Kyler Murray reveals he has a different way of dealing with frustration after Cardinals losses

Kyler Murray had every right to be frustrated after Sunday, which the Arizona Cardinals were demolished by the Kansas City Chiefs in a game the home team was never competitive. Arizona was a playoff team last season, but looked more like an organization filled with offseason distractions than a group preparing for a Super Bowl. 

Murray was visibly frustrated after the loss, as the Cardinals fell to 0-1 for the first time since he joined the franchise in 2019. Losing isn’t in Murray’s vocabulary, but he’s handled it in a much different capacity than in years past. 

“I think there’s like a fine line of taking what happened, taking the experience and using that to get better the next week,” Murray said at his weekly media session Wednesday. “Coaching guys like, ‘Where did we mess up? Where can we get better? What was I thinking? What was he thinking?’ Grow that way because the differences between college is one game matters.

“In the NFL, you can still make the playoffs and it’s different in college. I don’t want to say those games mean more. Every game matters and to me its equal, but you can’t just be down in the dumps. You’ve got get over it. You’ve got another team the next weekend.”

While Murray doesn’t condone losing — especially how the organization has gone from doormat to playoff team in three years — he’s not going to dwell on it for days or let it carry over into preparation for the next week. Perhaps the new contract has something to do with it, but Murray may have a heightened sense of maturity.

“You can only lose so much until it starts to boil over and stuff like that,” Murray said. “I’ve been here in this organization and since I’ve been here, we’ve gotten better each year, but it’s still not the standard, not how I’m used to playing and how I’m used to doing things on a football field. 

“Closed mouths don’t get fed. That’s how I see it. Anyway, I can give my energy and give my mental to a young guy or somebody that may not be doing the right things then I’ve got to do it.”

Murray finished 22 of 34 for 193 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions in Sunday’s loss, but both those touchdowns came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand. The Cardinals were blown out by the Chiefs and looked like a shell of the team from last season — and more like the team that finished the year losing five of their last six games. 

Perhaps the way Murray handles frustration in the locker room is what the Cardinals need. The Cardinals did pay him as the face of the franchise after all. 

“He’s done a much better job of talking through things and not just getting mad,” Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “Now he’ll pull a guy aside and say, ‘This is what I was expecting. This is why I was mad.’ That’s a big step. 

“As a young player, he’s said all along he just came in here without training wheels and we threw him in and he had to figure it out, but you can see that type of leadership and actually coaching guys through it. He’s an expert in offense and it has really been a big step for him this season.”