Gameday: How Cardinals Can Upset Packers

The Arizona Cardinals need to do these things to upset the Green Bay Packers.

Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. (70) during the third quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Will the Arizona Cardinals find a way to pull off an improbable road win in back-to-back weeks?

The Cardinals downed the 49ers last weekend in a game that nobody outside of the most biased/die-hard fans in the world would've predicted. Now, Arizona heads to Green Bay to battle a Packers team that rivals the Niners in more ways than one and is also atop the list of the best teams in the NFC.

It's not quite David vs Goliath, but the odds are heavily stacked against the Cardinals in this one. Thankfully, I've devised a game plan for the Cardinals to beat the Packers and move to 3-3 on the season.

Follow these three steps and victory is assured. Trust me, I write blogs for a living.

Step one: Get someone other than Marvin Harrison Jr involved

What do the Cardinals' wins over the Rams and 49ers have in common? They featured several players in the passing game to compliment Harrison. That will be the key to this game.

Michael Wilson appears to be coming into his own recently as the team's WR2 and Trey McBride is a high-volume target for Kyler Murray to dump the ball off to. When these two find ways to produce, the offense clicks much better even if MHJ doesn't blow the roof off the opposing defense.

Green Bay has a good defense and a secondary that's ready to challenge Arizona. Harrison will be one of the top priorities for the Green Bay defense and we should expect a lot of Jaire Alexander and Xavier McKinney to lean his way. This means the team needs Wilson and McBride to make the most of their matchups to keep the passing game flowing.

If these two fail to show up, it's curtains. Plain and simple.

Step two: Keep the Packers playmakers in front of you

The Packers offense can beat you through the air and/or on the ground. It's truly a "pick your poison" type of scenario for opposing defenses with no right answer... and you may lose anyways.

One of the reasons they're so dynamite is because of the rate they generate explosive plays. Every game they've played this year has had no less than two plays of 29-or-more yards and they have several plays north of 50 yards. With multiple players who can beat you in the air and on the ground, defenses have yet to figure out what to do against this Green Bay offense.

I've got some bad news -- The Cardinals aren't going to be the team that figures out the winning formula here and the Packers are going to have several chunk plays. The best thing Arizona can do is make sure they keep everything in front of them. 20-30 yard gains are brutal, but if they don't equate to touchdowns then you can find a way to play "bend but don't break" defense.

Step three: Match Green Bay's big plays with your own OR dominate time of possession

With the big plays in mind, the Cardinals offense will need to do one of the following to win this game: Go stride-for-stride with big gains on offense OR dominate, not win, the time of possession battle.

In scenario A, Murray could connect with MHJ for a 30+ yard reception and then find someone in the end zone (maybe it's MHJ). The Packers respond with a quick scoring drive so the Cardinals answer with one of their own.

This scenario is a classic shootout that turns into a "whoever has the ball last will win" kind of outcome.

In scenario B, the Cardinals would respond to a quick scoring drive by Green Bay with a long, 10 play drive that eats five-or-more minutes off the clock. It will get Arizona's defense rested and take some of the heat off GB's offense.

Whatever direction the Cardinals decide to roll with here, you need to make sure you commit to that philosophy for the whole game. Do NOT switch things up.