Instant Grades: Cardinals Get Key Road Win

The Arizona Cardinals had highs and lows, but just enough to get another tight victory and build on Monday night's primetime win.

Oct 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner (6) celebrates with guard Hjalte Froholdt (72) after scoring a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Arizona Cardinals squeaked another win out on the foot of their replacement kicker, Chad Ryland. This is the first back-to-back win of the season and it came off some great performances and some particularly disappointing ones.

One thing is clear: even with this win it is still hard to truly know what the identity of this team is; however, the good news is that being .500 without that figured out yet is not too shabby and allows room for massive growth.

What the ceiling of this team is for the season as a whole is still up in the air, but let's focus in and grade how the position groups performed today in Miami.

Offense

Quarterback - A-

Oct 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) throws the football against the Miami Dolphins during the second quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Kyler Murray played a great game after a bad opening drive that saw back-to-back batted passes.

Stats: 26/36, 307 yards, 2 TDs

His performance was made even more impressive by the poor outing from his offensive line who seemed to be actively trying to sabotage his success. His ability to get himself out of sacks is one of the only reasons the stat line does not look much worse for that position group.

Murray started to come alive more in the second half and really started to sling it to his favorite ball-catchers, Trey McBride and Marvin Harrision, Jr. Sadly, there were no running game heroics this week but Murray looked good climbing the pocket and doing his best to operate within it even though the porous offensive line didn't always allow that to happen.

Maybe not the caliber of that Rams performance, hard to beat a perfect game, but a really solid performance from the growing quarterback who took his time and never seemed to get frazzled in this one.

Offensive Line - C

Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Hjalte Froholdt (72) celebrates a stop to end the first half by the defense as they play the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 15, 2024, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

For an offensive line that had not given up a sack in two weeks, there was expectation that they would keep playing at a high level. Sadly, not the case today.

They did not give up a significant number of sacks but that is due almost solely to Murray's ability to elude pass rushers on his own. The Dolphins' defensive front was getting great pressure most of the afternoon and putting pressure on Murray leading to mistakes and stalled drives.

Paris Johnson, Jr. has been good on the penalty front so far this year but did commit two uncharacteristic penalties in this outing that almost took the chance for victory out of his team's hands in the fourth quarter. Almost.

Disappointing regression for one of the shining lights of the offense so far in 2024.

Running Back - B-

James Conner is coming off a massive game on Monday night in which he went for over 100 yards on the ground and his fighting spirit nearly single-handedly lifted his team to a victory.

The Dolphins clearly watched a lot of tape and did a great job at bottling Conner up for the majority of the game and he only managed 53 yards on 20 carries. Still, his touchdown in the fourth quarter gave the Cardinals life and that is hard to quantify.

Rookie Trey Benson is still mostly a non-factor in the run game, but did have one Conner-esque carry for 10 yards and first down.

Tight End - A

Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride (85) celebrates during their 17-15 win over the Los Angeles Chargers at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Oct. 21, 2024. / Joe Rondone / The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Trey McBride is HIM. Simple as that.

Stats: 9 receptions, 124 yards, long of 37 yards

Another game as the leading receiver for his team and it all seems to come easy to him. His ability to get open and consistently bring down difficult balls is unmatched and he is easily solidifying himself as one of the league's top tight ends.

Wide Receiver - A

Oct 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (18) makes a catch against Miami Dolphins safety Jevon Holland (8) during the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Marvin Harrison, Jr. - the No. 4 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft - showed up to play today and showed the type of player everyone expected him to be.

Instead of being ignored after the first quarter, Harrison, Jr. saw seven target and brought down six of them to put up a 111 yard game with another beautiful, corner of the end zone, touchdown to go along with it.

Outside of Harrison, Jr., Michael Wilson was consistent like he usually is and Greg Dortch even made an appearance with a key 3rd down conversion in the third quarter.

Defense

Defensive Line - D

Sep 29, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Dante Stills (55) reacts in the second half against the Washington Commanders at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images / Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images

The Cardinals' defensive line might have had their best game of the season just six days ago on Monday Night Football, putting pressure on Justin Herbert and stopping the Chargers run game.

It was a completely different story this Sunday in Miami when the defensive line seemed to completely lose that identity and surrendered a monster game to De'Von Achane who had his way with this squad.

That old enemy, Raheem Mostert, even showed up to give his team a critical score early in the fourth quarter.

Tua Tagovailoa was coming back after several weeks on the bench in concussion protocol, but faced nothing approaching serious pressure from this Cardinals defensive line, the only sack coming from Dante Stills.

Linebackers - B-

Arizona Cardinals Kyzir White (7) chats with teammate Budda Baker (3) during training camp at State Farm Stadium on Aug 6, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

It's been a solid year so far for the linebacker group, but today was not their finest moment.

It wasn't even that the linebackers played particularly poorly, but they did not impact the game in the way they have in the past and did not clean up the defensive line's running game mistakes at the same rate as usual.

Kyzir White had a chance at an interception that touched his fingertips, but he can't be judged too much for what would have been a challenging catch for a professional pass catcher.

Mack Wilson tried to be around the ball, but did not have the same impact as usual and the absence of Dennis Gardeck was noticeable as there was nearly zero pressure off the edge all afternoon.

Secondary - C

Sep 29, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) against the Washington Commanders at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

What can one really say here? Tagovailoa was coming off a long absence and determined to prove himself, and that he did.

The Cardinals were missing their nominal CB1 in Sean Murphy-Bunting and rookie Max Melton faced a true baptism by fire and the Dolphins QB continued to look his way time and time again.

Melton still had some decent moments, like an important tackle for loss, but he showed his rookie colors and the best that could be said about this afternoon is that he kept getting up every time he was knocked down.

The true star performer from the group can be no other than Budda Baker who truly played like a man with his life on the line. Playing with reckless abandon, Baker flew around the field and lit up nearly everyone of the Dolphins roster at some (including a big hit and some yapping with Tyreek Hill early in the first quarter).

Special Teams - A+

Chad Ryland. MVP.

The fill-in kicker for an injured Matt Prater made magic happen yet again with his third game-winning kick of the season.

Another special teams shout-out to Dortch for racing down the field on a punt and pushing the ball out of the end zone to give the Dolphins a bad position of their own 4-yard line. Heads up play.