One of the interceptions was an ill-advised try to avoid a sack in his end zone for a safety; instead Murray tried to flip the ball to wide receiver Rondale Moore as he was being thrown down. The ball fluttered right to Rams cornerback David Long for a 3-yard return for a touchdown in a microcosm of the first half.

Murray finished 19 for 34 for 137 yards. The damage had long been done.

“You know me,” Murray said. “I put a lot on my shoulders. I put a lot on myself. My first game in the playoffs and to play the way I did, to play the way we did, it was disappointing.”

Kingsbury, when asked directly about Murray’s night, only said “overall as an offense, we were out of sync.”

There was also a scary moment, well beyond what the scoreboard showed. Safety Budda Baker came up to make a tackle on Rams running back Cam Akers late in the third quarter, with Akers lowering his helmet at the end to create a hellacious helmet-to-helmet collision after which Baker went limp.

He was taken from the field on a stretcher and later transported to a hospital for further evaluation. Baker was alert and communicative and never lost feeling or movement in his body.

Baker’s health is paramount – Kingsbury said the reports he had gotten had been positive. But the health of the Cardinals going forward, particularly the…