As the smarter, less-yelly national sports talk shows explained why Mel Kiper Jr.’s complaints about the trendy use of cover-2 defenses was off the mark, some pointed directly at the Arizona Cardinals for evidence about how to force a defense’s hands.

Run. The. Ball.

If you do, opponents will be forced to move their safeties into the box, closer to the line of scrimmage. And if they do that, then offenses can start taking deep shots — the ones Kiper claims he misses in the pro game so much.

Arizona’s run game and offensive line continuing to hammer opponents will likely force defenses out of constant deep safety coverages. That theory will again be tested Sunday against a physical Detroit Lions defensive front at State Farm Stadium.

But so far, the Cardinals have liked what they’ve seen through a 1-1 start. They’re either baiting teams out of cover-2 or taking advantage of opponents who refuse to load the box.

“I think the offensive line is doing a good job to open up holes in the run game and the backs are doing a good job of gaining positive yards and staying out of long down and distances,” Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort told Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Friday.

“Kyler (Murray) has made plays from the pocket and made off-schedule plays. … That always helps when you can have those explosives and those chunk plays and not forced to have those long, drawn-out drives because those are tough to do, to finish off.”

To that point: The Cardinals are averaging 6.83 yards to go on third downs this season — a positive sign with the ranges by team usually spanning 6.0 to 8.0 yards for a full season.

Arizona’s early down efficiency has led to the team pacing the NFL in third-down conversion rate (58.3% or 14 of 24).

The Cardinals also lead the NFL in average drive length (42.1 yards).

Perhaps that efficiency comes down to earth with more games played, but the strong start is undeniable. Arizona ranks fourth in rushing yards per game (177.5) and is fifth in yards per rush (5.5).

The Cardinals’ run game has gotten props this week from ESPN’s Mina Kimes to Yahoo! Sports’ Nate Tice.

It’s especially impressive after Arizona lost starting right tackle Jonah Williams in Week 1 and was already switching last year’s right tackle, Paris Johnson Jr., to left tackle. Johnson is playing alongside newcomer left guard Evan Brown.

“Paris has done a great job with that transition,” Ossenfort said. “He worked on that in the offseason and really went into overdrive on it here in the spring and then training camp and early on in the season here. Paris had experience playing on the left side there at Ohio State, so it wasn’t anything new to him. There are certainly plays he feels that he can get better on and I know that he will. The one thing about Paris that I know, is he is going to constantly work on his craft.

“I think he’s going to have a good measuring stick this week in Aidan Hutchinson lining up with him on the other side. If Paris wants a measuring stick, he’s got a good one coming in this week.”

And the Arizona Cardinals have run with that strong offensive line play …

The running game led by back James Conner and Murray has set up everything else, including the chunk plays.

Murray hit on all five deep balls last week in a win against the Los Angeles Rams.

Ossenfort has liked how it’s been doses of different contributors at different positions, too.

“Whenever offensively you can be multiple it really presents problems for the defense,” the general manager said. “When Kyler is doing the things Kyler can do … it really brings a dilemma to the defense.

“I think the more we can continue to do that and put our offensive skill players in positions to make the plays and our offensive line continues to get moving in the run game, I think that’s where we want to be.”

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ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky is very high on Kyler Murray after the Arizona Cardinals quarterback’s Week 2 performance against the Los Angeles Rams.

“It’s probably the best I’ve ever seen Kyler play,” Orlovsky said on Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Tuesday. “If you just look at the totality of the game, you get that for the majority of season, you’re looking at a guy that’s gonna be firmly in the MVP conversation.”

In the Cardinals’ 41-10 victory, Murray completed 17 of 21 pass attempts (81.0%) for 266 yards, three touchdowns and had a perfect 158.3 passer rating.

Murray also ran for 59 yards on five carries.

Why is ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky so high on Kyler Murray this year?

Orlovsky admitted that he was critical of Murray’s ability to get through progressions in the past, but he believes Murray has looked a lot more comfortable making reads this year.

