Packers survive overtime scare, avoid getting Zappe'd by Pats
Preview: Pack travel to London for first time to battle New York Giants
The Green Bay Packers improved to 3-1 after a — what some would call unnecessarily stressful — 27-24 win over the Bailey Zappe-led New England Patriots. Zappe entered the game after Axel Edward Brian Hoyer left the game with a concussion resulting from a Rashan Gary sack in the first quarter.
After a tenuous first half from Rodgers and the offense, the Packers were only down 10-7. After halftime, the Green and Gold came to play, earning 303 of their total 443 yards in the second half and overtime.
This was due in large part to WR1 Allen Lazard and RB 1 Aaron Jones, both of whom had over 100 yards from scrimmage. Touchdowns on a needle-threaded Rodgers ball to Robert Tonyan and an incredible catch by Romeo Doubs got the Packers back in it and forced the extra session in large part to timely stops by the defense.
After the Packers tied it, the defense forced two 3-and-outs and sent it to overtime. After a Green Bay punt and another 3-and-out forced by the defense. Rodgers and Co. put together a masterful 12-play, 77-yard drive to set up a 31-yard Mason Crosby field goal to win the game at the buzzer.
The Cheeseboard 🧀
Talk of the Tundra’s Cheeseboard is a season-long leaderboard tracking and ranking exceptional performances from Packers players in the form of cheeses 🧀, of which they are three: Muenster (🧀), pepper jack (🧀🧀) and an aged sharp cheddar (🧀🧀🧀). At the end of the season, we will recap the Cheeseboard and see who ends up being the team MVP.
Rashan Gary 🧀🧀
Rashan Gary continues to make his case for the Defensive Player of the Year award and earned himself a nice, soft with a lil’ kick chunk of pepper jack cheese. Through four games, he has five sacks, tied for 4th in the league and he is tied for 11th in QB pressures with 16 — six behind second place Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons and 14 behind leader Nick Bosa. With both Bosas missing time with injuries, Rashan has a real chance to bolster his stats to make his mark on this season.
Aaron Jones 🧀
After his poorly-timed fumble against Tampa Bay, Jones bounced back against the Patriots with a dominant 16-carry, 110-yard rushing performance to earn himself a nice slice of Muenster. Aaron Jones has continued to solidify himself as one of the premier running backs in the league and bona fide leader in the Packers backfield because of his ability to break off chunk plays on the ground. Among qualified runners — at least 42 attempts, half of Saquon Barkley’s league-leading 84 — Showtime leads the league in yards per attempt at 6.8. To top it all off, he is tied for 2nd in rushes over 10 yards with Saquon Barkley and three behind leader Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Allen Lazard 🧀
After a slow start reception and yardage wise, Lazard broke out in his third game of the season hauling in six receptions for 116 yards. Lazard has long had Rodgers’ trust, but this was the first game that was truly on display. His emergence has the true no. 1 receiver will be an important theme throughout this season and the offense’s success.
Darnell Savage 🧀
Savage had a good week in coverage and made impact plays, earning him a cheese. He didn’t light up the stat sheet — four total tackles — but he allowed one catch on one target for -2 yards, with a QB passer rating against him of 79.2. He had to work in tandem with Rudy Ford when Amos went down and he did just that.
Jarran Reed 🧀
Jarran Reed has been a great signing for the Packers thus far this season. The big man had an ever bigger impact on Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots, leading the team with eight tackles and tallied one sack. In a game where the New England Patriots ran rampant, Reed’s presence on the line was critical.
Romeo Doubs 🧀
The hype train continues. Doubs leads all rookie receivers in yards after catch and is third in total receptions. His perceived drop issue out of college seems to have been overblown as among rookie receivers with at least 10 targets, Doubs leads the way in catch percentage with 79.2% (19 of 24). Throw in his incredible adjustment on his touchdown catch and his almost game-winning touchdown catch against the Patriots, Doubs is positioning himself as the next great Packers WR.
Rudy Ford 🧀
After Adrian Amos went down with a concussion after making an impressive open field tackle, Rudy Ford was thrust into action and was up to the task. The Packers post-training camp signing was supposed to primarily play a large role on special teams, but his impact on defense was prevalent in his replacement role. He had seven tackles including one for a loss. He allowed zero receptions and registered a pass breakup. And Zappe’s passer rating when Ford was targeted was 39.6. Can’t ask Rudy for much more than that.
Cheeseboard after 4 games:
Aaron Jones: 🧀 x 4
Rashan Gary: 🧀 x 4
Aaron Rodgers: 🧀 x 2
AJ Dillon: 🧀 x 2
De’Vondre Campbell: 🧀 x 2
Jaire Alexander: 🧀 x 2
Kenny Clark: 🧀 x 2
Keisean Nixon: 🧀 x 2
Pat O’Donnell: 🧀 x 2
Preston Smith: 🧀 x 2
Quay Walker: 🧀 x 2
Romeo Doubs: 🧀 x 2
Allen Lazard: 🧀
Elgton Jenkins: 🧀
Eric Stokes: 🧀
Darnell Savage: 🧀
Jarran Reed: 🧀
Mason Crosby: 🧀
Rasul Douglas: 🧀
Rudy Ford: 🧀
Sammy Watkins: 🧀
Zach Tom: 🧀
Preview of Packers-Giants, score predictions
For the first time, the fine, fine people of Europe will get to enjoy an NFL football game that features two winning teams. The Giants and Packers both enter the game 3-1 and both teams have won ugly in each of their wins. Despite Rodgers stating he wants to get the passing game more involved in the offense and “air it out," the running game for the Packers is certain to play a big factor in Sunday’s breakfast battle. The Giants have allowed the 5th most yards on the ground through four games (564), while having allowed the 7th least passing yards (765).
Now some of that may be related to the caliber of quarterbacks vs. running backs they’ve faced (Ryan Tannehill, Baker Mayfield, Cooper Rush and Justin Fields vs. Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey, Zeke Elliot and Khalil Herbert), but it’s worth noting that the Giants run defense has been stout thus far this season.
As we talked about in last week’s preview podcast before the Patriots game, the October slate of games are a great time to refine the Packers offensive and defensive game plans before their schedule gets much harder.
Ideally, we’d like to see the Packers administer their first true wire-to-wire blowout. Seeing the Pack play up to their Super Bowl-potential would be a good sign just about 25% of the way through the season.
Score predictions:
Numac: 30-17 Packers
Jordan: 26-21 Packers