Familiar faults cost Packers in London loss to New York Giants
Few cheeses awarded, Green Bay wanting to stop ugly skid against New York Jets
The Green Bay Packers walked onto the pitch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London wanting to put on a show for their fans overseas on a worldwide stage.
The team walked off of it with their morning beans all over the front of their shirt losing 27-22, falling to 3-2.
Losing to the New York Giants — albeit they are now 4-1 in an apparently decent NFC East? — is simply a kick in the knob. Innit?
Alright enough of the British references.
A lot of the same woes sealed the Packers fate in this game. They abandoned the run at critical points in the game — again. Joe Berry played to not lose the game instead of playing to win — again. Rodgers looked poor on deep throws — again.
The team’s arguable best player so far this year — Aaron Jones — had 13 carries for 63 yards, not nearly enough for how good he was and how much the run game had been producing in the game. AJ Dillon had six rushes for 34 yards. Again, not enough.
The most frustrating example of this is on the ensuing drive after the Giants had tied the game at 20.
10 minutes left in the 4th quarter, time to run it down their throat and tick time off the clock and leave DANIEL JONES little time on the clock to mount a comeback, right? “Wrong,” Aaron Rodgers and Matt LaFleur say in unison.
They passed three straight times for a total of 0 yards and running off a grand total of 26 seconds, punting it away to the Giants to mount their own long drive and take the lead 27-20. WEIRDLY, the next Packers drive they utilized the running backs and drove the field before ultimately going away from them yet again on third-and-2 and fourth-and-2. Jones was certain he or Dillon could’ve gotten that yardage if given the opportunity.
Just maddening.
On the other side of the ball, Joe Barry is approaching thin ice. The Giants were down a lot of their top specialist talent and Joe Barry’s talented crew allowed 338 yards of offense because his scheme isn’t working or he isn’t coaching the players well enough for it to work. Saquon is going to get his, that’s just reality.
But, Darius Slayton was allowed to haul in six receptions for 79 yards and let Daniel Jones complete way too many easy throws to carve up the zone. Jones only missed six throws all day and was allowed to extend plays despite being hobbled as he rushed for 37 yards — making me have flashbacks to Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson doing the same.
They couldn’t create any turnovers on defense and allowed the Giants to repeatedly put together long drives to ice the offensive out of the game. In the second half, the Giants held the ball for a total time of 19:35 as opposed to the Packers’ 10:25. Defense not getting stops, offense not staying on the field. That’s a recipe for a loss if I ever saw one.
However, it wasn’t all bad. Let’s hand out some cheese.
The Cheeseboard 🧀
Randall Cobb 🧀
After Aaron Rodgers all but forced Packers management to bring Randall Cobb back last season, Cobb is proving his worth and then some as the veteran presence in the WR room. Cobb received the lion’s share of the Rodgers’ targets against the Giants with 13, pulling in seven of those for 99 yards. If Cobb can continue to make clutch catches for this offense, he’ll be a dark horse team-MVP candidate.
Preston Smith 🧀
Preston Smith continues to impress opposite of Rashan Gary. He recorded another sack on Sunday and had another half sack taken away from him when he Jarran Reed met at the QB, but Rasul Douglas was called for a penalty downfield. All around good game for Preston. His consistency has been refreshing on defense.
Elgton Jenkins 🧀
Another standout game from EJ, whose performance seems to seesaw this season. EJ was the top rated offensive line run blocker according to PFF — only Romeo Doubs graded higher on offense, which is encouraging — and allowed zero QB pressures on 41 dropbacks. Once EJ and Bakhtiari are fully healthy playing every snap, the Rodgers should have a much easier time staying up right.
Jon Runyan 🧀
Like EJ, Jon Runyan also allowed zero pressures, shoring up the middle of the line. Runyan was also the highest rated pass blocker for the Pack, according to PFF. Pretty simple from us in the cheese department, if you keep the pocket clean for Rodgers, you’re likely going to earn yourself a cheese.
Cheeseboard after 5 games:
Aaron Jones: 🧀 x 4
Rashan Gary: 🧀 x 4
Preston Smith: 🧀 x 3
Aaron Rodgers: 🧀 x 2
AJ Dillon: 🧀 x 2
De’Vondre Campbell: 🧀 x 2
Elgton Jenkins: 🧀 x 2
Jaire Alexander: 🧀 x 2
Kenny Clark: 🧀 x 2
Keisean Nixon: 🧀 x 2
Pat O’Donnell: 🧀 x 2
Quay Walker: 🧀 x 2
Romeo Doubs: 🧀 x 2
Allen Lazard: 🧀
Eric Stokes: 🧀
Darnell Savage: 🧀
Jarran Reed: 🧀
John Runyan: 🧀
Mason Crosby: 🧀
Randall Cobb: 🧀
Rasul Douglas: 🧀
Rudy Ford: 🧀
Sammy Watkins: 🧀
Zach Tom: 🧀
Preview of Packers-Jets, score predictions
Breece and the Jets?
Robert and the Jets?
Zachary and the Jets?
Truthfully I’d prefer Benny and the Jets.
The Jets are still the Jets, but they are 3-2, just like the Packers. They’re coming off an absolute trouncing of the injury-plagued Miami Dolphins. They’re a young, confident team with nothing to lose.
The Jets’ weapons are much more formidable, in my opinion, than the Packers have seen since Week 1. Garrett Wilson is an emerging rookie wide receiver putting up numbers already. Elijah Moore in the slot is dynamic and speedy. Braxton Berrios reminds me a lot of Hunter Renfrow.
Breece Hall and Michael Carter may not be Dalvin Cook/Alexander Mattison, Damien Harris/Rhamondre Stevenson or David Montgomery/Khalil Herbert but they’re both capable of breaking off big plays — which could be bad against the Packers seemingly porous run defense.
The Pack need to apply pressure to the biggest x-factor for the Jets, Zach Wilson. The second-year QB is still prone to make mistakes at inopportune times and if the Packers can make him uneasy in the backfield and force his throws off target, it could be a recipe for success.
Overall, Joe Berry’s defensive scheme isn’t utilizing the team’s talent in any way shape or form. The team is playing primarily zone coverage and not handing off assignments appropriately, allowing slant routes to kill them. In total they have nine total snaps in man coverage. Nine. As they great Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, “only siths deal in absolutes.” Joe Berry needs to mix in man coverage into his scheme and let his dogs off the leash to play press on the WRs and make life difficult for less-talented quarterbacks — like Zach Wilson.
On offense, it’s simple. Run the damn ball. Rodgers apparently can’t make up his mind on how he wants to run the offense after saying last week that he wanted to air it out more on offense. Now on Wednesday, he says “when we run the ball well and stick to it, that’s going to give us more opportunities for some down-the-field stuff.”
Yes, Aaron, we’ve been yelling this from the top of the sledding hill in the Titletown District for anyone that will listen.
This offense is at its best when the ball is primarily in Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon’s hands.
Get the receivers mixed into the passing game in the middle of the field. If Christian Watson is healthy, send him on a streak down the field and utilize his speed to get chunk plays.
I really want a dominant game from the Packers, but the last two time I guessed that in my score predictions, the Packers won in OT and then lost. So I’m changing my request this week just to win.
Score predictions:
Numac: 31-24 Packers
Jordan: 28-17 Packers