Last night’s Thursday Night Football game was painful for the Cardinals both mentally and physically. Despite the Green Bay Packers doubling the Cardinals in plays and time of possession, they still had the opportunity to win or tie the game at the end. Then it happened, the audible that was never heard, in a crowd overrun by Packers, ending with A.J. Green never turning around and a Rasul Douglas Interception to end the game.
The Cardinals looked out of sync for most of the game. The packers were able to keep the offense off the field by killing them with papercuts in the form of run plays and 4-yard passes. As the Packers kept the ball, they kept the Arizona offense off the field. Although the offense sprang to life in the second half, the defense simply could not get off the field. This resulted in the Cardinals playing from behind most of the game and taking the run game out of the equation.
The physical pain was easy to spot. The cardinals were on their third string center and had a hobbled Deandre Hopkins who was only able to play 15 snaps with a hamstring injury. Despite having the highlight play of the game for the Cardinals, it was evident the offense was not the same without their number one receiver on the field.
There was additional physical pain on defense as the battle of the trenches was lost time and time again. The defense could not stop the running duo of Jones and Dillon as they ran down the field 5 yards at a time. Chandler Jones was not able to get to Aaron Rodgers after his first game back from having Covid. In addition, the Defensive line did not pack the same punch without J.J. Watt leading them forward.
The mental pain came at the end of the game. State Farm Stadium seemed to turn into Lambeau 2.0 with the amount of Packer fans making themselves heard. This culminated at the end of the game where the noise at field level became so deafening that A.J. Green was unable to hear an audible from Kyler Murray. Leading to a triumphant ending for the Packers and a crushing ending for the Cardinals. In the span of 10 minutes the Cardinals went from a goal line stand on 4th and inches, to being on the 5-yard line with a chance to win and all the momentum. Unfortunately for Cardinal fans, the “almost win” is still a loss and a debilitating one at that.
On the bright side, the Cardinals now have a mini-bye week to get healthy and correct their mistakes in time for the 49ers game in Santa Clara. This is where we will know if this team is different from last year or if they are just another Kliff Kingsbury team destined for crash in the 2nd half of the season. We’re all hoping it’s the former.