’s drive, the Cardinals got the ball right back thanks to a Krys Barnes interception in the red zone.

YEAH, WE’LL TAKE THAT!!!! pic.twitter.com/lX5uOAiRfz

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 19, 2023

And while Murray and the offense weren’t able to cash in on the turnover, instead turning the ball over on downs, the defense gave Arizona one last shot at taking home the upset.

With Stroud and the Texans again threatening deep in Arizona territory, the rookie poetically found Hamilton for his third and final INT of the game.

Ham getting us the ball back! pic.twitter.com/DRdZU5REW6

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 19, 2023

Unfortunately for the veteran cornerback, he would suffer an injury on the play and had to be carted to the locker room after being helped off the field by teammates and trainers.

The defense did its job with its back up against the wall. The same couldn’t be said for the offense, though.

Despite chewing up 59 yards on 10 plays and getting down as far as Houston’s 27-yard line, Murray and Co. couldn’t complete the comeback behind a third straight turnover on downs.

All in all, Arizona’s defense forced three interceptions against a signal caller who entered the game with two on the year. The Cardinals offense couldn’t complement the defense, though, failing to turn any of the picks into points.

“The three takeaways, that’s why we got back into the game,” head coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters postgame. “(Jalen Thompson) had one, Barnes had one, Ham had one, so that’s taking points off the board for them. They gave us a chance to get back in the game and win the game.”

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