Arizona Cardinals: Kyler Murray’s first win a glimpse into bright future

Kyler Murray captured his first win at the helm of the Arizona Cardinals and offered a quick view of what should be a bright future in the desert.

Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals got their first win of the 2019 season and the rookie’s first of his career on Sunday against the lowly Cincinnati Bengals. Murray completed 62.5 percent of his passes and threw for 253 yards through the air with no touchdowns while rushing for 91 yards on 10 attempts and scoring once.

The Cardinals are now in the win column with their first victory of 2019 and the first of hopefully many for Murray in his young NFL career. Yes, it was against a Bengals team that’s in shambles. Yes, it took a Zane Gonzalez field goal to win it at the last second. But this young Cardinals team finally proved it can win a game after two weaker showing the previous two weeks against the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks.

Why does this win mean so much?

The Week 5 victory lets Cardinals fans know that things are turning around. Slowly indeed, but the team is headed in the right direction despite everything they have going against them right now (lack of talent, rookie quarterback and head coach, suspension of Patrick Peterson, etc.).

One of this team’s biggest issues is personnel, both on the defensive side of the ball and, mainly, the offensive line. The defense is bottom five in a lot of defensive categories and, in case you haven’t been watching, the O-line has been one of, if not the worst in football this year, giving up 21 sacks already through five games (third-most in the league).

On the coaching side, Kliff Kingsbury proved to have talent at play-calling and offensive scheming at Texas Tech, but so far in the NFL, he’s been a little more conservative with his play-calling, most notably within the red zone. The offense has been rather vanilla with the brunt of the load being put on Murray to escape the blitz and make throws outside of the pocket.

The four-wide receiver sets are interesting and the usage of David Johnson in the run game and split outside will eventually make this offense legitimate. But from what we’ve seen so far, it looks very much like Kingsbury is taking his time in adjusting to the NFL game. He’s a rookie offensive-minded head coach who was previously in the Big 12 (where defense nary an appearance) and his quarterback only started 14 games for Oklahoma in his entire college career.

Both Kingsbury and Murray are learning the pro game. But here’s where it’s about to get good for this Cardinals team.

In Week 6, they host Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons at home. After that, they should be getting Patrick Peterson back from his six-game suspension, which will undoubtedly strengthen the defense on the back end and take pressure off an overworked cornerback group.

The schedule also lightens up for them. Up to this point, they’ve faced teams that are currently over .500. Now they get Atlanta with the New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Pittsburgh Steelers with some favorable division matchups mixed in there as well.

This team is going to start winning games and playing the tough teams closer. They are by no means a playoff team, but these guys are going to make a little noise down the back nine of the season.

And pretty soon, they are going to be a legitimate division threat in a stacked NFC West that features the likes of Jared Goff, Russell Wilson and Jimmy Garoppolo, along with their stellar coaching staffs. Watch this division in the coming years because it may feature three playoff teams on a yearly basis.