Cardinals offense goes quiet in loss, Stafford’s Rams go wild through the air

After a promising start, the Arizona Cardinals offense was held in check on its way to a 37-14 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at State Farm Stadium on Sunday.

Following a stellar opening drive when the Cardinals marched down the field to the tune of 12 plays for 75 yards over 6:28 to put up eight points, the offense stalled, posting drives of four, minus-three, eight, six, 37, minus-18, 75 and 51 yards the rest of the way.

On that fabled opening drive, quarterback Kyler Murray was 5-for-7 passing for 50 yards and ran two yards for the score. He finished 27-for-45 for 256 yards and a touchdown.

The running game was limited, either by design or necessity, running just 15 times for 73 yards, led by James Conner who ran for 27 yards.

The time between the touchdowns was lackluster to the point that the highlight was a fake punt that was converted for a first down, but immediately turned into a 1st-and-34 after a holding call and a chop block against Rams superstar Aaron Donald.

The second touchdown drive, which took 3:07 of the middle of the fourth quarter, was a 10-play, 75-yard drive, highlighted Murray hooking up with Marquise “Hollywood” Brown for a 36-yard catch. Greg Dortch hauled in the touchdown catch from Murray by making a lovely one-handed play.

.@_GDortch one-handed ✋

📺: #LARvsAZ on FOX pic.twitter.com/vmllIzY0tV

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 26, 2023

Unfortunately, that’s where the highlights ended for Arizona in the second half.

Los Angeles was paced by Kyren Williams, who had 143 yards on the ground and 61 yards on six catches in his first game back since returning from injured reserve with an ankle injury. Matthew Stafford had a huge game for the Rams, throwing for 229  yards, four touchdowns and an interception — a well-read play by Arizona’s Jalen Thompson. He didn’t play the majority of the fourth quarter.

Tyler Higbee had two early touchdowns for the Rams and Royce Freeman added a score in the fourth quarter to go along with his 13 carries and 77 yards.