At halftime of Thursday night’s game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Seattle Seahawks, Sam Darnold and company led 14-3. As the football world waited for the game to resume, one question lingered over the Cardinals.
Do they have a Marvin Harrison Jr. problem?
The fourth-overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, the wide receiver entered Thursday night’s game with ten receptions on the year for 142 yards and a touchdown over Arizona’s first three games. There was also a pair of drops over those three games. Not brutal numbers, but not the numbers you expect from the fourth-overall selection, and the first non-quarterback taken in that draft class.
Things went from “not brutal” to brutal over the first half.
Kyler Murray threw this interception when it appeared that Harrison stopped running on the route while Murray tried to lead him to the middle of the field. That miscommunication led to the interception, and while the Cardinals would recover a fumble on the play and regain possession, it was not a good look for the offense:
Here is another look at the play, where Kirk Herbstreit seems to put the blame on Harrison:
After the game, Murray shouldered the blame for that play. But that did not stop the questions.
Nor did this next play. While that interception ended with the Cardinals regaining possession, this second interception from the first half did not.
And the blame was easier to assess:
With the Cardinals facing 3rd-and-11 just outside the red zone, Murray drives in a perfect throw to Harrison, who cannot secure the catch. Instead, the loose football ends up in the hands of Ernest Jones IV, and the Seahawks have their second interception of the game:
It was a 20-6 contest deep into the fourth quarter, as Seattle appeared to be on the verge of winning the game easily.
That is when Murray and the Arizona offense came alive, and Cardinals fans renewed their hope in the young wide receiver.
Arizona’s first touchdown of the night came on an incredible catch from Harrison, working against Devon Witherspoon, one of Seattle’s best defenders, in coverage:
You can almost see the relief in the receiver as he takes a moment in the end zone, on a knee, not to celebrate, but perhaps to savor.
Here is another look at that play from a different angle:
Harrison uses an inside release against Witherspoon on this corner route, getting inside the defender before breaking back outside. While Witherspoon is draped all over Harrison, Murray puts this throw in a perfect spot, and Harrison completes the play with a tough catch over the defender.
Harrison was not done, as a few minutes later, he made a tough adjustment on a slot-fade route — again working against Witherspoon — to extend another Arizona possession:
Witherspoon looked for intervention in the form of a flag for Offensive Pass Interference, but no such intervention would follow.
Arizona tied the game on that drive; however, Seattle ultimately won on a last-second field goal. While there are no moral victories in the NFL, you might excuse the Cardinals fan in your life who is trying to claim one, given what Harrison showed in the fourth quarter.
In that frame alone, the second-year WR caught all five of his targets for 42 yards and a touchdown.
“He needs me, I need him,” Murray said after the game. “This is a team sport, four-quarter game, and I understand he’s not coming out of the game. I don’t want him to come out of the game.
“So, we got to get this going. And that’s really just what it is. Just conversations on the sideline, keeping his confidence up.”
Murray admitted in his comments that while he believed the interceptions were on Harrison’s mind Thursday night, he continued to battle.
“I just think Marv expects so much from himself,” said the Arizona quarterback.
“But I love the way that he fought back and continued to play hard and continued to make plays,” Murray added. “Obviously, he’s probably going to go home thinking about that s—. But at the end of the day, again, it’s football. We all make mistakes. But he continued to battle. I’m excited.
“He played his ass off in fourth quarter,” Murray continued. “When he got man, he made [the] plays. The touchdown catch was an amazing catch. So, again, I got the utmost confidence in him. I think he should have it as well.”
Harrison’s coach also weighed in.
“I thought he came and lit it up in the second half,” said Jonathan Gannon.
“He wants to help the team win,” Gannon added. “He gets down on himself. He’s got to let that go and control the controllables, which for me for him is just play fast. Control your effort, your mode of play and play fast, and I thought that’s what he did.”
Arizona may have lost a game Thursday night.
But they might have secured another win in the end: The foundation for a better, more confident version of Marvin Harrison Jr.
