The Cardinals' offense - highlighted by the Murray-to-Harrison combo - dazzled on the way to a halftime lead. Murray found Harrison for a yard touchdown on the first drive, a yard touchdown on the second drive and then somehow evaded three Rams defenders before hitting tight end Elijah Higgins on an yard touchdown on the third drive for a advantage. Arizona snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Rams at State Farm Stadium, and won for just the third time in 16 tries in the NFC West rivalry.
James Conner ran for a five-yard score on the first drive of the third quarter, high-stepping into the end zone for a lead. Conner finished with yards rushing and the year-old passed 5, yards on the ground for his career. Harrison had yards receiving. Dennis Gardeck had a pair of sacks. Matt Prater booted two field goals, including one from 57 yards that made it While Arizona's offense was thriving, Los Angeles was sputtering. Matthew Stafford was sacked three times in the first half and the Rams couldn't find the end zone.
On the final play of the second quarter, coach Sean McVay elected to go for a touchdown from the 4-yard line instead of kicking a field goal, but Stafford's pass sailed well over Tyler Johnson's head and out the back of the end zone. To make matters worse, star receiver Cooper Kupp left in the second quarter with an ankle injury and didn't return. The Rams have had a rough run of injuries through the first two weeks, putting three key players on injured reserve this week.
Harrison's first NFL touchdown catch wasn't easy. The rookie receiver made a tough snag in the back of the end zone, getting both feet down and hanging on to the football as he fell to the ground. The rookie - who was the No. Murray rolled out to his right before hitting the wide open receiver and the Cardinals had a lead barely six minutes into the game.
Harrison became just the 13th receiver since to have at least yards receiving in the first quarter. Harrison was much more productive than in his debut last week, when he caught just one pass for 4 yards in a loss to the Bills.