“I didn’t see that consistently really over the past couple of seasons,” the ESPN analyst said. “So getting through progressions in an efficient way and a timely way and just sometimes you got to make a boring choice, and I thought he did that at a good pace. I thought that he made the appropriate throw and the type of throw on a consistent basis.”

Murray completed all five of his passes of at least 20 air yards for 156 yards and three touchdowns on Sunday. According to Next Gen Stats, that perfect completion rate had a probability of just 0.3%.

And while Murray dished the ball to seven different teammates in Sunday’s win, the quarterback went to rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. more often than anyone else. The rookie caught four passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns.

“Yeah, I think the big thing is walking the fine line of not lining him up in the same spot all the time,” Orlovsky said about Harrison. “So making sure that you’re moving him around but also not overwhelming him with information that’s going to slow him down.”

Orlovsky also thought Murray has been a lot better in play-action after being critical of Murray in play-action situations in the past.

“Again, something that I’ve been critical about him not doing a good enough job in is operating the play-action game in a manner of full-field progressions,” Orlovsky said. “I thought that was really good and then obviously he made three or four plays that, you know, really only four people on the planet are probably making, him being one of them.”

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Kyler Murray threw a perfect game — in passer rating terms — rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. showed up big-time and the Arizona Cardinals pass rush got to the Los Angeles Rams’ Matthew Stafford.

The combination of such things led to a 41-10 win for Arizona (1-1) against a team it hadn’t beaten at State Farm Stadium since 2014.

After a close loss at Buffalo to begin the year, we touched base with our show hosts and writers to take the temperature of the Cardinals immediately after the Week 2 victory.

Here’s what they’re taking away from a dominating performance against Los Angeles.

Our reactions to Cardinals blowing out Rams in Week 2

Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf & Luke: The Cardinals came into this game 3-19 in their last 22 games at State Farm Stadium. They hadn’t beaten the Rams in Arizona since 2014 — when they were the St. Louis Rams and Andre Ellington was the Cardinals’ leading rusher — and they were just 2-13 in their last 15 against the Rams overall.

Oh yeah, they were also 1-11 in the division since 2022.

Their response? Hand Sean McVay his most lopsided loss ever.

That’s a pretty good response, and it started with Marvin Harrison Jr. The first two scores of the game came courtesy of Marv, and they were the kind of electrifying plays that make you believe this offense is capable of anything now that he’s here.

Maybe it is. The Cardinals have put up 69 points through two games — second only to New Orleans as I write this — and they’ve done it against two pretty strong opponents in the Bills and Rams. Kyler Murray’s passer rating Sunday was a perfect 158.3. The Cardinals outrushed LA by 178 yards (231 to 53).

And it’s possible MHJ might simply be uncoverable on some plays.

On top of all that, you could make the argument that Sunday’s performance by the defense was the most encouraging part. Budda Baker was everywhere, starting with a huge fourth down stop on Cooper Kupp early. This was one of those games where it looked like there were seven or eight Buddas on the field, and his teammates followed his lead. Dennis Gardeck had three sacks, Zaven Collins and Krys Barnes each added one apiece, L.J. Collier recovered a fumble and Arizona stifled Kyren Williams — the running back who torched them for 362 total yards and three touchdowns last season — to just 25 yards on the ground.

Baker summed it up afterward the way you would expect him to sum it up: “This proves we can win one game.” He’s right of course, but now that narrow loss in Buffalo last week looks a lot more acceptable, if not flat-out encouraging, especially after what the Bills did in Miami on Thursday. And the Week 2 performance was a glimpse of the best-case scenario that the most optimistic Cardinals fans have been envisioning since April. It’s not a mere hypothetical anymore though, it’s reality. It happened. Now they just have to figure out how to do it consistently.

Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: You’ve heard of things ending not with a bang but a whimper? This was a bang. A big, loud, window-rattling bang. An eight-game division losing streak. Over. A decade without a win at home over the Rams. Done. Nineteen losses in their last 22 games at home? I suppose TBD, but that sure feels like it’s over. If it is, and if the Sean McVay reign over the Cards is over (or at the very least on hold), now we’re talking.

I suppose you could say that given the Rams’ injury situation, that this was expected, and with the state of their offensive line maybe we shouldn’t be surprised the Cardinals won. It was the dominance of the win; a roundhouse 40-burger dropped on their personal tormentor in front of a home crowd that’s been starving for that moment in this building. The defense hit some notes that most didn’t think they had in them. James Connor continues to do the nasty work.

But mostly this will be remembered as the day Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. displayed the chemistry that would make Walter White jealous. It was humorous and revealing to hear Harrison bemoan that Murray’s only four incompletions were to him. The two jaw-dropping touchdowns and Murray’s literal perfect passer rating weren’t enough to satisfy. He wants more and so do we.

Is this the win that validates the belief — or at the very least the possibility — that the Cardinals are better than most think? It is truly too early to say. But this result, in this building, against that coach, with those two players leading the way is as good of a starting point as anyone could ask for.

John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo: Simply the best game I believe I have seen Kyler Murray play. We wanted elite. We got elite. Forget the perfect rating. To me, his ability to make precision passes, the touch on his deep ball, the ability to create time and space for his receivers to get open and his football IQ were on full display.

The Cardinals exorcised some demons against McVay and the Rams and turned this game into a bloodbath early. Murray could not have played any better. First drive: touchdown. Second drive: touchdown. Third drive: touchdown. Fourth drive: field Goal.

First drive of the second half: touchdown. Cardinals up 31-3. Game over. Absolutely nothing not to like.

The degree of difficulty on the first touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison Jr. — I mean how many quarterbacks in this league can make that pass? The second touchdown to MHJ in which he rolled right to buy time as Harrison crossed the field then turned up the field was a thing of beauty. My favorite play was the third touchdown: Murray’s improvising and scrambling ability made Jared Verse miss tackling him not once but twice and Braden Fiske as well as he found Elijah Higgins for a touchdown to cap a 13-play, 99-yard drive. Nothing not to like today. Kyler played like a top-tier Quarterback and gave Cardinals fans a reason to believe in not only him but this season.

Tyler Drake, Cardinals reporter and co-host of the Cardinals Corner podcast: We gave the Cardinals a lot of (warranted) grief last week for their midgame adjustments, or lack thereof. Marvin Harrison Jr. was a nonfactor, there were no deep balls and the defensive pressure was nearly nonexistent. Just a tough look overall for a team that came out firing in Buffalo.

Against the divisional bully Los Angeles Rams, though, the Cardinals made all those adjustments we all were screaming about just a week prior.

Harrison nearly saw his target share (eight) triple and found the end zone twice. The Cardinals also looked deep at a much higher rate. They didn’t hit on all them, and they didn’t need to! Just the threat alone was huge. And last but not least, the Barbarian showed flashes of his 2020 self, racking up three sacks in the win and leading a much-improved pass rush.

Even when things went wrong – James Conner fumble into a Trey McBride touchdown – the Cardinals still came out on top on Sunday.

There haven’t been many complete games like this for Arizona in quite some time. Relish in this one a little more, Cards fans, especially knowing the stranglehold L.A. has had on Arizona for just about the past decade.

Kellan Olson, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night: I’m going to go under a decent assumption here that most of the words you’re reading are about Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr., deservedly so. I’ll zag here and toss a ton of credit the defense’s way. Yes, the Rams’ offensive line was shorthanded. Yes, Puka Nacua was out and Cooper Kupp only played half this game. But Arizona’s defense was in such a shaky position coming into the season and after Week 1 that we didn’t know if it could take advantage of a vulnerable group like the Rams.

