Cardinals scouting report: Return of Kyler Murray highlights Week 10 vs. Falcons
Atlanta Falcons (4-5) at Arizona Cardinals (1-8)
Time/site: 2:05 p.m. MST, State Farm Stadium, Glendale.
TV: CBS. Radio: 98.7 FM, 106.7 FM in Spanish.
Last time they played: The Falcons won last season's meeting in Atlanta on the final play of the game, a Younghoe Koo field goal as time expired. David Blough, the fourth starting quarterback in four weeks, got the call for the Cardinals and threw a touchdown pass to then-rookie tight end Trey McBride. Cardinals defensive lineman Leki Fotu recovered a fumble and Matt Prater made four field goals in the Week 16 loss.
Series history: The Cardinals lead the all-time series 17-16. Arizona is 11-2 all-time at home against the Falcons and enters Sunday's game having won four straight. The host team has won 12 straight and 16 of the last 17 in the series.
Arizona and Atlanta are facing off for the second consecutive season and the fourth time in the last six years. The last two meetings were one-point affairs, with Arizona winning 34-33 at home in 2019.
Coaching matchup
Arizona: First-year head coach Jonathan Gannon is off to a 1-8 start to his tenure. For two years, he shared a tiny office with Falcons head coach Arthur Smith when both were quality control coaches with the Tennessee Titans. Gannon also coached with Falcons offensive coordinator Dave Ragone, with whom he goes back a long way.
Former teammates at Cleveland's Saint Ignatius High School and in college at Louisville, Gannon and Ragone were both All-State football players and basketball standouts.
Atlanta: Third-year Falcons head coach Arthur Smith is in his third season as Falcons head coach, and has an 18-25 record. He's been an NFL coach for 13 seasons and is 1-0 against the Cardinals.
Storylines
No other storyline looms larger than the return of Kyler Murray, the Cardinals franchise quarterback who hasn't played a game in 11 months. How will his surgically repaired knee hold up? How mobile will he look? How much rust will he show in his first game this season? Is he mentally ready to play football? Can he be the rising NFL star he had been, and how will he look in a new head coach's offense?
Murray said he is going to be himself as a player, despite a warning from Gannon that he might get off to a slow start to his return as the rust from not playing wears off.
That is what everyone watching the game will be watching on Sunday.
Another potential storyline is the return of running back James Conner, if he is deemed fit to play after four weeks on injured reserve. Conner can immediately bolster the Cardinals running game, which they could really use.
Atlanta will win if . . .
1. Arizona native Bijan Robinson has a big game, and the Falcons control the ball and the clock on offense: Robinson, a Tucson native who was the Falcons' top draft pick this year, is back in Arizona this week and leads all rookie running backs in rushing yards (517) and receiving yards (197). Robinson is also second among all rookies in yards from scrimmage with 714. Atlanta is 15th in the league in time of possession while the Cardinals are 27th.
2. The Falcons get hot in the fourth quarter on offense. Atlanta has outscored opponents by 34 points in the fourth quarter this season, while the fourth is when the Cardinals offense has struggled the most this season.
Arizona will win if . . .
Kyler Murray is basically the Kyler Murray of 2020, 2021 and early 2022: There's no doubt that a healthy and mobile Murray can win a game for the Cardinals no matter whom the opponent. He will need to be on the same page with his receivers right away and get protection from an offensive line that could be missing three starters.
2. The defense plays inspired football, fills gaps and causes turnovers: Explosive plays must be eliminated or not costly to help the Cardinals win.
3. Any offense is better than last week's showing: The Cardinals struggled so badly on offense last week at Cleveland that any improvement there gives them a chance.
They said it
"I just feel like I gained a new level of resiliency with this. I already felt like I had that chip on my shoulder. Never out of anything, never down. I always feel like I can win anything, but when you go through something like this, you find out really quick about who you are and what you’re about. Like I’ve said, I think everything happens for a reason and with the right timing." -Murray, on what he learned from his time working his way back from injury and if there is anything he has more appreciation for.
"You just start building relationships with all the players when you get here, you know, when you're a new guy on staff, or you're a new coach or whatever. It's a relationship business, so you have to build those relationships off the field before you build them on the field. But to say we hit it off, I think we see the game pretty similarly. I think we both are pretty competitive in our own right, which he likes. And I think that he likes things black and white. And you know, there's times you have to live in gray, but I'm pretty black and white. So I think he appreciates that. And then on the offensive side, with those hirings and those people on board that we brought here. I think he appreciates how those guys talk to him and coach him, hold him accountable." -Gannon, on quickly building a good relationship with Murray.
"I think he's very adaptable. I think does a good job of telling you what he needs or what doesn't make sense or what makes sense, and I think he is very good at communicating what he needs. We'll run a play and he's like 'hey, did that look right to you?' He's very intrigued on how to be the best quarterback in our system in what we're doing." -Cardinals quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork, on Murray.
By the numbers
2 — Cardinals who are ruled out this week due to injury (RB Emari Demercado and OL Trystan Colon).
11-2 — Cardinals all-time home record vs. the Falcons (including postseason). Arizona has won four straight at home vs. the Falcons, who haven't won in Arizona since 2001.
12 — Consecutive games in the series between the Cardinals and Falcons that have been won by the home team. The home team is 16-1 in the last 17 meetings.
0 — Combined point differential in the last two games between the Cardinals and Falcons (53-53). Both games were decided by one point, with Arizona winning 34-33 at home in 2019 and Atlanta winning 20-19 last season.
128.2 — Passer rating for Murray in his only career game vs. the Falcons (Week 6 of his rookie season in 2019). Murray completed 27-of-37 pass attempts (73.0 percent) for 340 yards and three TDs in his first-ever win at State Farm Stadium.
335 — Days in between game action for Murray. He last played in a game on December 12, 2022.
4 — Touchdown receptions for WR Marquise "Hollywood" Brown in four home games this season. He is the first Cardinals player to have a TD catch in at least four consecutivehome games since WR Larry Fitzgerald (four straight from 2015-16).
13 — Runs of 20-plus yards for the Cardinals in 2023. That ranks second in the NFL behind Miami (14) and already surpassed Arizona's total from all of 2022 (9).6 — Cardinals players who have already established career highs in sacks this season: 50 — Tackles for loss by the Cardinals defense in 2023. That is the fourth-best total inthe NFL this season.
287 — Receiving yards for TE Trey McBride in nine games (four starts) this season. Thatalready surpasses his yardage total from his entire rookie season: 265 yards in16 games (13 starts).76 — Total games played for the 12 rookies on the Cardinals active roster. 67 — Combined games missed due to injury by 22 different Cardinals players this season. Arizona has also had 67 different players appear in a game this season. Only Tennessee (69) has had more.
Who will win and why
Cardinals 21, Falcons 17: Part of this is contingent on if Conner is able to play, but if the Cardinals can get some production from the running game (no Demercado this week, he was ruled out Friday) and Murray has enough time to throw and also gain big yards on designed runs, this is a winnable game.
Heinecke isn't likely to explode for a huge game, even though the Cardinals cornerbacks have struggled this season.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cardinals scouting report: Return of Kyler Murray highlights Week 10
