Kyler Murray and Cardinals start fast and then fall short in season-opening 34-28 loss to Bills

Updated Sep. 8, 2024 8:06 p.m. ET

Associated Press

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals couldn’t sustain momentum in their bid to get off to a fresh and fast start to the season.

And this time they couldn’t complete a “Hail Murray” to come back and beat the Bills.

“I felt like we deserved to win that,” Murray said after a 34-28 loss at Buffalo on Sunday. “We should have won.”

For all that went right for Arizona, too many things went wrong in an outing during which the Cardinals scored on their first three possessions of an opener for the first time in 18 seasons, but still squandered a 17-3 lead.

One disappointment was how Murray struggled to get the ball to No. 4 overall pick Marvin Harrison Jr. throughout the receiver’s NFL debut. Harrison finished with just one catch on three targets for just 4 yards. One of Murray’s passes sailed behind the receiver; Harrison dropped another.

On the bright side, DeeJay Dallas gave Arizona hope in the fourth quarter by cutting the lead to 31-28 with his 96-yard return for the first touchdown under the NFL’s new dynamic kickoff rule.

Ultimately, the loss came down to the Cardinals falling short on their final drive.

Facing fourth-and-7 from Buffalo’s 29, Murray scrambled to his left and heaved a pass toward Greg Dortch near the goal line only to have it broken up by Ja’Marcus Ingram and Damar Hamlin. The high-arcing pass was reminiscent of the since-dubbed “Hail Murray” four years ago when the quarterback heaved a 43-yard touchdown to DeAndre Hopkins with 2 seconds left in the Cardinals' 32-30 win against the visiting Bills.

“Bang-bang play. We’ll make more of those than we won’t,” coach Jonathan Gannon said. “Good back and forth game. What I like about this group is their will to not waver. We’ll keep our confidence. We’ll get back in the lab tomorrow and fix up what we need to.”

One missed opportunity that stood out on the final drive came when Murray was scrambling to his left and completed a 7-yard pass to Dortch for a first down, while failing to see Harrison running wide open up the right side.

“When you play football, there’s a lot of stuff moving around, moving fast,” Murray said. “You don’t see everything.”

Gannon stuck up for his quarterback, saying: “Whatever decision he made, we felt like that was the right one.”

Harrison declined to address reporters after the game. The 22-year-old is the son of former Colts star receiver Marvin Harrison. He won the Biletnikoff Award as the top receiver in college last season for Ohio State and was the first of a record seven receivers chosen in the first round of the draft.

Gannon credited the Bills defense with taking Harrison out of the offense.

“That’s how our offense is going to be built,” he said. “The ball will go where it should go, depending on the coverage.”

“I wouldn’t say they were taking him away,” Murray said. “As a quarterback, you go through your reads sometimes, and the ball goes to the best option.”

Murray finished 21 of 31 passing for 162 yards and a touchdown to Michael Wilson on the opening drive. He also gained 57 yards on five runs. But after halftime, Murray was 5 of 12 for 23 yards.

Buffalo went ahead 24-17 late in the third quarter when Allen found Khalil Shakir for an 11-yard touchdown. That came five plays after Greg Rousseau forced Murray to fumble. Rousseau’s third sack came when he beat backup right tackle Kelvin Beachum, who came in after Williams hurt his knee in the first quarter.

Arizona’s offense gained 191 yards in scoring on its first three drives for the first time since its season-opening win against San Francisco in 2006.

“We stayed on schedule,” Murray said. “When you’re on the road, coming out in a first game, haven’t really played football in a long time, in a live atmosphere like that, coming out against a great team, you don’t want to be moving backwards.”

“That was the difference,” Murray concluded, “between the first half and the second half.”

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