TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Veteran backup Jacoby Brissett was the fill-in for Cardinals franchise quarterback Kyler Murray against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday after Murray's ailing foot kept him out of action.
In an awkward development, Arizona's offense looked better than it has all season.
The Cardinals (2-4) still lost their fourth game in a row, falling to the Colts 31-27, but it was jarring how well the offense functioned with Brissett in the pocket. The 32-year-old completed 27 of 44 passes for 320 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, the best passing output for the Cardinals this year.
It's unclear if Murray will return this week against the Green Bay Packers. But third-year coach Jonathan Gannon was adamant on Monday that Murray remains the starter.
“When he's healthy and ready to play, he'll play,” Gannon said.
Murray was supposed to be the savior for the Cardinals when he was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick in 2019 after winning the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma.
And it's not like he's been a bust. He's a two-time Pro Bowl selection, he led the team to the playoffs in 2021, and he's produced plenty of highlights with his his ability to throw and run.
But in his seventh year with the franchise, frustration is mounting.
Whether it's Murray or Brissett under center against the Packers, the Cardinals are running out of time to turn their season around.
“We’re a good team,” Gannon said. "I know their record is what their record is, and ours is what we are, so I’m not discounting that because our record shows that we’re not a good football team. But I do think the battle is there and we’ll just keep sawing away. We’ll just keep sawing away.”
It was a good Sunday for some of the Cardinals' lesser-known pass catchers, including Zay Jones, Michael Wilson and tight end Elijah Higgins.
Jones had his most productive game for Arizona, catching five passes for 79 yards. He played a bigger role than normal once star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. left the game in the second quarter after being placed in the concussion protocol.
The Cardinals' defensive front was quiet on Sunday, sacking the Colts' Daniel Jones just once.
That's not what Arizona had in mind during the offseason, when the team poured money into revamping the front seven, bringing in Josh Sweat, Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell.
Gannon said he thought the pass rushers played fairly well, but that there were breakdowns in the secondary that allowed Jones to make quick throws.
“They made some adjustments, so we've just got to make sure we keep making adjustments,” Gannon said. “You’ve got to affect the passer, that always has to be a core staple of us. We’ve got to make sure to put them in the right spots and winning, and it’s not just the front, it’s the back end as well.”
Brissett. The QB once again showed why he's considered one of the NFL's top backups. If Murray has to miss another game or two, it appears the offense is in good hands.
“The hunger is there, the enthusiasm is still there,” Brissett said. “There’s a lot of football left, and I think the guys understand that. We’re not as far off as it seems.”
Murray. It's hard to be critical of a guy who didn't even play, but Brissett's performance was an eye-opener. Through Murray's first five games this season, the Cardinals' passing offense ranked 30th in the NFL.
Gannon didn't have updates on Harrison (concussion), RB Emari Demercado (ankle) or TE Travis Vokolek (neck/concussion), all of whom were hurt against the Colts.
9 — The Cardinals have lost their last four games by a combined nine points.
The Cardinals host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) and wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (18) walk off the field after the team's loss in an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Arizona Cardinals' Jacoby Brissett throws during the first half of an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
SYDNEY (AP) — As the sounds of bullets rang out and the bodies fell, the young mother threw herself on top of her 5-year-old son and prayed.
“Please don’t let us die,” 33-year-old Rebecca begged God from her hiding place under a table in a park overlooking Bondi, Australia’s most iconic beach. Rebecca spoke on condition that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation. “Please just keep my son safe.”
It was faith that drew Rebecca and hundreds of other members of Sydney’s Jewish community to this picturesque spot to celebrate the start of Hannukah. And it was faith that authorities said made her and others attending the Channukah by the Sea gathering a target of two gunmen who began firing at revelers around 6:40 p.m. on Sunday. Authorities have called it an antisemitic act of terrorism.
In the minutes that followed, the assault would take the lives of at least 15 people, officials said, including a 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and a beloved rabbi. It would also take away a sense of security in a country that, because of strict gun laws, has largely been insulated from the mass shootings so common in the United States and other Western nations.
This reconstruction is based on interviews with survivors and footage of the assault.
Under the table that held food for the partygoers, Rebecca pulled buckets of drinks on top of her body, to try and hide herself and her son. Suddenly, a man lying on his side just 10 centimeters (3 inches) from her was struck in the chest by a bullet.
“I’m dying,” he told Rebecca. “I can’t breathe.”
Under fire and separated from her husband and 7-year-old daughter, Rebecca could offer him nothing but words. “You’re going to be OK,” she told him desperately. “You’re going to be OK.”
She did not know if that was true.
