Uncharacteristic penalties prove costly as winning streak remains elusive for Cardinals

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Arizona Cardinals figured they would need to play mistake-free football to have a chance at pulling off a second straight road upset and earning their first two-game winning streak since 2021.

They didn’t come close to achieving that objective.

Arizona committed 13 penalties overall and fumbled the ball away on three consecutive drives in a 34-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. The Cardinals were unable to build on the momentum of their 24-23 victory at San Francisco a week earlier.

“We play like that, we won’t beat anybody,” said Arizona's Kyler Murray, who went 22 of 32 for 214 yards with one touchdown pass and a fumble. “We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot against a good team.”

The penalties were particularly surprising because Arizona had been so disciplined through the first month of the season.

Arizona entered Sunday having committed a league-low 3.8 penalties per game. The Cardinals were penalized just once for 5 yards in the victory over the 49ers.

They had 100 penalty yards against the Packers. Many of the infractions came at particularly bad times.

Green Bay led 7-0 and faced third-and-10 from Arizona’s 15 when a neutral-zone infraction on Zaven Collins brought the Packers 5 yards closer. On the next play, Jordan Love threw a touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs that opened the second quarter.

Collins’ error was one of three neutral-zone penalties by the Cardinals in the first quarter.

“Those are non-negotiables for us,” Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon said of the pre-snap penalties. “So uncharacteristic of us, so that’s why we got to look at why those things happen and do a better job there. Because you don’t want to — bang-bang plays happen — you don’t want to go backwards before the ball is snapped.”

Perhaps the biggest penalty came later in the second quarter.

Arizona trailed 17-0, but appeared to grab some momentum when Zach Pascal forced a fumble on a punt return by Jayden Reed. Arizona's Owen Pappoe recovered the fumble, seemingly giving the Cardinals the ball at Green Bay’s 23.

But offsetting penalties – including a horse-collar tackle attempt by DeeJay Dallas – nullified the play. When Arizona punted again, Keisean Nixon returned it 39 yards to give Green Bay the ball across midfield.

On the next play, Love threw a 44-yard touchdown pass that extended Green Bay’s lead to 24-0.

Arizona cut the lead to 24-13 early in the third quarter, thanks in part to a Sean Murphy-Bunting interception in Packers territory that led to Chad Ryland's 38-yard field goal just before halftime. The Cardinals had erased a 23-10 halftime deficit in their victory over the 49ers, so they had every reason to believe they could rally again.

They instead kept repeating the same mistakes.

After Ryland’s 40-yard field goal made it 24-13, Murphy-Bunting committed two holding penalties on Green Bay’s next drive, setting up a 20-yard touchdown pass from Love to Doubs. One of those penalties nullified a third-down stop that would have forced Green Bay into fourth-and-3 from the Arizona 33.

Arizona then fumbled the ball away on each of its next three series. The first fumble came from James Conner, the second from Greg Dortch and the third from Murray.

“You can’t let bad plays continue to happen against a good team,” Murray said. “It’s too hard.”

Arizona got plenty of lousy breaks Sunday.

Rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. left in the second quarter with a concussion after his head collided with the thigh of Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie on an incomplete pass. The Cardinals also lost linebacker Kyzir White, defensive tackle Bilal Nichols, safety Joey Blount, left guard Evan Brown and Murphy-Bunting to various injuries.

The Cardinals were playing a second straight game without kicker Matt Prater, who’s out with a knee injury.

Yet they really had nobody to blame but themselves for the way they played as they continued their penchant for inconsistency. The Cardinals haven’t earned back-to-back victories since 2021, when they won at Seattle on Nov. 21 and had a week off before winning at Chicago on Dec. 5.

“We’ve got everything we need in the building,” Cardinals defensive tackle LJ Collier said. “We just have to play better.”

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This story has been corrected to show it was a fumble on a punt return by Reed rather than a muffed punt.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Steve Megargee, The Associated Press