Trace McSorley Gained Valuable Experience Despite Overtime Loss

Arizona Cardinals third-string passer Trace McSorley got his first NFL start on Sunday. Despite the loss, there's lessons that can roll over for the future.

It feels as if nothing can go right for the Arizona Cardinals this season. Injuries have plagued the roster from top to bottom and as a result, their 4-11 record shows. 

With just two weeks left in the season, now is all about taking advantage of opportunities. Third-string quarterback Trace McSorley did just that, getting his first NFL start on Christmas Day against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

The Cardinals fumbled a ten-point lead in the fourth quarter, ultimately letting Tampa Bay tie the game at 16-16 and forcing overtime before kicking a game-winning field goal with just over three minutes left to play. 

There are no moral victories in the NFL, yet McSorley says he learned plenty from his first experience as a starter. 

"Good and bad. I think, obviously, the No. 1 thing is we didn’t win the game, so that’s what’s going to linger, and that’s what’s going to hurt the most," he told reporters following the game. "There were some positives to come out of it, some things we’ve got to get cleaned up, and a lot of that will start with me coming into this week.

“It was good to get the reps during the week, be able to have communication with the coaches – what I liked, what I didn’t like, specific looks that I wanted to get again and those types of things that I hadn’t been getting. So from that standpoint, it was good and gave me confidence going into today. Once we did get into the game, I felt comfortable seeing what we had been seeing all week in practice and being able to execute the plays we had run during the week and installed.”

McSorley, a Penn State product, is perhaps the lone third-string quarterback in the league with his own viral fan song. After being snatched from Baltimore's practice squad, he's made himself comfortable in the desert

McSorley finished the night by completing 24-of-45 passing attempts for 217 yards and an interception. 98 of those yards came with Greg Dortch on the receiving end, a receiver who is widely viewed as under utilized in Arizona. 

Not with McSorley under center:

“(Greg) Dortch is a competitor. He’s one of those guys, every time he’s out there, he’s going to put it on the line. He’s a guy that you can definitely trust to make plays. Just get the ball in his hands and let him go to work," McSorley said. 

"He’s one of those guys that’s a quarterback’s best friend. He’s going to make every catch, so definitely a guy that we – in our locker room, in our quarterback room – got a ton of trust in Dortch. He’s done a great job working his tail off to get himself in this position. So give him all of the credit for getting ready for that.”

When a receiver has ten receptions, other pass-catchers are bound to be absent. Superstar receiver DeAndre Hopkins caught one pass on ten targets. While Hopkins says he's out there to help the team and won't demand a certain number of catches, McSorley acknowledges that's simply unacceptable. 

“They were doing a good job. They were showing off on ‘Hop’ (DeAndre Hopkins) a lot of times and then buzzing out underneath him, trying to take away some of the easy throws to him. There were squatting on him a little bit. There were times I could’ve gotten him the ball, and I’ve got to do a better job when those opportunities are there because of how dynamic he is and how good of a player he is," McSorley said. 

"I can’t let those opportunities slip and go away, so I’ve got to do a better job of getting him the ball when those opportunities are there.”

It feels as if it was the story of Arizona's season: Opportunity knocked, but the Cardinals squandered it. 

With two weeks left in the season and Colt McCoy still working his way back from a concussion, it's unknown if McSorley will again get the nod when the Cardinals travel to visit the Atlanta Falcons next week. 

He says he learned a lot in spite of the loss.

“Yeah, I learned a lot. I don’t want to make the exact decision of what those things were, but I think a couple plays a game that we can execute better, give ourselves an opportunity to win the game instead of having to go into overtime," he said. 

"Opportunity where we can get points on our first drive and get the ball out, find a way to not have the sack-fumble, that’s at least a field goal there, and then the pitch. Those two plays right now stick out for me and things that I can do better and be better on from here on out.”

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