TAMPA, Fla. -- All good things must come to an end.
Arizona Cardinals rookie quarterback Kyler Murray set an NFL record for most consecutive pass attempts by a rookie without an interception with his 177th throw in the first quarter of Sunday's 30-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then snapped his streak in the fourth quarter. Murray's record now stands at 211 interception-free attempts.
The previous record of 176 was held by Oakland's Derek Carr in 2014 and Dallas' Dak Prescott in 2016.
Murray credited the streak to simply "just taking care of the ball."
Murray set the record on an 11-yard pass to Larry Fitzgerald on the first play of the Cardinals' second possession Sunday.
Fitzgerald said the most impressive part of Murray's streak was the good decisions he made.
"He's done it throughout the course of the year," Fitzgerald said. "This is what, nine or 10 games in as a rookie? He's done an unbelievable job of putting us in position to win week in and week out. There's gonna be times where there's gonna be mistakes happen. I mean, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, I mean, all the great ones, it happens. But we learn from it and move forward."
The streak ended with 3:47 left in the game on Murray's short pass from the Tampa Bay 15, intended for receiver Trent Sherfield, that was intercepted by Bucs cornerback Jamel Dean.
Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury took blame for the interception, saying it was a poorly designed play. Murray refuted that.
"When I threw it, there was no way in hell I thought he was gonna pick the ball off so it is unfortunate," Murray said.
Murray, who had thrown just four interceptions before that, had not thrown a pick since Sept. 29 against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 4. Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew had owned the longest streak for this season with 163 consecutive attempts, before Murray surpassed him last week in Arizona's 28-25 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Murray finished with 324 yards, three touchdowns -- all to wide receiver Christian Kirk -- and one interception on 27-for-44 passing. Kirk, who first played with Murray in 2015 at Texas A&M, said Murray takes what the defense gives him, which wound up being the key to Murray's streak.
"That's what happens when you go on a streak like that is you don't force a bunch of things, you just take what the defense gives you and we move on to the next play," Kirk said. "Today was just some unfortunate things, some things that didn't go our way but you know that's usually where that comes from."