JUST IN: Kyler Murray’s legs keep Cardinals sackless streak alive.

The Arizona Cardinals enter Sunday’s game against the Bears with a streak of three games without quarterback Kyler Murray being sacked.

In addition, Murray has been sacked only 11 times all season, which is tied with Denver for the second-fewest in the league behind Buffalo’s 10. The Cardinals are also third in sacks per pass play. There were 10 sacks in the first four games of the season and only one in the last four.

Nearly 40 years ago in the final three games of the 1975 season was the last time a Cardinals offense went three consecutive games without a sack.

 

That was a Don Coryell-coached team that featured a non-mobile quarterback in Jim Hart protected by an offensive line coached by Jim Hanifan that lined up left to right with Roger Finnie, massive Bob Young, Tom Banks, nasty Conrad Dobler and Dan Dierdorf.

In 14 games, there were only eight sacks, but only six were of Hart and all eight came in four games. The Cardinals opened the season by not allowing a sack in their first five games. Dierdorf told Cards Wire it got to the point where Hart was throwing incompletions purposely so he wouldn’t be sacked.

The first two sacks came against the Giants and then there were another two consecutive sackless games, followed by three games with two in each.

In the ninth game of the season against Washington, kicker Jim Bakken was tackled after picking up a botched snap on a field-goal attempt and tried to run, but it was ruled a pass play and a sack, according to Dierdorf. When I told him the sack might have been a better result than had Bakken actually thrown the ball, Dierdorf laughed and noted that the kicker was the team’s emergency quarterback.

The following week, in the final two minutes of a 37-6 blowout of the Jets, backup quarterback Dennis Shaw was sacked on a play in which Dierdorf said he audibled out of a run to a pass. Dierdorf said Dobler was so angry at the quarterback that “I had to keep him from killing Shaw!”

After allowing two sacks the next week against Buffalo, there were none in those final three games making it a season in which the Cardinals allowed no sacks in 10 games.

While this year’s line is not as celebrated as the 1975 version, Murray provided a shoutout to them when he said Wednesday, “I can’t say enough about those guys. That O-line group and that relationship, they’re really the heart and soul of pretty much every team usually. We go as they go. They know that. Just love that group.