Kyler Murray couldn’t get anything going and the Arizona Cardinals offense was stuck. James Conner came to save his team.

With less than two minutes left and the Cardinals trailed the Los Angeles Chargers 15-14. Conner took a short pass, turned upfield and traveled 33 yards to put the Cardinals within field goal range. Chad Ryland scored the game-winner as time expired and Arizona escaped with a 17-15 victory.

It was an ugly night for both offenses. The Chargers didn’t score a touchdown but still led within the two-minute warning because the Cardinals were no better. Justin Herbert had 349 yards but couldn’t find the end zone. Murray, like most of the season, didn’t manage many yards in the passing game.

But Conner, a hardened veteran, saved his team. He had 101 yards rushing and 51 yards receiving and he helped the Cardinals deflect any criticism of their offense due to the win.

“He’s a dog, he’s a workhorse,” Murray told ESPN after the game. “One of our leaders, one of our captains. A guy who comes to work every day and leaves everything to the guys. I can’t say enough about this guy, man. He’s a great teammate, a great person.”

A lackluster first half

Despite all the supposed star power at quarterback for the smaller of Monday night’s two games, there was very little excitement in the first half.

The Chargers didn’t score a touchdown. They had a good shot at one when Jalen Reagor caught a long pass from Justin Herbert, but Cardinals cornerback Starling Thomas V knocked the ball out just before Reagor scored, and it was recovered by Arizona in the end zone.

The Cardinals were supposed to have a good offense this season, but that wasn’t the case. That was evident in another sluggish half to start the game, although a short catch by Greg Dortch gave them a touchdown. Kyler Murray only had 74 yards passing in the first half.

It was a boring first half between two mediocre teams facing off against a better team, and on top of that, the game was steamy only for ESPN+ subscribers. It probably wasn’t what the NFL had in mind when it was planned.

Kyler Murray gives the Cardinals the lead

As we entered the second half of the year, there was no longer any reason for people to subscribe to a streaming service. Midway through the third quarter, the Cardinals had a third-and-1, so they replaced backup quarterback Clayton Tune just to make a quarterback sneak. He was stopped on third down and stopped again on fourth down. This is how the evening went for both teams.

At the end there was a big highlight. Early in the fourth quarter, Murray scrambled left, beat linebacker Junior Colson down the sideline and ran past him for a 44-yard touchdown. Murray’s passing wasn’t great on Monday night and it hasn’t been that way all season, but he can still use his speed to run past people. Like his other long touchdown run this season, Murray appeared to begin his celebration just a few feet behind the line of scrimmage, knowing he was gone.

Even though the Chargers hadn’t scored a touchdown until well into the fourth quarter, the Cardinals hadn’t done enough to keep them at bay. Los Angeles scored a field goal, a stop and then started a long drive. The Chargers got a big fourth down and went for it instead of making a field goal to keep the drive alive. That fourth down allowed Los Angeles to eat up most of the rest of the game. The Chargers scored a field goal with 1:54 left to take a 15-14 lead.

Arizona still had all three timeouts but didn’t have much to offer on offense all game. On the second play of the drive, Marvin Harrison Jr., who had a slow start to his rookie season, dropped a pass downfield, but there was a questionable, unnecessary roughness penalty on Chargers cornerback Cam Hart for a helmet-on Helmet hit against Harrison.

That set up Conner’s big play that led to the game-winning field goal. The Cardinals improved to 3-4, the Chargers fell to 3-3 and you had to wonder how they let this game slip away.