Anatomy of a Play: The hidden design behind the Cardinals’ ‘Hail Murray’ miracle

Kyler Murray’s Hail Mary pass to DeAndre Hopkins looked like noting more than a desperate flail. But there was method to the madness.

The term “Hail Mary” in a football sense was probably invented by Elmer Layden and Jim Crowley, two members of Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen backfield, in the 1930s. The more common origination of the desperation pass came in a divisional playoff game between the Cowboys and Vikings in 1975, when Roger Staubach heaved up a pass to receiver Drew Pearson with little time left, and Pearson caught it for the winning score.

(Never mind what looked to be uncalled offensive pass interference on the play; we’re talking about NFL history here).

“I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.” Staubach said years later.

Fast forward to the Cardinals’ 32-30 win over the Bills on Sunday, when the name changed to “Hail Murray” after Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray broke the pocket, moved to his left, and made an incredible throw falling away from the target. The play started with 11 seconds left on the clock and Buffalo up, 30-26.

Here, as you all know by now, is how it ended.

Receiver DeAndre Hopkins out-leaped three Bills defenders, including Tre’Davious White, the team’s best cornerback, and Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, the team’s two best safeties. He came down with one of the great successful desperation catches of all time, and that was that for the Bills. The Cardinals, for their reward, now own first place in the NFC West at 6-3.

On the game-winning drive, Murray completed all four of his passes to three different receivers (Hopkins, Larry Fitzgerald, and Andy Isabella) for 75 yards. The Cardinals were in “10” personnel for all four plays — four receivers, no tight ends, and running back Chase Edmonds in this case. This should have come as no surprise. Per Sharp Football Stats, Arizona came into this game with the NFL’s highest percentage of “10” personnel — on 21% of their offensive plays. Murray had completed 50 of 79 passes for five touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 90.2.

The Cardinals wanted to move quickly, so they ran two concepts out of “10” — empty backfields on the first two plays, and three-by-one sets on the last two. The three-by-one set forced the Bills to slant their coverage to the three-receiver side, with Hopkins as the iso receiver to the field.

(NFL Game Pass)

On the most consequential play, the Bills are playing a nickel defense (five defensive backs and linebacker Tremaine Edmonds), giving them the best possible matchup for whatever manner of magic Murray is about to try and create. White has Hopkins all the way down the field, Hyde drifts over to help after scanning the middle of the field, and Poyer jumps in late to try and add a body.

Not that it mattered.

“When I got ready to take the snap, I’m trying to diagnose the defense, see if there’s any holes,” Murray told NBC Sports’ Peter King after the game. “Anything easy. I still figured I probably had two plays, two shots at it. The play was designed to roll out left, like I said, and they did a good job of containing,”

The rollout left put the onus on Hopkins to get open. The only other throw that would have made sense in this case was the deep over to Fitzgerald from right to left. That probably wouldn’t have been a touchdown, and Fitzgerald would have to have gotten out of bounds on a long-developing play, somehow leaving any time on the clock. If that was a planned rollout, head coach and offensive play-designer Kliff Kingsbury was trying to cut the field in half for his quarterback.

“I looked downfield, I locked in on Hop. And what was weird was, he was the only player on our team in the end zone,” Murray continued. He would obviously have preferred more of his own guys in the end zone to increase the odds of a Cardinals player coming up with the ball.

Hopkins told King that he relied on a martial-arts background… of sorts.

“My brother and I used to watch a lot of Jet Li movies, so we used to always do quick things like kickboxing or catching things with our hands. One thing I remember we always used to do—we always used to catch flies with our hands. I was the only one that could catch them. I actually studied it, and I grew with it. I was like, ‘How do I catch flies?’ Flies always fly up. I would always just hit over it. And I thought: If I can catch flies, I know I can catch anything.”

As Mr. Miyagi often said.

Murray said that he hadn’t thrown many Hail Marys in his life, but he’ll never forget this.

“In high school we had a lot of moments. Never like this one, though. Last-second, I mean, this is the highest level. I really have had a lot of moments in my life… but this one, none can compare.”

In the moment, you had a coach who knew where his quarterback was most comfortable, a quarterback capable of making the play as few other NFL quarterbacks would have been, and a receiver who was ready to all Jet Li on everyone in a Bills uniform. That’s how the most remarkable play of the 2020 season so far came about.

“Luck is the residue of design” is a quote attributed to both John Milton and Branch Rickey, but it’s okay of the Cardinals want to rent it for a while. They certainly earned that right on Sunday.