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That people realize the “regression” in Kyler Murray everyone likes to talk about had actually started to reverse itself after the return of DeAndre Hopkins in Week 7. Shocking, huh?
In three games before Murray missed the last two because of a hamstring injury, he compiled these numbers:
New Orleans 20-for-29, 204 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, 100.4 passer rating
Minnesota 31-for-44, 326 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions, 95.5 passer rating
Seattle 25-for-35, 175 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, 101.5 passer rating
TOTAL 76-for-108 (70.4 percent), 705 yards, six touchdowns, two interceptions
The yards per completion of 9.3 wasn’t high, but he was executing the offense with numerous quick passes made necessary by continuing issues on the offensive line.
In those three games, Hopkins was targeted 31 times, caught 31 for 292 yards with two touchdowns and longs in each game of 18, 33 and 22 yards.
He expects to play Sunday against the Chargers (“I do,” he said. “I feel good.”) and agreed that things were improving after Hopkins was on the field.
“I felt like the offense; we were trending upwards,” Murray said. “Obviously, when (Hopkins) is out the juice and the energy is different, so I’m good with where we’re at. I like who we’ve got coming up and we have a good plan going into this weekend.”
Coach Kliff Kingsbury said after Wednesday’s walkthrough, “He looked good today, so I’m feeling good about the chances (of him playing). I think if we didn’t let him, we may have a fist fight in my office at this point, so I feel like he’s definitely trending in the right direction.”
Murray is also hoping to have wide receiver Hollywood Brown on the field for the first time this season with Hopkins especially with Rondale Moore unlikely to play because of a groin injury suffered against the 49ers that limited him to two snaps.
Kingsbury said, “Hopefully we can get him back out there,” while acknowledging Brown will be on a “pitch count” if he plays.
Murray said, “Just to see both of them on the field, the relationships I have with them and building the relationship; they’re a pair. You’ve got two guys out there that can do everything pretty much and are hard to stop, so I’m excited to see it.”
If the altitude in Mexico City affected the Cardinals on Monday, especially in the second half.
While Kingsbury said after the game he didn’t believe that was the case (“Everybody was tired,” he said. “I think both teams you could see were getting winded at times, but it wasn’t anything that I felt like was game changing.”), several 49ers said practicing in Colorado Springs was a plus.
Said tight end George Kittle, “I just spent a week in Colorado at 6,000 feet. I think that was definitely helpful for us. I got my second wind early. Shout-out to our ownership for taking us to Colorado and putting us in those situations.”
“The altitude was real,” quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said. “Guys were feeling it out there. You can see guys were sucking wind, cramping up a little bit. But I thought it did more good for us than them today.”
Added defensive end Nick Bosa, “It was brutal. It was like three full-speed reps and you’re hurting. It does get better throughout the game and I think we did a great job of sticking with it.”
The Cardinals will be back in a high altitude when they play at Denver on Dec. 18 on another short week after a Monday night game against the Patriots.
Still, it has to be noted what the 49ers have done to the last three teams on their schedule in the second half. The Rams, Chargers and Cardinals were outscored by a combined 51-0. The Rams gained 58 yards on 25 plays (2.3 average) in the second half, the Chargers 19-52 (2.7) and the Cardinals until quarterback Colt McCoy exited the game 17-49 (2.9). That’s a total of 159 yards on 61 plays (2.6 average) in the last six second-half quarters.
We should pay attention to what Budda Baker says. Asked immediately after the loss if he thought the team played hard for the entire game, he said, “I don’t.”
When Kingsbury was asked if he thought there were players that quit late in the game, he said, “Yeah, I think there were moments when you watch the tape that; we know when we sign up in this league, you’re a professional and you play to the end. That’s the standard of this organization and this team and nobody displays it more than Budda Baker. You couldn’t tell if the score was 38-10 in our favor or 38-10 down or 0-0, he’s going to be going the same speed and making every play he can. He’s definitely the expert to speak on it and that’s something that we’ve got to be better at moving forward.”
Asked if he needed to send that message to the team, Kingsbury said, “They know.”
One player called out by ESPN commentator Troy Aikman was cornerback Antonio Hamilton, who failed to make an effort to tackle Kittle on the final touchdown of the game.
Hamilton’s story of coming back after suffering burns on his feet in late August was featured on Hard Knocks Wednesday and cameras captured Hamilton taking responsibility after that play when he said he should have made the tackle, but thought Kittle had stepped out of bounds.
Also, in last the scene of the show, Kingsbury addresses that issue and the firing of offensive line coach Sean Kugler when he exhorts the team, “From this whole group, I’m going to ask two things moving forward: Make sure nobody has to stand in front of the media and answer any questions about dumb shit off the field, one and two, effort on the field.”
Anquan Boldin doesn’t have to wait too long to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but the reality says that will likely be the case. Boldin played his first seven seasons with the Cardinals, then three with the Ravens and 49ers and one with the Lions.
The 49-person selection committee, on which I have been a member for 20 years, has an excruciating task each year. And the debate over wide receivers is one of the toughest.
The Hall has become a landmine for receivers, especially after the passing game numbers have skyrocketed in the last two-plus decades. Heck, even going back longer than that, Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann was elected in his 14th year of eligibility and teammate John Stallworth in his 10th.
