Adam Archuleta ‘cannot understand’ how Titans upset Cardinals

As the Arizona Cardinals took a two-score lead into halftime at home on Sunday over the beleaguered Tennessee Titans, the game was going according to script. That even carried into the fourth quarter, with the Cardinals still up 15. Everything that happened from that point on was so utterly bizarre that even CBS color commentator Adam Archuleta couldn’t quite understand what he was watching from the broadcast booth.

Late in the third quarter, the ball was snapped into the face of Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, who fumbled. Early in the fourth quarter, Cardinals running back Emari DeMercado became the latest victim of the goal line touchback after a 70-plus yard run that should have been the game-sealing touchdown. And three possessions later, the Cardinals somehow turned an interception into a touchdown for the Titans, when defensive back Dadrion Taylor-Demerson fumbled into the end zone after picking off rookie quarterback Cam Ward.

By the time Tennessee put together an unlikely game-winning drive to win by 1 in Arizona for the Titans’ first win of the season, Archuleta was aghast.

“Nothing in the NFL ceases to amaze me, and there’s so many different things that can happen,” Archuleta said. “I cannot understand and believe how Tennessee was able to climb back in this football game when they looked dead in the water.”

Beyond simply the spectacle of Tennessee’s comeback win, the Titans were also perhaps the least likely team to score a win like this based on the first month of the season. It was just two weeks ago that Archuleta’s CBS colleague Ross Tucker shredded Titans head coach Brian Callahan for his lack of organization, and a month after Callahan himself acknowledged that he did not fully understand the NFL’s catch rules.

The Cardinals-Titans game was truly one of the most unusual results of the young NFL season, and even a longtime NFL defensive back and broadcaster like Archuleta was blown away by Arizona’s follies.