The Arizona Cardinals, quarterback Kyler Murray and receiver DeAndre Hopkins were the talk of the country after their improbable win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. Murray’s deep throw to the end zone to Hopkins was a touchdown with two seconds left in the game.
Whether you call it a Hail Murray or Holy Hop or anything, that play was not actually designed to be a Hail Mary throw.
Kliff Kingsbury explained it when he spoke to reporters Monday.
“It did not (go as expected),” Kingsbury explained. “Our number one receiver that we normally hit is coming across the field, we roll out to our left and try to hit him. But we saw Hop over there and basically aid hey if you like the look on Hop, take that shot.”
The play was designed to go to Larry Fitzgerald down the field but not all the way down the field. He came from the right side of the field all the way across about halfway down the field from the line of scrimmage. If it works out right, he catches the ball and gets out of bounds with a couple of seconds left, giving Murray and the Cardinals one more play from a reasonable distance.
They have kept that play in their back pocket for a while
“We practiced that play for two years, end-of-game situations,” Kingsbury said. “It was the first time we ran it in a game.”
Perhaps the end result is the same if Murray finds Fitzgerald 20 yards down the field, but this throw was one for the ages. It was a great job of moving and eluding the rush, an amazing throw and a perfectly played catch to win the game.
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