In 2013, Cris Carter was elected in his sixth year of eligibility, Andre Reed in his ninth in 2014 and Tim Brown in 2015 in his sixth. Isaac Bruce was elected in his sixth year in 2020.
Boldin, who became eligible for the first time last year, did not move on to the final 15 and neither did Steve Smith Sr., who is also a semifinalist again for the class of 2023. Andre Johnson was a first-time eligible last year and advanced to the final 15, but was not elected.
Those three are one of seven wide receivers on this year’s list of 28 semifinalists. There are usually 25, but there were ties for at least the final four spots. The others are Henry Ellard (20th year of eligibility), Torry Holt (ninth), Hines Ward (seventh) and Reggie Wayne (fourth).
Holt and Wayne have been finalists the last three years. Ward has been a semifinalist each of his seven years and never a finalist, while this is the first time since his retirement after the 1998 season that Ellard is a semifinalist. This is also his final year of modern-day eligibility, so if he isn’t elected, he’ll enter the abyss of the seniors pool.
It’s difficult to understand how Ellard could have been overlooked for nearly two decades. When he retired, his 814 receptions and 13,777 yards ranked fourth and third all-time, respectively. He had seven 1,000-yard seasons at a time when that wasn’t as commonplace as it is today. In 1988, when Ellard did it for the first time with a league-leading 1,414 yards, there were 11 other players that reached 1,000 yards. Last season, there were 26. He also averaged 16.9 yards per reception for his career, significantly higher than all of the pass-catchers that have been enshrined in recent years.
Another reality is this: Among the semifinalists are the 10 finalists that weren’t elected last year: Holt, Johnson and Wayne, edge rushers Jared Allen and DeMarcus Ware, tackle Willie Anderson, cornerback Ronde Barber, return specialist Devin Hester and linebackers Zach Thomas and Patrick Willis.
Then there are five first-time eligibles for the 2023 class: guard Jahri Evans, edge rusher Dwight Freeney, linebacker James Harrison, cornerback Darrelle Revis and tackle Joe Thomas.
So, yes, Boldin is deserving. But so are many others.
If Robbie Anderson will have any impact this season.
Surely, it’s not an easy transition for a receiver to join a team after six games as Anderson did following his acquisition in a trade from the Panthers the day after Brown suffered a foot injury. He’s had three games with Murray and two with McCoy, which could only hinder the development.
With Moore not playing Sunday and Greg Dortch hampered by a thumb injury that Kingsbury said is a matter of “pain tolerance,” the coach said he expects Anderson to have a larger role.
However, his adjustment has been affected by the team having fewer practice reps because of one walkthrough for the last several weeks and two this week.
Anderson has played 112 snaps in five games and hasn’t been targeted in the last two. In the three before that with Murray at quarterback, he was targeted a total of seven times and managed only one catch for minus-4 yards against Seattle. He also had a crucial drop in that game.
That the chatter will only get louder and louder for change to come in the hierarchy of the Cardinals organization unless fortunes change dramatically in the final six games of the season. It’s what comes with losing as the frustration builds in the fan base.
It doesn’t matter if the Cardinals improved from three wins to eight to 11 in the first three seasons with Kingsbury as head coach. It’s what have you done lately.
Take a big step back, if that’s how this season ends, and all of that is forgotten, no matter what the reasons are (not excuses) for it.
What does somewhat surprise me is the vitriol directed toward owner Michael Bidwill, especially those who believe he doesn’t care about winning or claim he’s cheap simply because the strategy for the 2022 offseason was not to spend big in a questionable free-agent class while focusing on re-signing their own players.
Certainly, there are fair criticisms for all concerned whether it’s player execution, or personnel decisions by Kingsbury, general manager Steve Keim or Bidwill.
Still, do people really think Bidwill doesn’t care if the team loses? All anyone needs to do is see his emotional reactions in the first two episodes of Hard Knocks during the loss to Seattle and the win over the Rams.
As for being cheap, perhaps that’s a vestige of when his father Bill ran the team (and believe me, I witnessed it firsthand while living in St. Louis before the franchise departed in 1988).
Something tells me Bill Bidwill wouldn’t have invested in a plane for game road trips as Michael did in 2021.
That particular criticism also ignores the fact that the league’s salary-cap system includes a salary floor that requires minimum cash spending for every three-year period.
The Cardinals weren’t flush with cap space when the league year began in March and they did create extra room with contract restructures so they could re-sign tight end Zach Ertz and running back James Conner while being able to award new deals to Murray, left tackle D.J. Humphries and safety Jalen Thompson. They still hope to be able to re-sign cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. and defensive end Zach Allen, both of whom have contracts that expire in four months.
Prior to this year, they invested in pricey new contracts for Baker and Hopkins, while taking on center Rodney Hudson’s contract in the trade from the Raiders and signing free agents J.J. Watt, Jordan Phillips and Devon Kennard.
The latter two never played to expectations, which is often the result of many deals consummated in the chaos of the first week of the league year.
The bottom line is there are many explanations for why this team is currently 4-7 and what I effort to do is not ignore any of them.
Don’t hesitate to comment or ask questions on Twitter @hbalzer721 or email me: howard@gophnx.com
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