The Cardinals did. Emphatically. Outside of Budda Baker’s lone blunder on a deep completion, it was a signature performance from him. The front seven did well to close up gaps in the run game while a questionable secondary wasn’t put to much of the test thanks to a pass rush that was indeed capable enough to pounce on a wounded pass-blocking unit. Dennis Gardeck had three sacks, continuing to be a compiler no matter his role.

This just looked like a game when defensive coordinator Nick Rallis pushed all the right buttons and was a step ahead of Sean McVay. A reminder to toss just about zero blame his way when this defense inevitably falters due to its shortcomings.

This was the type of stuff good football teams do. You have a divisional rival in town you know you can beat in what is very likely the second-most winnable game on the schedule until December. Arizona dominated ’em. If you want to talk about litmus test games, let’s see what this team is really all about next week against a 1-1 Detroit Lions squad.

Mitch Vareldzis, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night: BEAT L.A. BEAT L.A. BEAT L.A. That was the most fun I’ve had watching the Cardinals play a football game since I started working here in 2018.

*Stefon from SNL voice*

This game had everything! Marvin Harrison Jr.’s breakout with two touchdowns. A pass rush led by Dennis ‘The Barbarian’ Gardeck. And Kyler Murray getting that pest of a monkey off his back in beating the Rams, Sean McVay and doing it in front of a home crowd. I’m additionally way more excited for when the Lions come to town next week. The Cardinals have a chance to show dominance for a second consecutive week against one of the best in the NFC.

Kevin Zimmerman, ArizonaSports.com lead editor: I was told by a man — whose name starts with a W and rhymes with “gulf” — not to apply the transitive theory when the Bills rolled over the Miami Dolphins on Thursday. But I am going to lean on that result harder in judging the third-party Cardinals and say it appears that Arizona competing with Buffalo said a lot.

Because against the Rams, the defensive line didn’t look bad. The offensive line got the run game going easily. And of course, the passing game found Marvin Harrison Jr. — for a quarter at least.

It was predictable a good football team could beat the Rams, whose offensive line was decimated and whose receiving corps was without its Nos. 1 and 2 by the end of the game Sunday. But to beat Los Angeles by 31 — and to beat coach Sean McVay by 31 — means a loss to Buffalo should at the very least not mean the high preseason expectations haven’t been met on Arizona’s end.

After two games, they’re within reach of the highest of expectations.

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Former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin doesn’t doubt Marvin Harrison Jr.’s talent but believes the rookie needs time to develop following his underwhelming NFL debut.

Harrison had one catch for four yards on three targets during the team’s season-opening loss against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

“When you have a guy (Harrison) that talented, you have to move him around and find ways to get the ball in his hands to make him comfortable early on and find that rapport with the quarterback,” Boldin said when he joined Wolf & Luke on Tuesday.

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Boldin had a different first-game experience when he entered the league.

On Sept. 7, 2003, Boldin made his NFL debut with the Cardinals and finished the game with 10 catches for 217 yards and two touchdowns.

“I had the opportunity to come in right away and show the team what I was able to do,” Boldin said of his rookie season.

The 14-year NFL veteran emphasized the importance of wide receivers building relationships with their quarterbacks by working and going through reps together before games.

Harrison’s only preseason appearance was on Aug. 10 during the Cardinals’ game against the New Orleans Saints, where he played a total of three snaps. Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray did not play during the preseason.

Boldin said playing everyone in the preseason is a “necessary evil” that coaches must do to help players get a feel for the game. When reflecting on his NFL career, Boldin explained how training camp and the preseason allowed him to perfect his timing.

“It’s tough to simulate what the game is going to be like if you don’t play in the preseason,” Boldin said.

Harrison began his first professional game with high expectations from Cardinals fans and team officials who predicted the Ohio State alum would produce immediately.

Boldin noted that social media has added immense pressure to young players and believes it will intensify for Harrison ahead of the Cardinals’ home opener on Sunday against the team’s NFC West rivals, the Los Angeles Rams.

“I’m sure every time he picks up his phone, he’s going to hear about it,” Boldin said.