The situation seemed fairly straightforward for Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals with the clock ticking down to zero and the Cards without timeouts late in their 30-23 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night: Spike the ball and get a shot at a very long Hail Mary in hopes of tying it up.
But the snap with five seconds left resulted in Murray NOT spiking the ball, his offensive line barely blocking and Aaron Donald ending the game by sacking the QB. Not great, even though the odds on coming back were slim.
Something clearly went wrong here. So what exactly happened?
What just happened…? 😳#RamsHouse | #RedSea
(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/e0uNRCy1p8
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) December 14, 2021
Yep, it probably was supposed to be a spike. From the Cardinals’ site:
“It was miscommunication between me and the O-line,” Murray said. “They thought it was spike, but it was just a heat-of-the-moment deal. I don’t even remember the call, what was being said in the helmet or anything like that.”
Oops. But the Cardinals are still among the elite teams in the NFL. At least there’s that!
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