Cardinals’ losing streak reaches 5 games with 27-23 loss to Packers
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GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The Arizona Cardinals have been in every game this season, none decided by more than a touchdown.
Winners of the first two close games, the Cardinals have fallen into a spiral of frustration as one win after another has agonizingly slipped from their grasp.
The latest: a 27-23 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday that stretched Arizona’s losing streak to five games — by a combined 13 points.
“More of the same,” Cardinals defensive tackle Calais Campbell said. “We fight hard, but we’ve got to find a way to win ballgames.”
The Cardinals (2-5) had the close-game answers against New Orleans and Carolina to open the season, winning both by a combined 12 points.
The past five weeks have been a blur of missed opportunities.
It started with a 16-15 loss at San Francisco in Week 3, kicking off a string of three straight losses on the last play of the fourth quarter — an NFL first.
Last week, the Cardinals had a four-point lead in the fourth quarter, the ball on Tennessee’s 9-yard line and still lost, 31-27.
Arizona’s loss to the Packers (4-1-1) turned on a midfield decision that backfired.
Faced with a fourth-and-1 at their own 48 with six minutes left, the Cardinals opted to go for it, hoping to continue winding clock with a 23-20 lead. The gambit failed when quarterback Jacob Brissett, making his second straight start in place of injured Kyler Murray, was stuffed at the line of scrimmage for a turnover on downs.
“I definitely wanted to go — I would have went for it with more than that (yards),” Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon said.
Arizona’s defense had a chance to make a stand, but bowed backward instead.
Green Bay converted a fourth-and-2 with a 15-yard pass from Jordan Love to tight end Tucker Kraft and kept moving down field. Josh Jacobs scored on a 1-yard run to put the Packers up 27-23 and Brissett last-gasp pass from Green Bay’s 27 caromed out of the back of the end zone.
“We had a lead in the fourth quarter, multiple times, and we didn’t get off the field,” Campbell said. “To be as good as I think we can be, that’s unacceptable.”
Another breakdown gave Green Bay momentum heading into halftime.
Arizona moved the ball in the first half, but two drives stalled, resulting in field goals. The Cardinals finally broke through with a touchdown, on a 15-yard pass from Brissett to tight end Trey McBride that put them up 13-3 with seven seconds left before halftime.
The Packers needed just two plays to cut the lead to a touchdown: a 22-yard catch by Romeo Daubs and Lucas Havrisik’s team-record 61-yard field goal as time expired.
“You’re figuring with seven seconds on a timeout, the yardage they could get, I thought we’d be OK,” Gannon said. “There was a little too much (cushion) in the call they were in, but it was the right call. … Looking back on it, do I wish I had made a different call? Yeah.”
As the Cardinals head into their bye week, they’ll have plenty of time to look at what’s gone wrong during their five-game skid.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL