Instant Grades: Cardinals Throttled by Packers

The Arizona Cardinals had a chance to seize first place in the NFC West with a win in Lambeau, but fell far short in another disappointing loss.

Oct 13, 2024; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Green Bay Packers safety Evan Williams (33) tackles Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) during the second quarter at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Penalties. Bad play calling. Poor effort. Bad coaching.

All of these played a role in the second multi-score loss of the 2025 campaign or the Arizona Cardinals who have now dropped to 2-4, missing their golden opportunity to take first place in the NFC West.

It is true that nothing seemed to go right for the team today, but the Cardinals also looked incapable of taking charge of their own destiny and after early penalty troubles put them in hot water the problems snowballed until there was no coming back.

Neither side of the ball played well today, as evidence by the grades assigned to them but both still had at least one major disappointment and one shining light and that is what we will look at today.

Offense: C-

Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride (85) before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

It was an afternoon where nothing seemed to go right and the ball most assuredly did not bounce the Cardinals' way.

Kyler Murray played what amounts to a rather average game but in a situation that required him to put the team on his back to have any hope of a comeback after going down to the Packers early in the first quarter. His 68.8% completion rate was not bad and he ended up with 214 passing yards and a touchdown, but without a functioning running game it was not nearly enough to keep up with the Packers.

Turnovers in the second half killed the offense with an uncharacteristic James Conner fumble, only his 13th in a seven year career, and Greg Dortch lost the ball after his first reception of the game on the last play of the third quarter. A botched handoff from Murray to Trey Benson led to the third fumble of the game for the struggling Cardinals.

Biggest Disappointment - OC Drew Petzing

For yet another week Cardinals fans were forced to watch a game in which the offensive game plan looked either completely lost or nonexistent.

Petzing continues to show his inadequacies at scheming a competent passing game even with a talented, accurate player at quarterback. Without Conner carrying a massive load, it seems like the Cardinals offense struggles to get going.

Conner is one of the best north-south runners in the entire league and Petzing opened up his scripted drive in the first quarter with back-to-back wide zone runs. Surprisingly, they did not work as intended and led to an opening drive three-and-out that would be indicative of the game to come.

Just one week after a great game on the ground for Murray including a massive 50-yard house call to open up the matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, Petzing completely abandoned the design run game for one of the most dynamic running quarterbacks in the NFL.

Wide receivers were only targeted four times in the first half with zero receptions until an 18-yard touchdown catch from Michael Wilson with 2:36 left. The rest of the game would not prove much better with only two receivers, Wilson and Dortch, registering a catch.

One Shining Light - TE Trey McBride

In a terrible outing for the team as a whole, Trey McBride proved to possess the most important trait a tight end can have. He is always there when needed.

McBride was targeted eight times and brought down every single ball thrown his way and ended the afternoon as the team's leading receiver with 96 receiving yards.

Of course, this was nowhere near enough to spark an imploding Cardinals team to a win, but McBride continues to be one of the few shining lights on this team who shows up week in a and week out with a consistency sorely lacking by the majority of the team.

Defense: D-

NFL Arizona Cardinals cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting / Joe Rondone/The Republic-USA TODAY NETWORK

It is genuinely hard to find anything positive to say about this half of the Cardinals, which is particularly disappointing after they played so well to finish out the come from behind victory in Santa Clara last week.

Going into this game, the Cardinals ranked dead last in the league in pass rush win rate at only 26%. Jordan Love has struggled against teams with a competent pass rush and is a quarterback especially susceptible to pressure. Unfortunately, the Cardinals continued to struggle in this area registering zero sacks and only two QB hits in the full sixty minutes.

For the most part, Love had a pretty easy go of it this afternoon, dinking and dunking his way down the field averaging 8.1 yards per reception. He confidently slung the ball around and got it into the hands of ten different players ending the game with 258 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Penalties on the defensive side of the ball started early and never stopped, killing drive after drive and setting the tone for possibly the worst defensive performance of the year for the Cardinals. The Packers hard count was wildly effective, accounting for four pre-snap penalties from the Cardinals defensive line in the first half alone.

Biggest Disappointment - CB Sean Murphy-Bunting

Cornerback was a glaring position of need going into the 2024 offseason and the only addition to the squad made in that area was in former Tampa Bay Buccaneer/Tennessee Titan Sean Murphy-Bunting.

The biggest knock on Murphy-Bunting was his tendency to commit a high number of penalties which unfortunately seems to still be a major problem. His defensive holding penalty in the third quarter gave the Packers a great opportunity to score, which they did by throwing directly at him, giving up a 20-yard score to Romeo Doubs.

Throughout the afternoon he consistently seemed lost on routes and allowed receivers to get behind him. For a player touted to be a CB1 for this secondary, Murphy-Bunting has showed next to nothing up to this point in the season to warrant that evaluation and seemed to have not been mentally present at Lambeau Field at all.

Fans across social media were particularly scathing in their reactions to Murphy-Bunting's play. Fans can be notoriously fickle in their attitude towards players, but it appears all confidence in Murphy-Bunting has been lost.

I thought they said Sean Murphy-Bunting was a No. 1 CB 😂😂

— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) October 13, 2024

One Shining Light - Mack Wilson, Sr.

After such an abysmal performance top to bottom, it is difficult to even name a shining light for the defense, but there are at least two candidates and it is no coincidence that it is the same two names week after week for a side of the ball sorely lacking consistency in Arizona.

Another free agent addition from the offseason, Mack Wilson, Sr. is one of the steadiest players of the defensive side of the ball for the Cardinals. Week after week, Wilson, Sr. continues to show up and do his job well and Sunday in Green Bay was no different.

With seven combined tackles and a pass defensed, Wilson showed a level of consistency sorely lacking in nearly all of the players on the defense not named Budda Baker.

Wilson, Sr. entered the blue medical tent in the first half, but did return and seems at least have avoided any major injury. Great news for a Cardinals defense that would sorely miss his steadiness in the middle of the field.