Green Bay Packers vs. Arizona Cardinals: Green Bay Grades, Notes and Quotes

The Arizona Cardinals handed the Green Bay Packers one of their worst losses of the season on Sunday as the NFC West champs defeated the visitors, 38-8.

Green Bay (10-5) had no answer for the Cardinals' high-powered offense, which finished with 381 total yards and struggled to move the ball with Aaron Rodgers under constant pressure. 

Arizona (13-2) won their ninth straight game and clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs as its defense sacked Rodgers eight times and returned two strip-sack fumbles for scores. 

Sunday's contest was certainly one to forget for the Green and Gold and meant the Packers have lost both of their games against the two NFC front-runners heading into the postseason—the Carolina Panthers defeated them back in November. 

Despite winning its previous three games, Green Bay's true colors may have come out in the road loss to Arizona. 

Let's get to some position grades and the important notes and quotes from the Packers' Week 16 loss to the Cardinals. 

Position	Grade
Quarterback	C
Running Back	B-
Wide Receiver	D
Tight End	D
Offensive Line	F
Defensive Line	C
Linebacker	B
Defensive Back	D
Special Teams	A
Coaching	C

Quarterback

Aaron Rodgers finished with just 151 passing yards, a touchdown, an interception and a 66.2 passer rating, but you can't lay all the blame on him for the Packers' poor offensive play. He was under constant pressure all game—he was sacked eight times—and his receivers failed to get open early enough for him to get rid of the ball. Although he got crushed on his two strip-sacks, you have to fault Rodgers a little for not taking better care of the ball. 

Running Back

If there are any positives to take from the Packers' terrible offensive performance, it's that Eddie Lacy had a solid game out of the backfield. Lacy finished with 60 rushing yards on 12 carries—for an average of 5.0 yards per rush—and grabbed a 28-yard reception for Green Bay's only score. James Starks put a damper on this unit's play, though, as he fumbled yet again. 

Wide Receiver

Dropped passes are becoming a bad habit from Green Bay's wideouts. Davante Adams couldn't catch what was a sure touchdown reception on a 3rd-and-goal in the third quarter. On the following play, Adams failed to get in the end zone on fourth down as he got stopped for no gain on a slant route. James Jones led the way with five catches for 46 yards, but his stats look worse when you realize he was targeted a team-high 11 times.

Tight End

It was nice to see Andrew Quarless back in game action, but unfortunately neither he nor any other Packer tight end could help Rodgers out in the passing game on Sunday. Yet Quarless did catch both passes thrown his way—one of which went for 13 yards. 

Offensive Line

You can string the offensive line's poor play up to injuries, but that still doesn't explain the nine sacks they gave up to the Arizona pass rush. Fill-in tackles Don Barclay and Josh Walker both allowed strip-sacks that resulted in fumble returns for touchdowns. Walker was so bad he was eventually benched in favor of backup center JC Tretter.

Defensive Line

Defensive tackle Mike Daniels made a nice play to pick off Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer in the second quarter on a screen pass. His interception didn't result in any Packers points, but his play on Sunday certainly backs up his recent contract extension.

Linebacker

The linebacking corps had a tough task in front of them with Arizona rookie tailback David Johnson's breakaway speed out of the backfield. Johnson finished with 88 receiving yards and 39 rushing yards as Jake Ryan and Clay Matthews struggled to cover him all game. 

Defensive Back

Carson Palmer picked apart Green Bay's young secondary with ease on Sunday. Larry Fitzgerald and John Brown both caught easy touchdowns while Michael Floyd added 111 receiving yards on six catches of his own. The unit clearly missed the presence of Sam Shields, who sat out with a concussion, as rookie corners Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins proved to be no match for Arizona's talented pass-catchers.

Special Teams

When called upon, Green Bay's special teams units did their jobs—a rare sight among the rest of the roster on Sunday. Punter Tim Masthay executed a fake punt to perfection in the first half, but his efforts would ultimately result in zero points on the drive. Recently signed long snapper Rick Lovato also played nicely in his first NFL game—no bad snaps and going virtually unnoticed is a good thing for someone snapping balls. 

Coaching

It's hard to blame the coaching staff for the offense's performance on Sunday, but the issues run deeper than a bad offensive line. Lacy seemed to be running well—as he's done the past five weeks—yet he saw just 12 carries.

You'd think an intelligent football mind such as Mike McCarthy's would design better plays to fight through a depleted O-line and find ways to still move the ball. It was refreshing to see McCarthy draw up the fake punt and successfully convert a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter when it seemed a win was out of reach.

It was not a good day to be a quarterback in green and gold, that's for sure. 

Cardinals pass-rushers took full advantage of the Packers' depleted offensive line en route to pummeling both Aaron Rodgers and Scott Tolzien throughout the afternoon. 

Rodgers was sacked eight times with three fumbles—two of which were returned for touchdowns—in his three quarters of action. It was first time Rodgers had been sacked that many times in a game since the Fail Mary game against the Seahawks in 2012. Tolzien came in to relieve Rodgers for the entire fourth quarter and was promptly sacked once himself. 

