The Green Bay Packers handily defeated the Arizona Cardinals by the score of 34-13 on Sunday afternoon. The win improves the Packers’ record to 4-2 on the season, helping them keep pace with the rest of the NFC North. Every team in their division is at least two games over .500 so far this year.
The real only blotch on the Packers’ day was a Jordan Love interception that was not the quarterback’s fault. He had Bo Melton wide open, but the wide receiver slipped on the slick rain-saturated field, allowing the Cardinals to intercept the pass.
Defensively, the Packers forced three turnovers, all fumbles. While Xavier McKinney‘s interception streak ended at five games, the defense, perhaps, played their best game of the season, limiting Arizona to just 214 passing yards and 89 rushing yards.
Most importantly, they kept them out of the end zone on every drive except for one.
The were a plethora of great performances in the Packers’ victory over the Cardinals. However, there are three that stuck out for both obvious and subtle reasons.
Wide Receiver Romeo Doubs
In his first game since serving a suspension for conduct detrimental to the team, Doubs was electric. The third-year wide receiver caught three passes for 49 yards and two touchdowns. After his second one, an incredible catch and extension on a [probably] ill-advised heave from Love, Doubs embraced his fellow wide receivers in the end zone.
Wide Receiver Christian Watson
Green Bay’s other third-year wide receiver from the 2022 NFL Draft came into the day with just five receptions for 80 yards and a touchdown in four games played this season. He also missed Green Bay’s last game with an ankle injury.
In this game, Watson had three receptions for a team-high 68 yards and a touchdown. As usual, he was also a force blocking for his fellow pass catchers downfield.
Quarterback Jordan Love
After a slow start, Love put together yet another solid performance. He completed 22 of 32 passes (68.8%) for 258 yards, four touchdowns, and the aforementioned interception. Love’s performance earned him a passer rating of 119.5.
He also became the only quarterback with four touchdown passes in multiple games this season. He previously threw four in Green Bay’s Week Four loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
In addition, he became the first Packers quarterback since Brett Favre to throw four touchdown passes in back-to-back home games (Green Bay visited the Los Angeles Rams last week).
1 Dud from the Green Bay Packers Victory Over the Arizona Cardinals
Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
With such a convincing victory, it is hard to identify three players that one could label duds. However, there was one Packers that did not play as well as they probably should have.
The obvious choice for a dud is kicker Brayden Narveson, who missed yet another field goal attempt in this game. While he made his other two, it is clear that Green Bay has yet to solve their kicker problem.
Last year, Anders Carlson led the NFL in missed kicks. Narveson is leading the league this year.
