The first three quarters of Thursday night's Cardinals-Seahawks contest were very bad for second-year wideout Marvin Harrison Jr.
Thought to be the best wideout of the 2024 class, Harrison was taken with the fourth pick in the draft. He didn't have a very good rookie season but expectations were high entering 2025. Harrison failed to live up to those expectations in the first three weeks of the year and seemed to crater entirely against Seattle in front of a primetime audience on Thursday Night Football.
His routes were not crisp, he was failing to make any kind of impact on the offense, and then a drop turned into an interception. It all left fans and analysts alike to wonder if we were all watching Harrison's potential go up in flames in front of our very eyes.
Then the fourth quarter began and the young wideout was an entirely different player. After recording only one catch in the first half Harrison caught five balls in the second half. One went for a touchdown and was incredibly impressive. Another was a critical, difficult catch on the Cardinals' game-tying drive that led directly to a touchdown. Arizona still lost, obviously, but Harrison put on a great show of resilience.
It did not go unappreciated by his teammates and coaches. Star QB Kyler Murray sang Harrison's praises after the contest, saying his teammate "played his a-- off," while head coach Jonathan Gannon was similarly effusive despite a tough last-second loss.
"At the end of the day, it's football, we all make mistakes," Murray said to reporters in his postgame press conference. "But he continued to battle. I'm excited and I'm glad he played his a-- off in the fourth quarter. When he got man (coverage), he made plays. The touchdown catch was an amazing catch. I got the utmost confidence in him and he should have it as well.
"He played his a** off in the 4th quarter"
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 26, 2025
Kyler on MHJ and his touchdown catch pic.twitter.com/HfY4kbJbvi
"The response was fantastic," Gannon shared. "I thought he came and lit it up in the second half... He got involved, made some big-time plays. The touchdown catch was a big-time play. Couple catches on those drives, he's winning one-on-one. I'm not worried about Marv at all. He's gonna be just fine... I thought he was resilient just like that whole crew is."
"The response was fantastic. … I'm not worried about Marv at all. He's going to be just fine. I thought he played faster today, too."
— Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) September 26, 2025
Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon liked Marvin Harrison Jr.'s response in the second half after a very rough start to the game. pic.twitter.com/naV4IbsjXx
Harrison's final statline of six catches for 66 yards and a touchdown isn't eye-popping. Nor is it what the Cardinals want out of him every week as a top-five draft pick in his second season with a talented quarterback throwing him the ball. But after how poorly the first part of the game went it was a very successful and perhaps important result for Harrison. We could very well end up looking back on the second half of TNF as a turning point for the young receiver.
The Cardinals fell to 2-2 with the loss and will next take the field against Titans on October 5.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Marvin Harrison Jr.'s Resurgent Second Half on 'TNF' Earned Big Praise From Cardinals .
