Crabtree’s catch, dropped passes hand Cardinals’ their fifth straight loss

John Skelton and the Arizona Cardinals offense showed tremendous signs of life in the third quarter of Sunday’s loss at Lambeau Field.

After putting together two scoring drives to whittle the Packers’ double-digit lead down to just seven, it looked like Arizona still had a chance to pull off the road upset over the final 15 minutes of play.

But backup tight end Tom Crabtree and Aaron Rodgers had other ideas.

On the final play of the third quarter, Crabtree managed to somehow run his route well beyond Arizona’s coverage. Rodgers promptly found him over the middle, and the third-year veteran quickly raced 72 yards towards the end zone to put the Packers on top 31-17.

The Cardinals still had 15 minutes on the clock to make a game of it, but the 72-yard touchdown pass virtually ended any threat of a comeback.

“You just can’t let that happen,” head coach Ken Whisenhunt said following the 31-17 loss. “We fought to get back in the game, and we had a little bit of momentum. In one play they go down the field and it makes it tough.”

In addition to the big play given up by the defense, the offense didn’t do John Skelton any favors on Sunday.

Despite being sacked only twice by Green Bay, Skelton was just 23-of-46, in large part due to six big drops by his receivers.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Whisenhunt of the drops. “It’s very infuriating, because we had opportunities to keep drives alive. You can’t do that, not on the road against a team like this. You’ve got to make those plays, and there is no excuse for it.”

Arizona has plenty of time to work on fundamentals this week. The Cardinals head into their bye week, before going to Atlanta on Nov. 18 to face the undefeated Falcons.