“For me, I like to throw the ball around so that’s a little tough for me,” quarterback Kyler Murray said with a smile. “(But) you feel it. I’ve played with him for multiple years now, I kind of know when it’s that time … We knew we had to get him going.”
Getting Marvin Harrison Jr. “going” has been a familiar narrative for the team, but it is Conner’s ebb and flow that often is the Cardinals’ bellwether. Conner ripped off big runs early against the Rams to set the tone that day; he finished doing damage against the 49ers to spark the comeback.
Conner’s struggles against the Lions – only 17 yards – kept the Cards in a hole they couldn’t escape.
For a coach to turn to a player and lean on him at the game’s most crucial time matters.
“I have full trust in James,” coach Jonathan Gannon said. “He’s an asset that we have that not a lot of people have. He does a lot for us not just on the playing side (but) the psychological, the leadership side and the lead-by-example side.
“He just keeps the main thing the main thing, and he goes about his business, and he works, man. It’s comforting.”
Conner has an old-school vibe, preferring to have as much work as he can and feeling like he improves as he gets more carries and the defense absorbs more of his blows.
When Conner is out there like Sunday, crashing into bodies as he embraces B.Y.O.B., it can be some kind of party.
“We stuck with it,” Conner said. “That was the result.”
