ORCHARD PARK — When Kyler Murray’s pass soared down the left sideline, Ja’Marcus Ingram knew it was his time to make a play.
As the ball reached Arizona Cardinals receiver Greg Dortch at the 2-yard line, Ingram stuck his arm into Dortch’s chest in just enough time to knock the ball away. It preserved a 34-28 season-opening win for the Buffalo Bills and allowed Ingram to earn a little redemption from the game’s first drive.
Playing in just his sixth NFL game, Ingram was thrust into action on third downs when cornerback Taron Johnson injured his forearm on the eighth play of the game fellow University at Buffalo alum Cam Lewis replaced Johnson at slot cornerback. On third and 13 from the Buffalo 25, Murray scrambled for 6 yards and tried to slide, Ingram was closing in at the same time and appeared to avoid contact completely, but not enough for the referee to throw a flag.
The personal foul extended the drive and the Cardinals scored three plays later on a 5-yard pass from Murray to Michael Wilson.
But throughout the game, Ingram told himself he would eventually make a play. And that’s what he did, running step-for-step with Dortch until he could knock the ball away on fourth and 7 with 32 seconds left in the game, leaving the Cardinals hoping for a penalty flag that never came.
“I wasn’t looking for a flag,” Ingram told the Gazette after the game. “I was really just looking for someone to celebrate with. I made the play. If they throw the flag, they throw the flag. We’ll line it up again and we’ll still beat them.”
Ingram’s tipped pass was fitting, considering the Bills did just enough on defense to win the game. Buffalo fell behind 17-3 in the second quarter with very few answers for Murray’s scrambling ability.
Arizona built a 17-10 halftime lead with Murray going 16 of 19 for 131 yards and a touchdown, while scrambling for 28 yards. Most of the damage done by the Cardinals came when beefing up with two- and three-tight end sets to overpower Buffalo’s five-defensive back defense.
The Cardinals averaged 6.5 yards per play on the 17 occasions they used those plays accounting for 109 of their 190 first-half yardage. But most of those yards were coming on scrambles and quick throws, as the Bills held Arizona to 3.7 yards per carry in the first half.
If the Bills could put Arizona in less advantageous third-down situations and force Murray to trow from the pocket, it would lead to mare defensive stops. In the second half, the Cardinals ran for 65 yards on nine attempts, but 29 came on one Murray scramble.
Outside of Murray’s runs, Arizona averaged 3.4 yards per carry for the game. And it was forced to rely on Murray’s arm more often, as none of the team’s three plays of 20-plus yards came on throws downfield. Murray went 5 of 12 for 31 yards and the Cardinals went from going 5 of 7 on third down in the first half to 2 of 6 in the second half.
Murray was also sacked four times in the second half — twice on third down — with Greg Rousseau getting two of his three sacks and Von Miller recorded a sack for the first time since Nov. 13, 2022.
“If I don’t get (the quarterback), somebody else is getting it,” Rousseau said. “We all just have that same dog mindset. When we had our chances when the game was declared and one-dimensional, we took advantage of it.”
{h2 style=”text-align: center;”}Penalties were a problem, but offense was crisp{/h2}
Maybe it didn’t seem like it early, but for all the concern about Buffalo’s offense not playing together in the preseason didn’t matter.
Aside from a fumble by Josh Allen that halted in a promising opening drive in the red zone, the Cardinals couldn’t stop the Bills. Buffalo proceeded to score on five of its next six drives and only punted twice in the game.
The Bills only had 10 points at halftime, as Allen only had five passing attempts and completed all of them. While they only had three 20-yard plays — a 23-yard pass to Dawson Knox, a 25-yarder to James Cook and a 28-yard grab by rookie Keon Coleman — Allen still averaged 10.1 yards per attempt.
Eleven of his 18 completions going for double-digit yardage, including his touchdown passes to Mack Hollins and Khalil Shakir in the third quarter. Allen finished the day 18 of 23 for 232 yards and accounted for all four of the team’s touchdowns.
The Bills also ran the ball 33 times for 130 yards, with Cooking running for 71 yards on 19 carries. The lone stain on the performance was penalties, with seven of Buffalo’s nine flags came on offense.
A 15-yard illegal hands to the face call on O’Cyrus Torrence negated an Allen touchdown run and they had to settle for a field goal. Meanwhile, the Bills were also flagged for false starts four times in the game.
“On the first drive, we came out and were able to run the ball and do what we needed to do,” Bills center Connor McGovern told the Gazette after the game. “ … We just felt the momentum building before half. If we get a score before half, we know can tie this game.”
{h2 style=”text-align: center;”}Special teams struggle{/h2}
Aside from a 53-yard kick return by Brandon Codrington and a tackle by defensive Casey Toohill at Arizona’s 4-yard line near the end of the first half, the Bills had some ugly moments on special teams in the game.
After going up 31-20 on an Allen touchdown run with 8:44 to play, DeeJay Dallas went 96 yards for a score on the ensuing kickoff. Dallas is the first player — preseason or regular season — to return a kick for a touchdown under the new kickoff rules.
The next kickoff saw Tyler Bass kick the ball out of bounds in an attempt to avoid Dallas returning another one. The infraction gave Arizona the ball at its own 40 and a chance to win the game with 1:56 left, an odd decision considering Bass kicked it for a touchback on the previous two kickoffs.
NOTES: Bills coach Sean McDermott did not provide any injury updates on Taron Johnson, Ty Johnson (knee) or Allen, whose non-throwing hand was taped up after scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter and received X-rays after the game.