Packers Report Card: Grades From Victory Over Cardinals

The Green Bay Packers trounced the Arizona Cardinals 34-13 on Sunday, a dominant all-around performance that’s reflected in this week’s report card.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) signals a first down during the fourth quarter against the Cardinals. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers led wire-to-wire in Sunday’s 34-13 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

After building a 24-0 lead in the first half, moments got a little tense when the Cardinals pulled within 24-13.

Jordan Love’s fourth touchdown pass of the day, a 20-yard completion to Romeo Doubs, ensured a stress-free remainder of the afternoon at Lambeau Field on this rainy Sunday.

The Packers improved to 4-2 entering a big stretch for their season, starting next week with a date at home against the 5-1 Houston Texans.

Grades are going to be high all-around with a dominant performance like this one. Here’s a look at this week’s report card.

Pass Offense

The lone flaw from quarterback Jordan Love came on a play in which blame could not be assigned to him.

With the Packers leading 24-7 in the first half, Bo Melton slipped on an out route that Love threw, anticipating he’d be standing in the proper spot. Instead, the pass was intercepted by Sean Murphy-Bunting.

Outside of that? Love was nearly flawless.

He tied his career high in touchdown passes with four and became the first player with back-to-back four-touchdown games at Lambeau Field since Brett Favre in 1995. He completed those four scoring strikes to three different receivers and completed passes to nine players overall.

Romeo Doubs returned from his suspension and caught two of Love’s touchdown passes to re-acclimate himself into the offense. A 20-yarder in the third quarter came against an all-out blitz, with Love somehow mustering the arm strength to his Doubs near the goal line.

Christian Watson caught a 44-yard bomb to put the team up 24-0. That was a play Love said the team didn’t have in this week’s game plan but dialed up, anyway.

Of course, a game cannot go by without Jayden Reed making a big play. His 9-yard reception opened the scoring.

Green Bay’s offense runs through its quarterback. Love finished the day 22-of-32 passing for 258 yards and the four touchdowns. He was not sacked.

It was by far his best game of the season.

Next week? A much more challenging showdown against C.J. Stroud and the Texans.

Grade: A

Rush Offense

If there is one thing to complain about, it’s the run game not finding traction until late in the game.

The Cardinals were dreadful against the run in their first five games of the season. The Packers, however, found little rhythm.

They found some creative ways to get the ball to their receivers in space. A couple of chunk runs by running backs Josh Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson gave them something to feel good about through the first three quarters.

Then again, with the game in hand, Wilson, Chris Brooks and Bo Melton helped close out the game.  

The Packers rushed for 179 yards. It wasn’t the prettiest at times, but it got the job done and helped open up plays in the passing game.

Next week the challenge will be much stiffer. The Packers will have to run the ball effectively to steer clear of a vicious Texans defensive front.

Call the performance solid, if unspectacular.

Grade: B-minus

Pass Defense

One of the players likely circled on Jeff Hafley’s call sheet was rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.

Harrison left Sunday’s game with a concussion which, combined with the game script, raised the degree of difficulty for Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ passing game.

Standout tight end Trey McBride had the biggest day of all Cardinals’ pass catchers with 96 yards on eight receptions, but it was hardly a game-breaking performance by him.

Murray finished the day 22-of-32 for 214 yards with one touchdown.

While there were no interceptions, Evan Williams and Karl Brooks forced fumbles after third-quarter completions.  

The Packers are up to 17 takeaways in six games this season after having just 18 takeaways in 17 games a year ago. The improvement is largely due to the scheme change from Jeff Hafley.

“I think there’s a lot of different circumstances that play into that,” coach Matt LaFleur said.

“I think we’re playing with a lot more vision. I think our guys are taking the things we drill and stress on a daily basis and apply it to the game. You can talk about it and drill it until you’re blue in the face of really attacking the football, but those guys got to go out there and do it, and that’s what we’re seeing.”

Up next is Stroud, who leads the AFC in passing yards.

Grade B-plus

Rush Defense

Maybe the biggest development of the day was the plan that Hafley and his staff formulated to slow down Murray.

There are not many quarterbacks that are better with the ball in their hands than Murray, who entered the game with an NFL-best 10.7 yards per rushing attempt.

One of the biggest plays of the game came in the first half with the Packers leading 17-0.

The Cardinals ran a zone read with Murray faking a handoff to James Conner.

Defensive end Lukas Van Ness played perfectly to get Murray to pull the ball. Waiting for Murray was Williams. If you’ve watched the Packers for any period of time, you likely were expecting Murray to break off a big run like Michael Vick, Colin Kaepernick and the ghosts of mobile-quarterback’s past.

Instead, Williams stuffed Murray for a loss, forcing a punt.

Two plays later, the Packers led 24-0.

No Cardinals ball-carrier tallied more than 26 yards. Murray only had 14 on seven carries.

They also recovered a fumble on a botched snap by Murray.

This is far-and-away the best performance from this unit this season considering the opponent.

Grade: A

Special Teams

A dominant 34-13 performance has one bugaboo rearing its ugly head for the Packers.

Brayden Narveson missed another field goal.

Brian Gutekunst and LaFleur have talked about patience, and LaFleur reiterated that Narveson has his full confidence at this point.

This week, the missed kick was inconsequential.

As the calendar moves forward, the stakes will rise. As the stakes rise, so do the consequences of missed field goals.

In addition, the Packers caught a break. One of the flags on the mountain of penalties against the Cardinals gave Jayden Reed grace for a fumbled punt return.

Reed’s fumble, with the Packers leading 17-0, was recovered by the Cardinals deep in Green Bay territory. Instead, the Packers and Cardinals were flagged for offsetting fouls, and the punt return team got a mulligan.

This time it was Keisean Nixon, showing why he’s a bottle of electricity, sprinting down the left sideline for 39 yards.

One play later, Love found Watson for a 44-yard touchdown, and the score was 24-0 when it easily could have been 17-7.

The Texans are back-to-back champions of the Rick Gosselin special teams rankings. They’re very good in that phase of the game, and the Packers can ill-afford mistakes that leave points on the board against a potential Super Bowl contender.

Grade: C

Coaching

High marks for LaFleur for getting his young quarterback into a rhythm this week. Love said it was a mission for the team to start fast, which they were able to do, scoring on four of their first five possessions to build a 24-0 lead.

LaFleur helped Love find his way to being 7-of-11 with a touchdown pass in the first quarter. That helped Love into what was his best start of the season.

Hafley gets high marks, as well, for his plan against Murray and limiting his rushing ability.

His defense also got three more takeaways.

Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia also gets credit for making an adjustment on punt returns. With Nixon largely unable to touch the ball on kickoffs, Bisaccia installed him as the punt returner on two occasions. Nixon’s 39-yard return was a good reminder of what type of impact he can have with the ball in his hands.

Grade: B-plus

More Green Bay Packers News

A great game by Evan Williams - and a great quote about the #Packers' defense:

“We have a saying that, our linebackers coach, his name’s (Anthony) Campanile, so we say, ‘Campy 3:16 is God loves those who run to the ball.’”https://t.co/aMbKWqdyU0

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 13, 2024

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