In an utter disaster for the last three minutes against Jacksonville Jaguars, the Arizona Cardinals made a historic mistake that most franchises can say have never let happen.
First, the Cardinals let Trevor Lawrence go 6 for 6 and 58 yards in an easy drive for a touchdown. But then, the Cardinals’ offense got the ball to the 50-yard line with two seconds left.
Jacksonville’s Jamal Agnew went 109 yards for the touchdown on a 68-yard field goal attempt by Matt Prater. The Cardinals and Jaguars were tied at 7 with just two seconds left. You just can’t make it up.
Announcer Gus Johnson was brilliant on the call. While there’s still a ton of time left for the Cardinals to figure it out, letting All-Pro Agnew return a field goal was a mind-numbing decision by Coach Kliff Kingsbury. When you have fire power in DeAndre Hopkins, Rondale Moore and Christian Kirk, a Hail Mary to the endzone would’ve easily been a better decision.
While the Arizona Cardinals scored a touchdown on a Kyler Murray run on their second offensive drive, the first half looked concerning. Two third-down and one’s weren’t converted and the Cardinals let the Jaguars get to the red zone.
Fortunately for the Cardinals, their defense did their job. Byron Murphy caught his second interception of the year on the third down from Trevor Lawrence. Robert Alford almost caught an interception as well in the second quarter.
Overall, the first half for the Cardinals on offense was filled with bad field position, penalties and conservative play-calling on third-downs resulting in just seven points.
Ref Mistakes
Of course, the Cardinals played the worst half of football imaginable. There are no excuses for stooping low against a Jaguars team that hasn’t won a football game in more than a year.
But the Cardinals almost lost possession on a muffed punt by Rondale Moore. The problem is that the ref threw a flag on an illegal block on a Cardinal that hit the football in mid-air, making it hard for Moore to catch it.
The Cardinals also were called for a questionable penalty on D.J. Humphries for a holding call. Then, Maxx Williams was called for a pass interference call in which Hopkins caught it for 30+ yards. Cardinals reporter Darren Urban mentioned it was a pick play, but Williams was allowed to do it within two yards of the line of scrimmage.
Jaguars Gonna Jaguar
While Lawrence is only in the third game of his career, the Cardinals defense has figured him out. Byron Murphy specifically, who has two interceptions to his name. One of them was a pick-six.
The Jaguars were successful in running the football. The Jaguars’ touchdown drive in the third quarter consisted of eight plays in which all of them were run plays.
But the Jaguars in their next drive called for a flea-flicker, which Lawrence jump-threw off his back foot, which Murphy easily made the catch and took it to the house.
The Cardinals are playing their D game and they still can pull out a win against the hapless Jaguars.
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