Jordan Love Throws Four Touchdown Passes as Packers Clobber Cardinals

The Green Bay Packers bolted to a 24-0 lead and crushed the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Jordan Love threw four touchdown passes, including two to Romeo Doubs.

Bill Huber | Oct 13, 2024

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson (9) scores a touchdown in front of Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Welcome back, Romeo Doubs.

Jordan Love threw four touchdown passes, including a pair to Doubs, as the Green Bay Packers crushed the Arizona Cardinals 34-13 on Sunday at Lambeau Field.

Love had his best game of the season as Green Bay jumped on the Cardinals from the start. Love was 22-of-32 passing for 258 yards with touchdowns and one interception, good for a passer rating of 119.5. Nine players caught at least one pass.

Doubs, back from last week’s suspension, had touchdown catches of 10 and 20 yards. The running game contributed 179 yards.

The Packers won their second consecutive game to improve to 4-2. They needed it. The Bears beat the Jaguars in London for their third consecutive win to also improve to 4-2. That’s last place in the NFC North behind the Vikings (5-0, bye week) and Lions (4-1, at Cowboys on Sunday afternoon).

The Cardinals, fresh off a come-from-behind, upset victory at the 49ers that gave them life in the NFC North, fell to 2-4. Star quarterback Kyler Murray had a decent day through the air – 22-of-32 for 214 yards with one touchdown, good for a 97.7 passer rating. But he was held to 14 rushing yards on seven tries after averaging almost 11 yards per carry to start the season.

It wasn’t just the Jordan Love Show. In the third quarter, Karl Brooks forced and recovered a fumble and Evan Williams forced a fumble that was recovered by Jaire Alexander. The latter, coming with Green Bay leading 31-13 late in the third quarter, killed a Cardinals drive that was approaching the red zone.

The Cardinals shot themselves in the feet repeatedly. Along with those two fumbles, they were guilty of 11 penalties in the first three quarters. They had been flagged a league-low 19 times in their first five games. Two of those were for defensive holding on third-down plays on the third-quarter touchdown drive that Love punctuated with his second touchdown pass to Doubs.

On third-and-4 from the 20, the Cardinals brought the house. Outside linebacker Dennis Gardeck came free but Love threw one deep to Doubs, who caught the ball against unsuspecting Sean Murphy-Bunting for a touchdown to make it 31-13.

For added insult, with the Cardinals driving midway through the fourth quarter, they were flagged for holding on Murray’s run to the 5. That made it 13 penalties for 100 yards. On the next play, they botched the handoff for their third lost fumble of the game.

With Marvin Harrison lost early in the game with a concussion, the Cardinals had no hope of rallying against Green Bay’s defense.

The Packers led 24-10 at halftime. Whatever accuracy and decision-making issues that Love had to start the season were shoved aside against the Cardinals.

Love was 16-of-22 passing for 194 yards with three touchdowns – 5 yards to Jayden Reed, 10 yards to Doubs and 44 yards to Christian Watson.

It was total domination: 266-134 in yards, 14-7 in first downs and almost 2-to-1 in time of possession.

After both teams punted to start the game – the first time this season that Arizona failed to score a touchdown on its opening drive – Green Bay scored on four consecutive possessions.

On third-and-goal, Love hit Reed for a 5-yard touchdown. Reed started in the left slot, ran a crossing route to the right and scored against Love’s former high school and Packers teammate, linebacker Krys Barnes.

On the next drive, Love connected with Doubs for 19 to start the drive and 10 for the touchdown. Doubs caught the ball at the 3, broke a tackle and dove into the end zone.

A fourth-and-2 completion to Watson helped set up Brayden Narveson’s 36-yard field goal to make it 17-0.

Finally, after Keisean Nixon turned on the jets to get around corner for a 39-yard punt return, Love dropped a 44-yard bomb on the Cardinals. The middle of the field was cleared out, with Watson beating All-Pro safety Budda Baker for a relatively easy touchdown to extend their lead to 24-0.

Love’s first half was pretty much flawless. After the Cardinals strolled down the field against a lackadaisical defense to make it 24-7, Love was intercepted when Bo Melton slipped and Murphy-Bunting was Johnny on the spot for an interception. The Cardinals turned that into a field goal to trail by 14 at the break.

More Green Bay Packers News

Jordan Love lit up the Arizona Cardinals, and the run game helped drop the hammer late - the #Packers win 34-13 before a showdown with the Houston Texans next week at Lambeau Field.https://t.co/AFlLPrGWwA
— Jacob Westendorf (@JacobWestendorf) October 13, 2024

Published Oct 13, 2024|Modified Oct 13, 2024

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.