Notes from the win over the Cardinals

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers held a tied lead in Sunday’s 34-13 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

After building a 24-0 lead in the first half, things got a little tense as the Cardinals got within 24-13.

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

The Packers improved to 4-2 and entered a big phase of their season, which began next week with a home game against the 5-1 Houston Texans.

With a performance as dominant as this, the grades will be high all around. Here’s a look at this week’s testimony.

Offensive happen

Quarterback Jordan Love’s only mistake came on a play for which he could not be blamed.

With the Packers leading 24-7 in the first half, Bo Melton slipped on an out route that Love threw, expecting him to be in the right spot. Instead, the pass was intercepted by Sean Murphy-Bunting.

Outside of that? The love was almost flawless.

He reached a career high with four touchdown passes and became the first player since Brett Favre in 1995 to throw four consecutive touchdown games at Lambeau Field in total.

Romeo Doubs returned from his suspension and caught two of Love’s touchdown passes to reacquaint himself with the offense. A 20-yarder in the third quarter was met by an all-out blitz in which Love somehow mustered the arm strength to reach his doubs near the goal line.

Christian Watson caught a 44-yard bomb to give the team a 24-0 lead. That was a play that Love said the team didn’t plan to make in this week’s game plan, but decided to make anyway.

Of course, a game can’t go by without a big play from Jayden Reed. His 9-yard reception opened the scoring.

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

It was by far his best game of the season.

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

Grade: A

Rush offense

If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that the running game doesn’t take off until late in the game.

The Cardinals have been terrible against the run in their first five games of the season. However, the Packers found little rhythm.

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

On the other hand, 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 served its purpose and helped open plays in the passing game.

Next week the challenge will be even greater. The Packers will need to run the ball effectively to avoid 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 increased the difficulty level for Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ passing game.

Standout tight end Trey McBride had the best day of any Cardinals pass catcher with 96 yards on eight receptions, but it wasn’t a game-changing performance from him.

Murray finished the day 22 of 32 for 214 yards and a touchdown.

Although there were no interceptions, Evan Williams and Karl Brooks forced fumbles at the end of the third quarter.

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

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

“I think we play with a lot more vision. I think our guys take the things we coach and emphasize every day and apply them to the game. You can talk about it and coach it until your eyes get really cold with the attack on the football, but these guys have to go out there and do it and that’s what we’re seeing.”

Next up is Stroud, who leads the AFC in passing yards.

Grade B-plus

Rush defense

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

There aren’t many quarterbacks who have better control of the ball than Murray, who came into 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 when the Packers led 17-0.

The Cardinals ran a zone read in which Murray faked a handoff to James Conner.

Defensive end Lukas Van Ness made a perfect play to get Murray to pull the ball. Williams was waiting for Murray. If you’ve watched the Packers for any length of time, you probably expected Murray to break off a big run like Michael Vick, Colin Kaepernick and the ghosts of the Mobile quarterback’s past.

Instead, Williams stuffed Murray for a loss and forced a punt.

Two plays later, the Packers led 24-0.

No Cardinals ball carrier managed more than 26 yards. Murray only had 14 for seven runs.

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

Considering the opposition, this is easily the unit’s best performance this season.

Grade: A

Special teams

A dominant 34-13 performance means a specter rears its ugly head for the Packers.

Brayden Narveson missed another field goal.

Brian Gutekunst and LaFleur spoke about patience, and LaFleur reiterated that Narveson has his full trust at this point.

This week the missed shot didn’t matter.

As the calendar progresses, the stakes will become higher. As the stakes increase, so do the consequences of missed field goals.

The Packers also caught a break. One of the flags on the mountain of penalties against the Cardinals gave Jayden Reed mercy for a fumbled punt return.

Reed’s fumble, which gave the Packers a 17-0 lead, was recovered by the Cardinals deep in Green Bay territory. Instead, the Packers and Cardinals were charged with even fouls and the punt return team received a mulligan.

This time it was Keisean Nixon who showed why he’s a real powerhouse by sprinting 39 yards down the left sideline.

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

The Texans are back-to-back champions of the Rick Gosselin special teams rankings. They are very good at this stage of the game and the Packers can hardly afford any mistakes that leave points against a potential Super Bowl contender.

Grade: C

Coaching

High marks to 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 did, scoring on four of their first five possessions to build a 24-0 lead.

LaFleur helped Love find his way to 7 of 11 with a touchdown pass in the first quarter. That helped Love get off to his best start of the season.

Hafley also gets high marks for his plan against Murray and limiting his rushing abilities.

His defense also got three more takeaways.

Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia also gets credit for adjusting punt returns. Since Nixon was mostly unable to touch the ball on kickoffs, Bisaccia used him twice as a punt returner. Nixon’s 39-yard return was a good reminder of the impact he can have with the ball in his hands.

Grade: B-plus

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