ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — When running back James Conner powered into the Buffalo Bills’ end zone late in the second quarter to give the Arizona Cardinals a 17-3 lead, the Buffalo home crowd of 70,542 got eerily silent.
Arizona moved the ball at will during its first three drives of the season opener on Sunday afternoon, deploying a nearly-balanced attack to dominate the Bills.
The silence didn’t last for long as the Bills were able to make it 17-17 one drive into the second half before the Cardinals fell short 34-28.
In the first half, Kyler Murray completed 16-of-19 pass attempts to seven different receivers, throwing for 130 yards and a touchdown. He, running backs Conner and Trey Benson combined for 16 rushes for 59 yards. Murray had this entire offseason to prepare in offensive coordinator Drew Petzing’s scheme after an ACL tear in December 2022 sidelined him for last year’s preseason programming.
“If we could clip three drives of what our offense wants to look like, I think that first drive is what our offense needs to operate like at all times,” wide receiver Michael Wilson said, who capped the team’s first drive with the first touchdown of the season.
Wilson’s touchdown was the first time Arizona had scored on its opening drive since 2015 and first time it did it on the road since 2003. Everything the Cardinals did was clicking because they stayed on schedule, Murray said.
“That’s the biggest thing, really, staying on schedule,” Murray said. “When you’re on the road, coming out first game, haven’t really played football in a long time, live atmosphere like that, coming out against a great team, you don’t wanna be going backwards.
“Negative plays and stuff like that kill drives, kill momentum. We played clean. We continued to march forward. So, I think that was the difference in the first half.”
By halftime — although they gave up a late touchdown — the Cardinals dominated time of possession, 20:06 to 9:54.
Gannon said Arizona started the game with a heavy dose of Conner because the Bills came out playing a shell defense. He touched the ball on the first six plays — four runs and two catches — single-handedly moving Arizona from its own 30 to deep inside Bills territory. Conner finished with 50 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, and three catches for 33 yards.
“I thought the run game looked good,” Gannon said. “He looked good today.”
While the Cardinals were able to move the ball with ease early, they were tempered throughout the game.
Murray averaged only 2.9 air yards per completion and failed to complete a single pass thrown 10 or more yards downfield, finishing 0-of-6 on those throws, according to ESPN Stats & Information. It was the first time he failed to complete such a throw in a game since Week 14 of 2022, when he only threw one pass.
Not being able to connect on an explosive play was one of the reasons Arizona’s offense stalled in the second half.
Out of the Cardinals’ 11 second-half points, the offense scored three points and gained 80 total yards after halftime as the Bills clawed their back to win. Gannon said the Bills stacked the box more in the second half, which stuffed the Cardinals’ run game.
Arizona’s early offensive success was without much contribution from first-round pick Marvin Harrison Jr., who finished the game with just one catch for 4 yards on three targets. They were the fewest receiving yards by a receiver taken in the top five during his debut since Desmond Howard — who had no yards in 1992 — and fewest yards by a receiver taken in the top 10 during his debut since Mike Williams had three in 2005, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Murray said Harrison’s involvement in the offense — or lack thereof — was part of the natural flow of the game. Same went for Wilson’s involvement, whose only catch on five targets was the touchdown.
“There wasn’t any not not trying to get them the ball,” Murray said.
Harrison was active on the field. In 54 of 60 offensive snaps, he ran 33 routes, the most among Cardinals. Gannon said the Bills were playing cloud coverage against Harrison and made it a point to take the rookie receiver out of the offense. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Harrison ran 11 routes against man coverage, including one of the final play of the game when Murray heaved a pass from the 29 to receiver Greg Dortch in the end zone, and was not targeted on any of them.
When talking about a missed back-shoulder throw to Harrison in the first quarter, Murray pointed out that Sunday was the first time he and Harrison played together, adding that “we will click. We’ll get better.”