It started out as a classic Sunday summer evening in Sydney. The sun had not yet set, and the temperature was still a balmy 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit). The Tasman Sea was speckled with swimmers and surfers.
In the park overlooking Bondi’s golden arc of sand, children giggled and cuddled animals at a petting zoo set up as part of the Hanukkah celebration. Rebecca’s son scampered up a rock-climbing wall. Music competed with the sound of crashing waves.
And then the bubbles floating through the air were replaced with bullets, the laughter replaced with screams. From their positions on one of the pedestrian bridges connecting the busy main road to the beach, two armed gunmen — a father and son, according to police — had begun firing into the crowd.
Young people began to run, but older people struggled to get up. From her perch on a bench, Rebecca watched in horror as a bullet struck an older woman sitting next to her. Rebecca grabbed her son and dove under the table.
On the beach and the boardwalk, it was bedlam.
Some surfers and swimmers frantically paddled ashore, while others sought safety in the sea. Eleanor, who also spoke on condition that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation, said she been walking down the boardwalk on her way to dinner when she heard the gunshots. Her mind went blank, apart from one command: “Run.” And so she did, fully clothed, into the ocean.
Crowds of people — gathered on a grassy slope overlooking the sea for a sunset viewing of the Christmas romcom, “The Holiday” — abandoned their blankets and beach chairs and fled.
From their hotel room overlooking the streets of Bondi, Joel Sargent, 30, and his partner, Grace, from Melbourne, heard the shots and began to film. Their footage, obtained by The Associated Press, shows that the gunfire went on for at least seven minutes, with dozens of blasts. Grace spoke on condition her last name not be used because she didn't want people at work to know she had been involved.
"Baby, I’m scared," Grace can be heard saying as they watched throngs of screaming people stream past their building. She shouted down to them: “Get off the street!”
Phones across the city lit up with panicked calls and messages. Lawrence Stand was at home when his phone rang. It was his 12-year-old daughter, who had been attending a bar mitzvah inside the Bondi Pavilion, overlooking the beach.
Stand told his daughter to stay on the phone as he leaped into his car and raced toward the beach. He found her and pulled her and others into his car, speeding them away from the carnage.
Many did not know where to find sanctuary. Inside a Greek restaurant, 20-year-old American friends Shira Elisha and Lexi Haag first hid in the restaurant’s bathroom, and then ran back to Elisha’s home, where they hid under her bedding. The pair wondered how a situation so common to the U.S. but so alien to Australia was happening here.
Back in the park, the man next to Rebecca was bleeding out. Rebecca’s 65-year-old mother-in-law grabbed a piece of discarded cardboard and pressed it against his wound.
The man did not survive.
The shots kept coming. Sirens wailed. Minutes passed. A bystander can be heard shouting in one video: “Where are the cops?”
That and other widely circulated videos of the attack chronicled what happened next.
Near one of the shooters, a passerby identified by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as Ahmed al Ahmed crouched behind a parked car. Ahmed, a fruit shop owner and father of two, then rushed the shooter and wrestled away the gun, before pointing the weapon at the shooter, who fell to the ground. Ahmed was shot in the shoulder by the other gunman, but survived.
The man disarmed by Ahmed got up but, under fire from police, soon fell again. The other shooter traded fire with police for another minute before he, too, fell.
Police later confirmed the older of the two suspected gunmen, a 50-year-old, was fatally shot. His 24-year-old son, who was shot and wounded, is being treated at a hospital.
Back in the park, rescuers frantically pumped the chests of unmoving bodies on the grass, near a picnic table, an abandoned stroller and the petting zoo.
On Monday, Elisha, the American who hid in the restaurant bathroom, wandered down to the beach, where rows of shoes abandoned by fleeing beachgoers lined the sand.
“It just reminded me of the Holocaust — all these shoes lying here. This is like Oct. 7,” she said, referring to Hamas-led militants’ 2023 attack in Israel. “How many times do Jews need to be attacked before the world just wakes up and realizes that we have targets on our backs?”
After a sleepless night, Rebecca and her sister-in-law, draped in the flag of Israel, made their way to the beach to mourn before a memorial of flowers.
Rebecca’s children have asked her many questions since the attack, for which she has no answers, she said.
She has her own questions: for officials she said did little to address a surge in antisemitic crimes in Sydney and Melbourne over the past year.
“The world needs to wake up and see what’s happening,” she said. “They specifically targeted us, the Jewish people. ... No one did anything. They turned a blind eye.”
Police cordon off an area at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
People offer hugs to each other at a flower memorial placed outside Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A woman places an Israeli flag over flowers outside Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A couple embrace a day after a shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Shoes sit lined up following a shooting the day prior at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
