Kyler Murray didn’t want to hear it. The Cardinals quarterback was talking to reporters last week when he was asked if it was comforting to know how close his team played the 49ers, their season-opening opponent on Sunday, in two losses a year ago.

“I’ve never enjoyed losing,” Murray said. “Last year is last year. Yeah, we played ’em good twice or whatever, but we still lost twice. That’s a fail on our part. … We’ve got to go out and execute and if we do that, I feel like we can give ourselves a good chance to win the game.”

The execution was spotty most of the afternoon, just like the haze surrounding Levi’s Stadium because of damaging wild fires raging throughout much of California. The offense sputtered at times. The defense had communication breakdowns. There were too many penalties.

Murray decided to take matters into his own hands, however, and by the time the rest of the team caught up with his overall play, the Cardinals had found a way to punch the 49ers in the nose, scoring a 24-20 season-opening upset over the defending NFC champions for their first Week 1 road victory in a decade.

Murray completed 26 of 40 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown and also ran 11 times for 91 yards and a touchdown, a dazzling 22-yard scramble, setting the pace and keeping the Cardinals in the thick of it until they finally grabbed the lead for good late in the game and entrusted their defense to close things out.

“Man, that guy was running today. You guys saw him. He was running,” Cardinals safety Budda Baker said. “The 49ers’ defense and front seven is a great front seven, one of the best in the league, and our O-line did a good job of trying to contain them and Kyler, he did his thing. He ran the ball, he did what God blessed him with, which is being really fast, and he got us out a few big first downs.”

The Cardinals don’t win Week 1 without K1, but the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year had some quality help from his friends, especially in the end during the 49ers’ last-ditch drive.

Cornerback Patrick Peterson deflected a Jimmy Garoppolo pass away from receiver Kendrick Bourne in the end zone. Baker stopped a 5-yard reception by Trent Taylor from turning into a 15-yard gain. And slot corner Byron Murphy Jr. knocked down and swatted away two other Garoppolo passes toward Taylor that finished any hope of a 49ers’ comeback.

“At the end of the game, what’s what it always comes down to. Everyone has to lock in and do their job,” Murphy said. “It’s making sure everyone does their job and everyone stays focused, that’s the key. I’m proud of us as a whole defense that we just stuck together throughout the whole game.”

Murray also received some major help from wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who had a career-high 14 receptions for 151 yards in his Cardinals’ debut. The offensive and defensive lines more than held their own. And Arizona got a great lift on special teams from the first-quarter punt block and recovery by Ezekiel Turner and Dennis Gardeck, respectively.

“That was huge,” Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said of the blocked punt. “I thought our special teams overall was phenomenal. … It wasn’t going very good, but Zeke came through and gave us a short field when we were struggling, and we were able to punch it in.”

Murray’s touchdown run with 10:26 remaining in the fourth quarter gave Arizona its first lead, but after San Francisco stormed back with a quick touchdown of its own on Garoppolo’s 5-yard scoring pass to Jerick McKinnon, Murray needed to pull some more magic out of his hat.

It happened when he spotted Hopkins down the right sideline and the two connected for a 33-yard gain that would lead to Kenyan Drake’s game-winning 1-yard touchdown run.

“He’s always been great,” Murray said of Hopkins. “There’s a reason for that. He’s got a knack for being open and even when he isn’t open, he can catch anything. … He’s going to add such a different dynamic to our team and our offense and I think you saw that today.”

Hopkins, acquired in an offseason trade from the Texans, had just as many flattering things to say abut Murray after the Cardinals’ victory in Santa Clara, Calif.

“I knew we had something special from the day I walked into this building,” Hopkins said, adding of Murray, “I’ve been around a lot of great people and honestly, Kyler works like it’s his last day on this earth. If you see the work he puts in outside of this football facility or what you’ve just seen right there, you would know that nothing is a surprise from what happened today.”

As good as he was on Sunday, Murray didn’t do it all by himself. It just looked that way at times with ever pinpoint pass he made and every mad scramble out of the pocket for positive yardage.

“Kyler definitely took the game over and the offensive line, while he was taking the game over, blocked a lot of people for him to be able to take the game over,” Hopkins said. “Some receivers were blocking down field for him to take the game over. It’s a team effort. Kyler obviously can do a lot of things with his feet …  but it’s a team effort.”

It doesn’t get done without everyone, but Kingsbury said Sunday’s performance was the best he’s seen out of Murray yet and that’s a scary thought how much better he could get moving forward. Murray was incredibly patient when the offense was sputtering and he took off when he knew there were running lanes for him to exploit.

“Yeah, that’s the step we talked about taking, was he has the ability to do that and he knows it,” Kingsbury said. “We weren’t that good in the passing game and I think he’ll be the first to admit he wasn’t as accurate or as sharp as we can be, but he continued to play hard and continued to find ways to make plays with his feet and that’s the sign of a winner and a guy the team will play behind.

“This is the most proud of him I’ve been to date because that was a tough defense. You get those monsters coming after you for four quarters, it’s not easy to sit back there and continue to hang in the pocket and continue to make plays with your feet and he just kept fighting.”

Have an opinion on the Arizona Cardinals? Reach McManaman at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac. Listen to him live on Fox Sports 910-AM every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 on Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch and every Wednesday night from 7-9 on The Freaks with Kenny and Crash.

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