The Arizona Cardinals take a league-leading 10-2 record into their marquee Monday-night clash against the Los Angeles Rams, seeking to clinch their first NFL playoff berth since 2015 with a victory.
Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray says the Cardinals — who have won all seven of their road games but are just 3-2 at home — need to get off to a hot start when they play for the first time in almost a month at their State Farm Stadium.
“That’s something that has to be different than it has been,” Murray said. “Our closer games have been at home. We’ve started slow at home. We’ve got to somehow bring that type of (away) energy and it’s got to be different, because what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working.”
The Rams are coming off a 37-7 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars last week and trying to gain ground on the Cardinals in the NFC West division.
Cards coach Kliff Kingsbury expects Murray to shine on the national stage.
Despite missing three games this season with an ankle injury the third-year pro is in the Most Valuable Player conversation along with veteran greats Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
This season he has become the fourth-youngest player ever to pass for 10,000 career yards and leads the NFL in passer rating. This season he completed at least 70 percent of his passes in half a dozen games. Against the Chicago Bears last week the nimble QB rushed for a season-high 59 yards and two touchdowns.
That was his first game back from injury, and Murray said he was, as expected, sore after it. But he expected to be at full strength against the Rams.
The Rams can pull within one game of the Cardinals in the division with a win. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is eager to make that happen and expunge the memory of a 37-20 loss to Arizona earlier this season.
“I think the later you get into the season, the games, you don’t have that many left. And you’ve got to go out there and make them count,” Stafford said. “It’s a big game in the division.”
With so much at stake, Murray, who won the prestigious Heisman Trophy, awarded to the top college player, has said he’s more focused on winning than individual awards, but he acknowledged this week it felt good to hear his name mentioned in the MVP discussion.
“As far as being mentioned up there with Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, those types of guys, those are guys you look up to, the best to ever play the game, so it’s definitely an honor,” he said. “Hopefully, we keep playing at a high level.”
Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Rodgers’s Green Bay Packers both have a chance to clinch playoff spots on Sunday, but each would need not only a win but help from other results.
‘Huge game’ in Tampa
Rodgers leads the Packers against NFC North rivals Chicago while Brady and the Super Bowl champion Bucs take on the Buffalo Bills.
Rodgers made headlines in the season’s first Packers-Bears clash in Chicago, where a sideline camera showed him shouting “I still own you” after scoring a touchdown in the Packers’ 24-14 victory.
Rodgers, a three-time NFL MVP, said he didn’t expect any blowback from Bears players on Sunday.
“That comment was to the fans who were giving me the bird,” he said. “But there’s trash talk every single time you play divisional games.”
In Tampa, the Bucs host the Bills in what Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians calls “a huge game for both teams.”
“Where we’re at now, everything is involved with the playoffs and the seeding and everything, plus we don’t want to lose at home.”
Among other games on Sunday, the NFC East-leading Dallas Cowboys take on division rivals Washington, who have won four straight.