A mainstay among the guys making plays in training camp certainly got cold feet in his debut game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Throughout the night, second-round pick Sean Murphy-Bunting was targeted often but wasn’t able to capitalize on his opportunities. When all was said and done for the rookie’s night in Pittsburgh, the cornerback allowed multiple catches, including a touchdown, as well as a pass interference call on him. Overall, not his best night and head coach Bruce Arians agrees:
“I was waiting for the play to happen, because he’s made so many plays in practice, getting his hands on balls. He was just there. I kind of told him after the game, “Did you play? You didn’t do anything bad, but you didn’t make that play.”
Arians is right. While Murphy-Bunting didn’t have a catastrophic game, he didn’t live up to expectations and surely could have played better overall. It is, however, only game one of the preseason which sheds just a glimmer of light on the situation. Growing pains with rookies are to be expected and it’s up to coaches and the player himself to recognize and change those patterns. Murphy-Bunting himself seems to understand this the most after acknowledging last night wasn’t his best showing.
Learn from your mistakes and come back stronger.
— Sean Murphy-Bunting (@MrSeanyB1) August 10, 2019
Lessons learned from a young player getting his first taste of the NFL. The first step is owning your mistakes, which Murphy-Bunting obviously shows. The second step is how will you show up the next game to prove what you learned from said mistakes. My bet is that he comes back stronger in week 2.
