The Green Bay Packers didn’t deliver a straight-A performance on Sunday at the Arizona Cardinals. They did put together a winning performance, rallying late and then holding on for a 27-23 victory.
Here are the grades from the weekly Packers report card following the first road win of the season.
The Jordan Love-led passing game finished strong but struggled to move the ball with any inconsistency for most of the game.
The following stat sums it up, with Love going 19-of-29 passing for 179 yards. He threw one touchdown pass and was sacked once. He didn’t commit any turnovers but fumbled twice and missed Doubs for what should have been a 38-yard touchdown on the opening series.
Doubs led the way by catching 6-of-8 targets for 72 yards. Tucker Kraft caught 5-of-10 targets for 58 yards and the touchdown. Matthew Golden caught 4-of-4 targets for 37 yards. Everybody else caught 4-of-6 targets for 12 yards.
Golden, who caught three passes on the opening series but got just one more target over the final 48 1/2 minutes, needs more opportunities, but the top-heavy approach is the right way to go. The ball went to the players who need the ball.
When the Packers absolutely needed a drive, Love delivered – which has become a welcome habit. Trailing 13-6, Love was given a short field after Rashan Gary’s sack/strip. After a false start moved the ball back to Arizona’s 49, Love was 3-of-3 with completions of 7 and 18 yards to Doubs and 17 yards to Golden to set up Josh Jacobs’ touchdown run.
When Arizona answered to lead 20-13, Love hit Kraft on a third-and-3 screen for 22, scrambled for 12 and threw the tying touchdown to Kraft on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Finally, on a got-to-have it drive after a critical fourth-down stop, it was Love to Kraft for 8 yards on third-and-7, Love to Kraft for 15 yards on fourth-and-2 to set up the winning touchdown.
It was the rest of the game that was tough. The best third-down attack in the NFL went just 3-of-10. There’s too much hit-and-miss that would be solved by getting the ball to Kraft and Golden more frequently in space.
Grade: B.
Josh Jacobs played after a pregame workout to test his injured calf. Emanuel Wilson entered the game averaging exactly 1.0 yard more per carry than Jacobs but there are numbers and then there’s reality.
Good things happened when Jacobs got the ball. He carried 13 times for 55 yards and two touchdowns and got a game ball for his efforts. It wasn’t Calf Game 2 for Jacobs but he’s such a bulldog with the ball in his hands. By our count, he broke five tackles, including three during the goal-to-go sequence before the winning touchdown.
While Jacobs averaged 4.2 yards per carry, Wilson managed only 2.8. The longest of his six carries gained 8 yards, only because the offensive line pushed him – Elgton Jenkins practically picked him up.
The Packers have to run the ball when they, well, have to run the ball. On third-and-1 on the opening drive, Wilson lost a yard. On third-and-1 on the decisive drive, the point-of-attack tight end got pushed back. That meant John FitzPatrick, who was coming across the formation to take out safety Jalen Thompson, never reached his destination and Jacobs lost 1 yard.
Grade: C.
Veteran backup Jacoby Brissett was 25-of-36 passes for 279 yards with two touchdowns and a 110.8 passer rating.
If the Packers’ defense, with Micah Parsons rushing the passer and Xavier McKinney patrolling center field, can’t stymie a backup quarterback with only two legit targets in the passing game, how are they going to stop the type of quarterback-receivers tandems that highlight the second-half schedule and potential playoff games?
A final Hail Mary play by the Arizona Cardinals is batted to the ground by Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Fortunately for Green Bay, Micah Parsons came to play. He had a career-high three sacks and was a force on practically every snap. Rashan Gary had a sack/strip. Quay Walker’s blitzes produced a sack-and-a-half.
When he had time, though, Brissett diced up Green Bay’s questionable secondary. General manager Brian Gutekunst has been magnificent when he’s spent big bucks in free agency. At this point, it’s fair to wonder if Carrington Valentine should replace Nate Hobbs at cornerback. Maybe it was the knee injury that left him questionable on the injury report, but he had a long night.
It’s not just Hobbs. Premier tight end Trey McBride will put up good numbers against any defense. He was uncovered on the two touchdowns, though. It wasn’t as if the Packers hadn’t heard of McBride; he caught all eight targets at Lambeau last year.
On third-and-23, Brissett’s 43-yard bomb to Zay Jones was the first 40-yard catch allowed by Green Bay since Week 1 of last season. Brissett also hit Marvin Harison for 35 on third-and-14.
The coverage gets an F. The pass rush gets an A. So, we meet in the middle.
Grade: C.
Arizona came out rolling with the run game. Zonovan Knight had 31 rushing yards in the first quarter. By our count, 22 yards were before contact.
The NFL’s No. 1-ranked run defense eventually restored order. By the end of the game, the Cardinals ran the ball 28 times for 94 yards – a 3.4-yard average with a long run of 11. Colby Wooden was excellent, Micah Parsons’ run defense is underrated and Kingsley Enagbare had some productive snaps.
The game changed, of course, when Green Bay’s defensive line won the battle at the line of scrimmage on the Cardinals’ ill-fated fourth-and-1 sneak. Isaiah McDuffie jumped over the pile and was given credit for the tackle.
“Knew Brissett likes to sneak the ball on short distances so, in my head, that’s what we all were expecting throughout the week,” McDuffie said. “Once I saw him put his head down, I just dove and just tried to get any part of him that I could and kind of just pull him back.”
Grade: B-minus.
Lucas Havrisik has been a savior. He made all five kicks last week and again on Sunday. The highlight, of course, was his 61-yard bomb that would have been good from Tempe.
Daniel Whelan averaged 58 yards per punt but had one touchback and a net of 47.0 yards.
Those were the highlights.
After Green Bay tied the game at 20 to start the fourth quarter, the Cardinals started at Green Bay’s 45 on the ensuing kickoff because Isaiah McDuffie missed a tackle at the 25, with Dortch gaining an additional 15 yards, and Arron Mosby was flagged for a facemask to give the Cardinals another 15 yards.
Green Bay was fortunate to allow only a field goal. On the ensuing kickoff, Kitan Oladapo was flagged for holding on the return.
Grade: C-minus.
Green Bay’s offense, led by coach Matt LaFleur, is so inconsistent. The defense, led by highly regarded coordinator Jeff Hafley, is giving up too many yards to so-so quarterbacks.
LaFleur, however, won the game.
First, at the end of the first half, he took advantage of Arizona’s decision to kick a touchback, which gave the Packers the ball at the 35 with 7 seconds left. LaFleur called a pass rather than simply run out the clock, with Jordan Love hitting Romeo Doubs for 22 to set up Lucas Havrisik’s 61-yard field goal.
On fourth-and-2 late in the game, he sent out the field-goal unit. When he saw the “disdain” on the face of Love, he called a timeout and sent the offense back on the field. Love threw a 15-yard pass to Tucker Kraft for the pivotal first down that set up the winning touchdown.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, lost the game when Jonathan Gannon called a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 with 5:58 remaining. The decision allowed the Packers to score the winning touchdown. And their coaches allowed Parsons to wreck the game with so many single blocks.
The Packers are too inconsistent. They make too many mistakes. They give away too many yards. But they’re 4-1-1 and in first place in the NFC North.
Grade: B-plus.
