As he has for most of his life, Marvin Harrison Jr. stood at the center of attention this week, whether he wanted it or not. There was the immediate reaction to his zero-catch performance against the Seattle Seahawks, then furor as clips emerged of his apparent lack of effort.
Even in a sport that takes pride in its ability to block out the proverbial noise, Harrison and head coach Mike LaFleur acknowledged that they were aware of the national conversation. How could they not be?
So when the Arizona Cardinals arrived in San Francisco for their Week 3 matchup against the 49ers, all eyes were on Harrison. His performance, though, fell somewhere squarely in the middle.
In catching three of five targets for 40 yards, Harrison did not accelerate the
national panic surrounding his future, as another zero-catch day would have done. He also did not exactly quiet those concerns, as he could have done by matching Michael Wilson’s 11 catches for 89 yards and a touchdown.
LaFleur, though, seemed to think that Harrison could have had a bigger performance than his numbers indicated.
“I thought he responded nice,” LaFleur said. “He got to his spots. There were some opportunities in the intermediate (areas) where he's getting to his spots.”
LaFleur did not pin the Cardinals’ lack of explosive plays on quarterback Jacoby Brissett, calling the issues “all-encompassing.” But he seemed to think that there were opportunities left on the table, where the Cardinals could have pushed the ball downfield.
Through three games, the Cardinals have the league’s lowest explosive play rate. They’ve produced just two plays all season that have gone for over 20 yards.
“It's a real thing right now,” LaFleur said. “We're three weeks in, and we haven't been extremely explosive. And I know this: When you're trying to play good offensive football in this league, and you're having to do it through drives, drive in and drive out, it's tough. … At some point, we've gotta get a little bit more explosive.”
LaFleur: Cardinals rode ‘hot hand’ at running back
After two weeks of a mostly even split, Jeremiyah Love dominated the Cardinals backfield in Week 3. He saw 21 carries to Tyler Allgeier’s two, and out-snapped the veteran, 56 to 31.
LaFleur, though, indicated that such a drastic split was not quite the plan entering the game.
“Really, it was more the hot hand,” LaFleur said. “You could feel that. And hopefully it's like that every week, in terms of whoever we're giving the ball to, you just know that you're gonna get positive plays.”
Love finished with 90 yards on his 21 carries, while adding 19 yards and a touchdown on five receptions. His 109 scrimmage yards were the most by a Cardinals running back since Week 16 of the 2024 season.
“It stunk that our longest rush was only eight yards, but (the running backs) can't force that,” LaFleur said. “Those have gotta organically happen and they will. They'll pop.”
LaFleur slams Cardinals penalties
The Cardinals finished Week 3 with 10 penalties for 86 yards. They’ve now committed 24 penalties for 245 yards this season — the second-worst mark in the NFL.
On one offensive drive, they committed three pre-snap penalties — the exact type of infraction that LaFleur has decried as unacceptable for his unit.
In his press conference on Monday, Sept. 28, he harped on those issues in three separate answers.
“The common denominator is it's us, not them,” LaFleur said. “So we've gotta get it cleaned up, and they know that.”
Cardinals avoid injuries
The Cardinals emerged from Week 3 without any injuries of note, LaFleur said.
That’s a welcome change from the previous week, when LaFleur announced that the Cardinals expect cornerback Will Johnson to miss the remainder of the season with a neck injury.
For the most part, the Cardinals are operating with a clean bill of health. With nickel cornerback Garrett Williams back from a torn Achilles, Johnson is their only starter currently sidelined.
Their other injured players are mostly rotational pieces or backups, such as tight end Tip Reiman and running back James Conner, who remain on the Physically Unable to Perform list and Injured Reserve, respectively.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: LaFleur praises Marvin Harrison Jr., explains Jeremiyah Love role
