Kyler Murray’s late mistakes contribute to Cardinals’ blown lead in loss to Vikings

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — For most of the first three quarters on Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals had the Minnesota Vikings on the ropes. Much of that was due to the outstanding play of quarterback Kyler Murray.

But the Vikings rallied for 17 points in their last three possessions to pull out a 23-22 win. And some of the fault for that collapse can be laid at Murray’s feet.

Arizona (6-6) fell one game behind first-place Seattle in the NFC West with its second straight loss following a four-game winning streak, with a home game against the Seahawks next week.

Murray’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison Jr. gave Arizona a 19-6 lead with 4:37 left in the third quarter. At that point, Murray had completed 24 of 32 passes for 206 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions, and he had five carries for 40 yards.

But the spotlight will shine especially brightly on Murray’s performance in the fourth quarter, when he went 6 for 12 for 51 yards and two interceptions for a 21.9 passer rating. After the Vikings matched Harrison’s touchdown with one of their own, the Cardinals were looking to kill some of the clock and put points on the board. Instead, four plays later, Murray gave the ball back to Minnesota.

On the second play of the fourth quarter, Murray was flushed out of the pocket near midfield, and his desperation heave toward the sideline was intercepted by Byron Murphy Jr. at the Vikings 32.

“I was trying to throw the ball away, so that’s on me,” said Murray, who led four drives that stalled inside the red zone in the first three quarters.

Minnesota turned the interception into John Parker Romo’s third field goal of the day, which cut Arizona’s lead to 19-16 with 11:08 to play.

Murray then gave the Cardinals exactly what they were looking for earlier. He marched them 66 yards in 16 plays, taking 7:48 off the clock. But after reaching the Minnesota 5-yard line, Murray was called for intentional grounding, one of 10 Cardinals penalties that totaled 96 yards, which pushed them out of the red zone. Chad Ryland’s fifth field goal of the day gave the Cardinals a 22-16 lead with 3:20 to play.

The Vikings responded when Sam Darnold capped a nine-play, 70-yard drive with a touchdown pass to Aaron Jones. Romo’s extra point gave the Vikings their first lead of the day. But they left 1:13 on the clock, plenty of time for the Cardinals — who had all three timeouts — to drive into field goal range.

Instead, Murray’s late-game struggles continued. On the second play of the drive, Minnesota’s Jonathan Greenard knocked the ball out of Murray’s hand in the backfield. Murray fell on it for an 8-yard loss, the first sack of the game by the Vikings. On third-and-13, Murray burned 8 seconds and didn’t get out of bounds on a scramble that netted just 3 yards when Greenard chased him down.

“It just so happened that he cut back, and I was like, ‘Oh, perfect,’” Greenard said.

And on fourth down, Murray tried to hit Harrison on the right sideline, but Minnesota’s Shaq Griffin picked it off to end the game. Last week, Arizona’s four-game winning streak ended in a 16-6 loss at Seattle, when Murray had an interception returned for a touchdown.

“I’m sure he’ll want some plays back, but I thought he made plays with his legs, the touchdown pass, a couple conversions in there,” coach Jonathan Gannon said. “I thought he played well enough to win.”

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