Organizational failure: Cardinals' loss to Packers was top-to-bottom debacle

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Jonathan Gannon‘s normal approach after Arizona Cardinals losses is to shield his players by immediately putting the blame on himself. 

He waited well into his postgame news conference to do so in the aftermath of the Packers’ 34-13 win on Sunday. Which was odd. This was one time when local media would have wholeheartedly agreed with him.

No matter what Gannon said, and no matter how much quarterback Kyler Murray backed him, it was clear that the Cardinals were not ready to play in Green Bay.

There were 13 Arizona penalties in the game — nearly matching their season total of 19, which was an NFL low. Six of those penalties came pre-snap, including two neutral zone infractions by linebacker Zaven Collins and veteran right tackle Kelvin Beachum’s failure to line up on the line of scrimmage.

There were three fumbles lost, a point of focus that every player knew heading into a game against the NFL’s takeaway leaders.

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There was an utter lack of cohesiveness on offense. There were head-scratching play calls like the back-shoulder throw into the end zone to just-activated Xavier Weaver on a critical third-and-6 at the Packers’ 21-yard line. That call came on the first drive of the second half when the Cardinals were trailing 24-10 and still had a chance to claw their way back into the game.

There was no running game with James Conner (seven carries, 24 yards). There were no catches by Marvin Harrison Jr. before he left the game in concussion protocol and — stop us if you’ve heard this one before — there was no pass rush (zero sacks).

Packers QB Jordan Love completed 22 of 32 passes for 258 yards and four TDs, earning his best passer rating of the season (119.5). Love’s only interception came because his receiver fell down just as he released the ball — and that was the only reason Arizona had any life after spotting Green Bay a 24-0 lead late in the first half.

The Cardinals made life easy on Love and hard on themselves.

“We’ve got to do a better job of affecting the quarterback,” Gannon said, whose team mounted just four pressures on 23 of Love’s dropbacks in the first half, per Pro Football Focus. 

That’s tough to do when your GM doesn’t invest in affecting the quarterback, but you knew that already. It was just stunning how every wart on the Cardinals’ skin rose to the surface in the chilly air of Lambeau Field.

“We didn’t execute in all three phases of the ball,” Murray said. “Sloppy. Turnovers. Penalties. Miscommunication. If we play like that we won’t beat anybody, but we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot against a good team.”

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We shouldn’t discount the impact that injuries have had on a roster that was already too thin at multiple positions. Not having Darius Robinson and BJ Ojulari on the defensive front was disappointing enough, but playing without two starting offensive linemen (Jonah Williams and Will Hernandez) clearly impacted the offense’s ability to operate.

Things got even worse on Sunday with Cardinals dropping like flies. Aside from Harrison, linebacker Kyzir White (knee), defensive tackle Bilal Nichols (stinger), guard Evan Brown (ankle), and cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting (neck) also exited the game.

Murphy-Bunting may have been relieved to do so after committing two penalties on his final series and then punctuating it with an utter failure to find the ball on Love’s wing-and-a-prayer TD pass to Romeo Doubs in the face of pressure — a TD that put the game out of reach at 31-13.

It would be helpful if any of Ossenfort’s free agent additions other than Mack Wilson would offer some sort of impact. But even if they did, it’s probably time to stop kidding ourselves that this team is capable of putting together a consistent enough run to carry it to contention. It’s probably time to stop pretending that this isn’t year two of a full rebuild that the organization believes needs more time.

Let’s stop pretending that this offense has an embarrassment of riches ready to light up NFL defenses. The Cardinals have averaged just shy of 16 points in their past four games.

Let’s stop pretending that the Cardinals are a potential playoff team. If not for a miracle by the Bay when the 49ers didn’t have a damn kicker, this team could well be 1-5.

Let’s stop pretending that the Cardinals are anything more than what we have seen through six weeks — a deeply flawed team capable of occasional moments of brilliance in this any-given-Sunday league, but nowhere close to what you hoped they would be.

Top photo via Getty Images

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