Former Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury helped lead the Washington Commanders to a dominating 42-14 win over the Cardinals in his return to Arizona as Washington’s offensive coordinator.
The Commanders (3-1) outgained the Cardinals (1-3) 449-297 in total yards, as Kingsbury, former Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels and the rest of the Washington offense did whatever they wanted to Arizona’s defense, while the Commanders defense stifled Kyler Murray.
Daniels now has the best completion percentage through four games of any quarterback all-time at 82.1%, as he connected on 26 of his 30 pass attempts for 233 yards, a touchdown and had his first-career interception. The Commanders notched 216 rushing yards, including 101 by Brian Robinson Jr., 68 by Jeremy McNichols (filling in for the injured Austin Ekeler) and 47 by Daniels. All three of these players scored a touchdown on the ground, while McNichols found the end zone twice. Terry McLaurin caught a touchdown pass for the second-straight week, as he ended with seven catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.
Murray only managed 142 yards in the air, completing 16-of-22 throws and finding Marvin Harrison Jr. for a touchdown on the Cardinals’ opening drive, their fourth score in four games on their first offensive possession. Arizona did record 182 rushing yards, led by James Conner who had 18 carries for 104 yards and a touchdown. Harrison did not do much after the first quarter, but still ended the afternoon as the team’s leading receiver with five catches for 45 yards.
The Cardinals entered the game tied for the league lead in tackles for loss through three weeks, but only mustered one tackle for loss. The Commanders averaged 6.7 yards per play and scored on seven of their nine possessions, while the Cardinals only scored twice on nine drives.
Washington’s pass rush was very effective all game, as the Commanders, who did not have a good defense statistically entering today, had four sacks against Murray.
Here’s how the game shaped out:
Game Flow
First Quarter
The Cardinals returned the opening kickoff all the way to the their own 45-yard line. The very first play, Murray found Harrison for a nine-yard gain. Conner then quickly got Arizona all the way to the Washington 11-yard line with his first three rushes going for over 30 yards combined. The Commanders were able to force Arizona into a fourth-and-inches at the one-yard line, when Murray found Harrison along the right sideline of the end zone for the fourth receiving touchdown of his young NFL career.
This pass was Murray’s 100th career touchdown pass. The Cardinals led 7-0 after Matt Prater’s extra point with 9:54 left in the first quarter.
Arizona forced two early third downs for the Commanders, but they were able to pick up both of them. Using a hurry-up offense, Washington quickly got into the red zone and capped off a nine-play, 70-yard drive with a six-yard touchdown rush by Brian Robinson Jr. to tie the game at 7 with 5:13 remaining in the first quarter.
Arizona advanced the ball beyond midfield on its second drive, but Murray overshot Michael Wilson on third-and-nine, forcing the Cardinals to punt the ball away. Blake Gillikin had a nice punt, pinning the ball at the Washington seven-yard line with 2:39 to go in the period.
Washington’s offense continued to click despite the poor field position, as it converted a third-and-four and had the ball at its 29-yard line as time expired in the first quarter with the game tied at 7.
At the end of the quarter, Murray was 5-for-7 for 36 yards and a touchdown. Conner rushed seven times for 44 yards and Harrison caught three passes for 21 yards.
Daniels was perfect through the air, completing all five of his throws for 43 yards. Robinson had seven carries for 45 yards and a touchdown.
Second Quarter
The Commanders converted their fourth third down on four tries on the second play of the second quarter on a third-and-two. After another third down conversion, McNichols ran into the end zone from 27 yards out on only his second carry of the game to put Washington ahead 14-7 with 10:18 left in the first half.
The Cardinals went three-and-out after the kickoff, as Murray once again could not connect with Wilson on third-and-one.
Washington started its next drive at its 20-yard line after the punt and looked to be driving once again. However, Daniels threw an errant pass over McLaurin on a seam route and Garrett Williams was able to highpoint the ball with one hand for an interception to give Arizona the ball at its 18-yard line with under seven minutes to go in the half down seven.
