The Arizona Cardinals believed they needed to avoid mistakes to win their second straight road game and achieve their first two-game winning streak since 2021. Unfortunately, they didn’t come close to that goal.
Arizona had 13 penalties and fumbled the ball on three straight drives, leading to a 34-13 defeat against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. They were unable to build on their recent win over San Francisco.
“We play like that, we won’t beat anybody,” said Arizona’s Kyler Murray, who completed 22 of 32 passes for 214 yards with one touchdown and one fumble. “We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot against a good team.”
The number of penalties was surprising since Arizona had been disciplined early in the season.
Before Sunday, they had the fewest penalties in the league, averaging just 3.8 per game. In their previous victory against the 49ers, they were penalized only once for 5 yards.
Against the Packers, they had 100 penalty yards, and many of the penalties came at crucial moments.
Green Bay was leading 7-0 and faced a third-and-10 from Arizona’s 15 when a neutral-zone infraction by Zaven Collins gave the Packers 5 extra yards. On the next play, Jordan Love threw a touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs, starting the second quarter off strong for Green Bay.
Collins’ mistake was one of three neutral-zone penalties by the Cardinals in the first quarter.
“Those are non-negotiables for us,” said Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon about the pre-snap penalties. “So uncharacteristic of us, so that’s why we have to look at why those things happen and do a better job there. You don’t want to go backwards before the ball is snapped.”
One major penalty occurred later in the second quarter.
Down 17-0, Arizona seemed to gain momentum when Zach Pascal forced a fumble on a punt return, which Owen Pappoe recovered, putting Arizona at Green Bay’s 23-yard line.
However, offsetting penalties, including a horse-collar tackle by DeeJay Dallas, canceled the play. When Arizona had to punt again, Keisean Nixon returned it 39 yards, putting Green Bay in a good position.
On the next play, Love threw a 44-yard touchdown pass, extending the lead to 24-0.
Arizona managed to cut the lead to 24-13 early in the third quarter, helped by a Sean Murphy-Bunting interception that led to a 38-yard field goal. They had successfully come back from a halftime deficit before, so they thought they could do it again.
But they kept making the same mistakes.
After Ryland’s 40-yard field goal made the score 24-13, Murphy-Bunting committed two holding penalties during Green Bay’s next drive, which led to a 20-yard touchdown pass from Love to Doubs. One of those penalties canceled a third-down stop that would have forced Green Bay into a fourth-and-3 situation from the Arizona 33-yard line.
Arizona then fumbled the ball on its next three possessions. The first fumble was by James Conner, the second by Greg Dortch, and the third by Murray.
“You can’t let bad plays continue to happen against a good team,” Murray said. “It’s too hard.” Arizona faced many bad breaks on Sunday.
Rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. left the game in the second quarter with a concussion after his head collided with the thigh of Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie during an incomplete pass.
The Cardinals also lost linebacker Kyzir White, defensive tackle Bilal Nichols, safety Joey Blount, left guard Evan Brown, and Murphy-Bunting to different injuries.
The Cardinals were playing their second game without kicker Matt Prater, who is out with a knee injury.
However, they really had nobody to blame but themselves for their performance as they continued to struggle with inconsistency. The Cardinals haven’t won two games in a row since 2021, when they won at Seattle on Nov. 21 and then had a week off before winning at Chicago on Dec. 5.
“We’ve got everything we need in the building,” Cardinals defensive tackle LJ Collier said. “We just have to play better.”