Arizona's nine sacks came on 37 Green Bay pass plays—or about once every four pass dropbacks by Packer quarterbacks—and threw in 12 quarterback knockdowns. Dwight Freeney led the team with three sacks, while Calais Campbell added 2.5 of his own.

The Cardinals were so dominant in their pass-rushing partly because of a slew of injuries along Green Bay's O-line.

Starting left tackle David Bakhtiari was inactive on Sunday for the first time in his career with an ankle injury, forcing backup right tackle Don Barclay to fill in. From there, it all went down hill. 

Tom Silverstein of the Journal Sentinel outlined the Packers' injury problems perfectly: 

Right guard T.J. Lang has a shoulder injury that he said would have to be surgically repaired after the season. Guard Josh Sitton has a back injury that prevents him from practicing much during the week and is clearly affecting his play.

Right tackle Bryan Bulaga has been battling a knee injury much of the year and he was knocked out of the game after twisting his ankle. And Linsley aggravated his injury, although he was able to return to the game.

Things completely fell apart in the second half when McCarthy brought in Josh Walker to replace Bulaga and tried to protect Rodgers with a tackle tandem of Barclay and Walker. Barclay gave up multiple sacks and committed two blocking penalties and Walker gave up a pair of sacks and was eventually replaced by center JC Tretter.

Offensive-line injuries, coupled with an already dangerous Arizona pass rush, seemed to doom the Packers from the start—and all the way through the fourth quarter just to rub it in.

After the Packers' embarrassing loss, quarterback Aaron Rodgers admitted the team struggled to rebound from a terrible first half. 

"We have a standard we've set around here for a long time and we just haven't lived up to that consistently," Rodgers said, via Michael Cohen of the Journal Sentinel. He continued:

We've had some very poor halves and we've had some good halves. We felt like this could have been an opportunity today to have another bad half, good half and get back in the game. A couple fumbles later and you’re down 31 and the game is getting out of hand.

Packers offensive guard T.J. Lang was blunt when asked about the offense's struggles, via Jason Wilde of ESPN: "Obviously today the protection was s--t, the running game was s--t, everything was just s--t."

Rodgers did put some of the blame on himself—especially his two strip-sacks that went for scores, via Cohen:

I'm just disappointed with myself. I've had good ball security over the years holding onto the ball at times when guys are stripping at it and putting hands on the ball. So it's disappointing that I let it go there a couple times and they turned right into touchdowns. That's not good football by me, and I've got to clean that up for next week.

In offensive guard Josh Sitton's eyes, the offense needs to resort to the run in the future.

"We need to be a team that goes out there and runs it 30 times a game," Sitton said, via Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "I think we've proven when we can get Eddie 20 carries and James 10 then we're a pretty good team. We've got to be able to do that."

If there's any silver lining the Packers can take away from Sunday's blowout loss to the Cardinals, it's the play they got from defensive tackle Mike Daniels. 

Daniels, fresh off a four-year, $41 million contract extension, picked off Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer in the second quarter and returned it to the Cardinals' 15-yard-line—a play that could've changed the course of the game.

Daniels made a phenomenal play on his pick as he perfectly read a screen play, turned around quickly and caught Palmer's soft toss to running back David Johnson. The turnover set the Packers up nicely to cut the Arizona lead down to one score right before the half.

Instead, Aaron Rodgers threw an interception of his own in the end zone just three plays later. The Cardinals promptly marched 80 yards down the field on their ensuing possession and a John Brown touchdown reception (and the extra point) made it a 17-0 lead at halftime.

Daniels also had a tackle for loss, and his pressure on Palmer earlier in the first half made a Green Bay sack possible.

Three Packers were named in an Al Jazeera documentary, The Dark Side, which alleges a man provided them with performance-enhancing drugs and illegal painkillers, according to a report by the Huffington Post. 

After Green Bay's loss to Arizona on Sunday, linebackers Clay Matthews, Mike Neal and Julius Peppers denied the documentary's allegations that they either knew Charlie Sly—the man who originally made the claims—or were provided with PEDs at all.

"I think it is bulls--t," Matthews said, via Tom Silverstein of the Journal Sentinel. He continued:

I mean to be completely honest with you it's 100 percent falsified and fabricated information. I don't know who this guy is. I couldn't tell you what he looks like. I have never talked with him or communicated with him, so for him to bring my name up like that out of thin air is bulls--t for a lack of a better term.

I work hard on my reputation and really that is all I have. For seven years, I worked my ass off and for this guy to say that type of thing is not true and for him to recant everything he said, too, just shows the type of source he is. The truth will come out and I am not worried about it because I carry myself a certain way and that is the right way.

Peppers also denied knowing Sly and taking the drug. 

"I was a little bit shocked," he said, via Silverstein. "It is not true and completely erroneous and completely irresponsible journalism in my opinion. I don't understand how I could be linked to something like this."

Neal refused to answer any questions on the allegations. 

"You might as well stop asking me questions," he said, via Silverstein. "I mean, I'm sure you saw how pissed off Peyton Manning was about somebody coming out with talk like this. If you want to piss me off, that's one thing, but please don't. ... If you want to talk about football, let's talk about football."

The documentary also alleged Denver Broncos quarterback Manning was provided with PEDs along with a number of other high-profile athletes.