The Cardinals could not capitalize on the interception after Murray was sacked for a five-yard loss on second-and-10, and a screen pass to Greg Dortch on third down only got them seven yards. Arizona had to punt for the third time in four drives.
The interception gave the Arizona defense some juice, as the Cardinals were able to stuff Robinson for no gain and then a five-yard tackle for loss. The next play, they forced an incompletion, as Daniels looked for McLaurin deep over the middle on third-and-15. Washington had to punt for the first time since the fourth quarter of Week 1.
Arizona took over at its 30-yard line with 3:07 remaining in the quarter after the punt. With just over a minute left, Murray hit Wilson along the sideline for 11 yards to advance the ball to the Washington 45. Arizona then found itself in a fourth-and-one from the Washington 35 and Murray got sacked from behind for eight yards for a bad turnover on downs.
With only 29 seconds left, the Commanders were still able to quickly march down to the Arizona 27-yard line and drilled a 45-yard field goal as time expired to take a 17-7 halftime lead.
The Commanders outgained the Cardinals 220-122 in total yards in the first half, including 124 team rushing yards to 64 for Arizona.
Kyler Murray connected on 9-of-13 passes for 70 yards and a touchdown and was sacked twice. Conner ended the half with 12 carries on 55 yards. Harrison recorded three receptions for 21 yards and a touchdown in the half.
For Washington, Daniels was 11-of-13 for 96 passing yards and an interception and rushed six time for 28 yards. Robinson ran 12 times for 58 yards and a touchdown, while McNichols had three carries for 38 yards and a touchdown.
Third Quarter
After receiving the second-half kickoff, it only took three plays for Washington to score another touchdown. A bad pass interference by Cardinals cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting gave the Commanders 47 additional yards and the ball at the Arizona nine-yard line. The next play, Daniels ran off the edge on a quarterback keeper into the end zone to put the Commanders ahead 24-7.
The Cardinals had two straight holding calls to put themselves at a first-and-26 on the opening drive of the third quarter. Murray was then sacked on second down to set up a third-and-34 at the Arizona 6, forcing the Cardinals to run on third down and punt it away once again as boos rained down from the crowd.
Washington scored again on its next offensive possession, as an 11-play, 41-yard drive ended with a 38-yard field goal by Austin Seibert to give them a 27-7 advantage with 5:16 to go in the third quarter.
After another sack, the Cardinals found themselves in a fourth-and-12 situation at their own 49 and went for it with just over two minutes remaining in the third. Murray connected with Harrison for 19 yards to pick up the first down and more. They then played with tempo, as Conner went over 100 rushing yards for the game (104) and ran in for a six-yard touchdown to cap off a 11-play, 74-yard touchdown to cut the Washington lead to 27-14 with 11 seconds left in the third quarter.
Washington ran one last play in the quarter after a touchback on the kickoff, a four-yard rush by Robinson to its 34-yard line as time expired.
Both teams’ ground games were doing well through three quarters, as Washington had 159 rushing yards and Arizona had 121. In total, the Commanders had 292 yards of total offense compared to 220 for Arizona.
Fourth Quarter
The Commanders put the game away for good with a touchdown on third-and-goal with 8:30 remaining, as Daniels found McLaurin from 10 yards out. The Cardinals pass rush generated no pressure on the play, exemplary of what happened all night long. Washington went up 35-14 with a two-point conversion to former Arizona tight end Zach Ertz.
Things only got worse for Arizona, as Wilson fumbled away a 22-yard reception at the Washington 24 with 7:11 to go.
The Commanders offense was not done because the Arizona defense could not stop it at all. Washington pulled ahead 42-14 with 4:30 left after McNichols ran in from seven yards out to conclude an eight-play, 76-yard drive.
Trey Benson ran eight straight times when the Cardinals got the ball back and time eventually expired to cap off a severely disappointing loss.
Next Up
The Cardinals now hit the road after three-straight home games and will take on the San Francisco 49ers (2-2) in Week 5 on Oct. 6 at 1:05 p.m. MST. The Commanders take their three-game winning streak back home to host the Cleveland Browns (1-3) at 10:00 a.m. MST next Sunday.
