The Green Bay Packers travelled to Phoenix to take on the then-undefeated Arizona Cardinals and left with a win after a gritty performance that ended with a sensational endzone interception.
The Green Bay Packers started the week in the worst possible shape, losing star WR Davante Adams to COVID-19 on a short week when they have the then-undefeated Arizona Cardinals to play.
Despite all the missing players for the Packers, Aaron Rodgers marched down to Arizona and went head to head with current MVP favourite Kyler Murray. Rodgers made an impact first and Murray fired back as the game began like the many epics between the two from years before, including a 2015 Divisional game.
Murray would go on to struggle to get the ball down the field with the Packers defence holding its own. Rodgers on the other hand would continue to find Randall Cobb in the endzone. Murray would find his way back into the game, helped by a fourth-down stop at the goal line, leaving all that’s left, to march down the field and win the game.
The Packers let them get all the way to the goal line, but up jumped former Cardinal Rasul Douglas, to pick off Murray on a blown play to AJ Green, that lets the Packers wake away top of the NFC, at 7-1.
Here are some of the players Green Bay that stepped up to stop the Cardinals in their tracks, in Week 8.
Key Green Bay Packers players in win over Arizona in Week 8
3. Aaron Rodgers
The Packers came into the game without three of their top receivers, including standout, Davante Adams, leaving them with very limited options in the passing game. This meant that Rodgers was going to have to pull something out of the hat, and he did just that, throwing for 184 yards, and most importantly, two TD’s.
Rodgers and Matt LaFleur cobbled together an offence that kept the Cardinals guessing throughout. Rodgers got Aaron Jones firmly in the passing game, allowing Arizona to continuously leave holes deep, and Rodgers didn’t miss.
Granted, Rodgers couldn’t get a score on a 4th and goal deep in the fourth quarter, but he put his team in the position to have a chance to win, and in the end, his defence backed him up.
2. Randall Cobb
With all the injuries the Packers have, it was Randall Cobb’s time to be the teams lead guy. Cobb has always been a favorite of Rodgers, and he stepped up in the red zone when the team needed him, coming away with two TD’s.
Cobb may not have been Green Bay’s leading receiver in this game but he added a threat that Rodgers was crying out for, and was huge in them getting the job done.
1. Packers Secondary
The big issue for the Packers was stopping Murray from getting those big plays, and deep touchdowns. To do so, they would need to lockdown the Cardinals’ abundance of offensive weapons. Getting to Murray was an afterthought if you could cover his options, and the secondary did just that.
For the most part, Murray struggled to get the ball down the field, with the exception of about three plays to DeAndre Hopkins. They locked down the majority of the teams’ receivers, with their leading receiver being Hopkins, who spent most of the time on the sideline, no one else could get through this secondary.
This Packers secondary also came up with the play to win the game, with Rasul Douglas, a player who was signed off the Cardinals practice squad this week, intercepting Murray in the endzone after a blown play to end their unbeaten run.
This game was billed as two powerhouses going at it, but the way things have panned out, particularly for the Packers, with Rodgers getting the win, it puts him right in the MVP conversation.