Kyler Murray laments being unable to return earlier from ‘pretty significant’ ankle injury
The Arizona Cardinals’ season ended in Week 17 more or less on the seventh play of the game against the Los Angeles Rams when quarterback Kyler Murray was sacked by defensive tackle Morgan Fox, who landed on Murray’s leg, injuring his ankle.
Yes, the Cardinals forced a turnover and scored a few plays later to take a 7-0 lead, but without Murray leading the offense, they were simply overmatched by the league’s No. 1 defense.
Murray did return in the fourth quarter to try to rally the team and he did initially give the offense a boost. However, it wasn’t enough.
Head coach Kliff Kingsbury said after the game that the injury was “pretty significant” and called Murray’s return “gutty.”
Murray just wishes he could have gone in earlier.
“It’s unfortunate and the game obviously plays out a lot differently, I feel like, but it is what it is,” he said after the game. “That’s the hand we got dealt. Like I said, I wish I could have come back earlier to try to make an impact quicker.”
He was seen going in and out of the locker room multiple times and moving around on the sideline. Kingsbury said Murray “just needed to loosen it up.”
“He hurt it and wasn’t able to push off there for a while,” he continued. “He continued to work on it, the trainers continued to work with him and he got to a point where he felt it was bearable and came back in, which was impressive. You saw when he got back in the spark he gave us. We were able to move the ball some.”
The decision to go back in was Murray’s. Kingsbury said the team just made sure “he was in a place that we didn’t feel like he could injure himself further.”
After that, it was Murray’s call.
“I wasn’t going to go in if I was hurting myself or hurting the team by going in because I couldn’t move,” Murray said. “So I had to let some things kick in and then once I did, that was when I decided to go in.”
If Murray doesn’t get hurt on the first drive, things probably go much differently. In his first drive back, they moved down the field and had a chance to score. A no-call in the end zone led to a field goal and that was blocked. But the Cardinals had no chance once he left the game. The Rams had a backup quarterback in the game in John Wolford, but they also had the No. 1 defense in the league.
As for Murray’s ankle, he isn’t worried about it moving forward.
“Right now, it really doesn’t matter how my ankle feels. I don’t have anything to look forward to as far as moving around on it. So, I’ll be fine.”
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