That time Rasul Douglas robbed the Cardinals
You don’t often think of the Arizona Cardinals as juggernauts in the football world, but midway through the 2021 season, they were a pretty good approximation of the word.
Through seven weeks, they were undefeated and had scored more than 30 points in six of seven games. Five of their seven wins had come by double digits, and Kyler Murray looked like a bona fide MVP candidate.
The first overall pick in 2019, Murray was enjoying a fine start to his season. In seven games, he’d completed more than 73% of his passes, throwing for more than 2,000 yards and 17 touchdowns against five interceptions. He was every bit the player the Cardinals had hoped for when they’d drafted him.
The only thing stopping them from an 8-0 start was the Green Bay Packers, themselves a 6-1 team heading into Week 8, but with some significant problems.
The Packers were a bit of an injured mess. Edge rusher Za’Darius Smith and cornerback Jaire Alexander were on injured reserve, as was wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. To make matters worse, Kevin King, the Packers’ number two corner behind Alexander at that point (for whatever that’s worth) had been banged up in the Packers’ Week 7 win, and wouldn’t be available to play as the Packers went into their Thursday Night Football matchup on short rest.
But things got worse. Davante Adams and Allen Lazard landed on the COVID-19 reserve list early in the week, leaving the Packers seriously shorthanded at receiver. On top of that, defensive coordinator Joe Barry, still in his honeymoon phase in Green Bay, also landed on the COVID-19 reserve list. Between Adams, Lazard, and Barry, the ongoing pandemic had robbed the Packers of two key assets heading into their showdown in Arizona.