Rapid Reactions: Cardinals lose 1st game of season on TNF vs. Packers

The Arizona Cardinals are no longer undefeated after a 24-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday Night Football.

The Cardinals’ first loss came on a night where their offense was relatively held in check while as a team they had three costly turnovers. That included an interception by Kyler Murray in the end zone with 15 seconds left.

The ground game managed only 74 yards on 20 carries but produced all three of the team’s touchdowns.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw for 184 yards and two touchdowns.

Here are Arizona Sports’ hosts, editors and reporters reacting to the loss.

Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta:

“This game is over. That winning streak sure was fun.”

“How did they overturn that call?”

“Wow, the defense held! Why did the Packers throw on fourth down?”

“Overtime at worst, the Cardinals have Prater.”

“They’re gonna steal this game, aren’t they?”

“WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A.J. GREEN DOING?”

All these thoughts were dancing through the heads of Cardinals fans everywhere in the final moments of Thursday’s night’s 24-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

For about 57 minutes, the Packers were clearly the better team with the better plan. Minus their top three wide receivers, Aaron Rodgers engineered a short passing game and relied on a running attack that had the upper hand over Arizona’s defense all night.

But one of the big reasons why the Cardinals even had an opportunity to steal this game is because Matt LaFleur channeled his inner-Darrell Bevell and in two big spots, called for pass plays near the goal line. In the second quarter with the game tied 7-7, the Packers had the ball first-and-goal at the three-yard line. Green Bay called three pass plays and settled for a Mason Crosby field goal.

Then late in the game, where a touchdown would’ve iced it for the Packers, on 3rd-and-goal at the Cardinals’ one-yard line, Green Bay had to take a delay of game penalty because of sloppy timeout usage. Rodgers was stopped short of the goal line on third down and LaFleur went for it on 4th, calling a pass play — and that pass was knocked down by Devon Kennard to give the Cardinals a chance.

Kyler Murray looked very much like an MVP candidate during the ensuing drive. On a 3rd-and-10 from the one-yard line, Murray found Green for 24 yards, although it looked like Green could’ve had more yardage (he just kind of fell down after making the catch despite no Green Bay defenders around). It wouldn’t even be Green’s biggest gaffe on the possession. After the weekly obligatory bad shotgun snap of the week, the Cardinals had 2nd-and-18 from the Packers’ 40. Murray hit Chase Edmonds, who weaved through defenders to pick up 22 and a first down at the Green Bay 18 with 49 seconds left. Arizona was easily in field goal range to tie, but they had bigger ideas.

With just 15 seconds remaining, following their final timeout, the Cardinals had a 2nd-and-goal at the five. With running not really a prudent option (no timeouts), Murray dropped to throw and delivered a strike, except Green for whatever reason, wasn’t looking. Rasul Douglas, who was briefly on the Cardinals’ practice squad in September, deflected and intercepted the ball and preserved the win.

Some people offered that Green was looking at the Jumbotron. Others thought he was just going through the motions because he thought Kyler was going to snap the ball. That’s not feasible because the clock was stopped. Whatever you think, Green’s lack of engagement on that play is absolutely inexcusable — especially after a timeout.

It was a roller coaster, and had the Cardinals won, they unequivocally would’ve stolen it, but then they gave it away without even forcing a guaranteed overtime-at-worst scenario.

J.J. Watt was missed. So was Chandler Jones (wait, he played? Weird). The Cardinals’ defense got pushed around all night but still did enough to have a chance to win. DeAndre Hopkins tried to play through an injury but was clearly not right. Murray himself was limping badly after the game.

A long week of preparation for a road game at San Francisco will be welcomed to help heal the bruises and injuries. But you have to wonder how this team will respond mentally after a soul-crushing first loss of the season.

John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo: I guess the best thing that could be said about this game is that the Cardinals played terribly and should have won. But they didn’t and now there is a log jam with five one-loss teams battling in the NFC. Unbeaten no more, Arizona now continues its quest for an NFC West title, which is where all their attention should be focused.

Arizona had the ball for a little over eight minutes in the first half — which is shorter than a typical Burns & Gambo segment. They were without J.J. Watt, Max Garcia, Rodney Hudson, and for most of the game, DeAndre Hopkins. And still, after being outplayed for most of the game, the defense came up with a tremendous goal-line stand, giving Kyler Murray and the offense one shot with just over three minutes left.

And who didn’t think they were going to pull a rabbit out of the hat and pull this one out when they got inside the five-yard line with 15 seconds left? But somehow A.J. Green never turned around for what would have been an easy game-winning touchdown and former Cardinal Rasul Douglas came up with the interception to seal the Packers win. Tough way to lose — but you have to look at what got you there in the first place.

And Arizona did not play well, which put themselves in a position to need that goal-line stand and a long scoring drive to either tie the score or win the game. Now it’s the mini bye and time to heal some wounds of which there are many. Get right for the 49ers and hope you get a chance to see Green Bay again!

Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo:

First-and-10 from the 18, Kyler Murray scrambles to the nine-yard line and gets out of bounds. Clock stopped. Now it’s 2nd-and-one with 49 seconds left in the game. At that moment, me, everyone in the building (at least the ones wearing red) and the likely record numbers of those watching at home all shared the same thought: this is gonna happen. This is going to be one of the most extraordinary wins in the Kyler/Kliff era. The kind that is talked about for months. Years. And, in the blink of an eye, or a turn of the head, it wasn’t.

The play in the end zone was, in Kingsbury’s words, exactly what they wanted. And while nobody postgame wanted to come out and say it was A.J. Green’s fault, it seemed pretty clear that’s where the play was supposed to go. That was the correct read. And Green just didn’t turn his head. If he does then the Cardinals win. Or if he does turn his head, but doesn’t catch the ball, at the least the Cardinals have another shot at the end zone or a chance to tie it with a field goal. The Cardinals may be on the “mini-bye” but this won’t be any kind of a vacation for Green.

Of course, there was so much more to this game. The goal-line stop on fourth down was the beginning of a really cool story that just wasn’t to be. The Cardinals run defense hurting them in a game was as inevitable as Thanos; the Packers ran all over them tonight. Ten points off Cardinals turnovers. Aaron Rodgers showing off his PhD in keep-away football. A rough night for rookie Rondale Moore. DeAndre Hopkins in and out of the game, on and off the field and now we wait for news on him. The J.J. Watt injury, which put everyone in a collective state of blah before the game. But mostly it’s how one simple turn of the head could have been the difference between 7-1 and 8-0.

Kevin Zimmerman, ArizonaSports.com lead editor: The Cardinals were bound to lose at some point considering the same issues cropped up that we’ve seen in spurts. The offense sputtered before getting into gear. The run defense — you saw it and don’t need me to tell you. They’ve overcome those things and almost did again. Really, it was the poorly-timed penalties and turnovers that killed them this Thursday.

I wouldn’t listen much to anybody who calls the team a fraud at 7-1. The Cardinals twice turned the ball over deep in their own territory, and that alone on Thursday against the Packers was probably the loss. Murray’s last-chance interception, when A.J. Green did not turn around to catch the football, made little sense either, but that is how close the Cardinals were to overcoming the bad run defense and the two worst-case turnovers prior to it.

Give credit to Green Bay for calling a masterful game. Matt LaFleur perfectly balanced the run game Arizona saw coming with tight end and running back screens at the perfect moments, taking advantage of an undersized Cardinals front. Arizona loaded the box and by necessity didn’t have enough bodies on the perimeter. It’s amazing that Arizona was not gashed more in the pass game considering how few bodies were in coverage for most of the game.

Anyway, injuries and the first two turnovers — a Rondale Moore muffed punt recovered three yards outside the end zone and Kyler Murray’s first pick inside the Cardinals 20 — are what lost it for the Cardinals. It’s not necessarily about any weakness showed by the coaching staff or will of the team.

Kellan Olson, ArizonaSports.com editor: While there are plenty of fingers to point as to the reason why the Cardinals didn’t win this game, it has to be said that they managed to hang around in it until the very end. Ultimately, though, if they can’t stop the run and force turnovers they are always going to be battling uphill. That obviously becomes more challenging to do without J.J. Watt and when your offense only manages 22 minutes of possession in a 60-minute game.

It’s certainly easier to write off Kyler Murray’s performance given the context of when it occurred, after seven straight wins. As someone who spends their time in this space proudly proclaiming he’s a star, that is not a game a star quarterback loses. And maybe he wins it anyway if A.J. Green was on the same page as him. Either way, he could have at least put the defense in a better position to not be drained with a shorthanded defensive line against a team dictating the game on the ground. The last-gasp effort on three great drives wasn’t enough.

Next week’s response in San Francisco will be telling. The team should be pissed off to lose that way and should play like it.

Tyler Drake, Cardinals reporter and ArizonaSports.com editor: Two things that stand out on this loss are the Packers’ dominance in the running game and in the time-of-possession department.

A J.J. Watt-less defense had no answer for Green Bay’s rushing attack, allowing 151 yards on 34 carries for a 4.4 average. A.J. Dillon, not Aaron Jones, bullied Arizona’s defense to the tune of 78 yards on 16 carries. The totals don’t jump off the page but were huge in deciding the outcome.

That effective run game played a major part in the time of possession discrepancy, with the Packers controlling more than 37 minutes of the clock. It was especially bad on the first half, with Arizona possessing the football for less than nine minutes.

Aside from those areas, the defense’s third- and fourth-down conversion rates took an absolute shot to the dome, allowing six of 14 conversions on third down and was 2-of-4 on fourth.

There are also injuries to keep an eye on. Kyler Murray limped off the field after his game-sealing INT. DeAndre Hopkins suffered a hamstring issue and Zaven Collins was knocked out of action with a shoulder injury.

The good news is Arizona now has some time to heal up and lick its wounds before embarking on Week 9. It’s paramount the Cardinals use this extended week to their advantage and not let this one stew in the back of their minds.

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