
Arizona Cardinals home loss against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday was a brilliant showing for Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett. Stepping in for the injured Kyler Murray, Brisset's performance where he threw for 279 yards, completing 69-percentage of his passes and throwing two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Brissett did cough up the ball, fumbling to give the Packers great field position. That is two loses in a row where Brissett has completed over 60-percent of his passes and thrown two touchdowns but still falling short of the victory, losing to the Indianapolis Colts the week before. The backup quarterback is proving he is more than capable to step in and do the job while Murray is out with a foot injury. In a sense, quarterback play is not the issues for Arizona right now.
Meanwhile, tight end Trey McBride seems to have become Brisset's go to option, with 13 targets and ten receptions with two of those being touchdowns. McBride should be seen as a reliable fantasy option moving forward, as long as Brissett stays at the helm.
Against the Colts he had eight receptions on 11 targets with a touchdown. McBride had a total of just one touchdown in the first three games of the season, that touchdown coming in week one. The pair have now connected for three touchdowns in the last two games with Brissett at the helm. It surely seems Brissett has found his man.
The offense does not seem to be the problem for the Cardinals as they put up a total of 330 yards of total offense to the Packers' 262 total yards in Sunday's game. Beating them in first downs with 23 to Green Bays' 19.
What is holding the Cardinals back is turnovers. Not only are they turning the ball over on offense but they can't come away with it on defense, either. Arizona does lead the division in points allowed at 154 with the 49ers being the next closest at 138, putting the Cardinals at 2-5, dead last in the NFC West.
Even getting the ball back with 1:50 left in the fourth quarter down by four was not enough. Green Bay's huge signing of defensive end Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys of course had a major impact on the game with multiple sacks. One came on the final drive were Parsons sacked Brissett to set up a fourth down. With one last chance to win the game Brissett flung the ball into the end zone, which was batted down by the Packers' secondary to seal the victory.
With Kyler Murray being ruled out until a potential return in Week 9 against the Cowboys we will be seeing a lot more of the Brissett-McBride connection in weeks to come. Can the Cardinals find a way to to overcome these tight loses?
Losing by four or less points in each of their games so far, finding a way to win at the end of games will be the focus heading into the bye week and moving forward.