Good afternoon, everyone. For the second year in a row, the Green Bay Packers did not play well in the opening game of the season. This time, they played the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. At least the Packers weren’t blown out by over 30 points this time around. Let’s go over this game in detail.
The Packers won the coin toss, but elected to defer to the second half. As a result, the defense came out first for Green Bay. It’s safe to say that they were unable to keep the Vikings from marching down the field for the first touchdown of the game. WR Justin Jefferson combined for 3 catches for 47 yards on the drive, including a 5-yard touchdown catch. The extra point was good, giving Minnesota a 7-0 lead with 9:17 left in the first quarter. The Packers nearly responded with a touchdown of their own on their first offensive possession, but rookie receiver Christian Watson dropped a wide open pass after he burned Vikings CB Patrick Peterson. After the drop, the drive went basically nowhere. Yes, Aaron Jones got a first down on the next play, but the drive fell short when Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete on third and 7 from the Green Bay 38. After the punt was fair caught by Jalen Reagor at the Minnesota 15, the Packers defense forced the Vikings to a three and out. Rashan Gary sacked Kirk Cousins for an 8-yard loss on third and 7. Amari Rodgers returned the ensuing punt to the Green Bay 46. From there, the Packers should have taken advantage of the great field position. Instead, the Packers were forced to punt after 6 plays. Aaron Rodgers was sacked by Za’Darius Smith on third and 8 from the Minnesota 40. The punt by Pat O’Donnell went out of bounds at the Minnesota 15. Thankfully, the defense forced the Vikings to punt on the ensuing drive after 5 plays. The punt was fair caught by Amari Rodgers at the Green Bay 20 with 14:11 left in the second quarter. The drive started with a 23-yard catch and run by Robert Tonyan that got the Packers near midfield. 2 plays later, Aaron Jones caught a short pass that he took 22 yards to the Minnesota 32 yard line. 2 more first downs later, the Packers had first and goal from the 9 yard line. 3 plays failed to get it into the end zone, which forced a fourth and goal from the one. They decided to go for it with a run by AJ Dillon. The problem was that the play was from shotgun. Dillon was stuffed by a combo of Za’Darius Smith and Harrison Phillips. If they wanted to run it, then they should’ve gone with an I-formation with a lead blocker for Dillon. The point is this: DON’T RUN FROM SHOTGUN AT THE GOAL LINE!! The defense was then unable to get a safety out of the situation. 4 plays into the drive, Justin Jefferson was open for a 64 yard catch and run that got Minnesota into scoring range. Thankfully, the defense forced them to just a field goal after that play. With 3:57 left, the Packers, down 10-0, had a chance to potentially double up. Basically it means this: drive the length of the field for a touchdown in the last minutes of the half, then score a touchdown on the first drive of the second half. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as the Packers went three and out again. On third and 7 from the Green Bay 28, Aaron Rodgers threw a pass that bounced off the hands of Aaron Jones. The punt was returned to the 26 yard line of Minnesota. From there, the Vikings drove down the field to increase their lead to 17-0. On first and 10 from the Green Bay 36, Kirk Cousins found an extremely wide open Jefferson for a touchdown. The Packers tried desperately to respond, but a heave from Rodgers to Randall Cobb was picked off by Harrison Smith. At least the Vikings didn’t capitalize on that turnover. The score at halftime was 17-0 Vikings over Packers.
The first second half drive for the Packers ended in disaster when Aaron Rodgers was hit hard and lost the ball. The fumble was recovered by DE Dalvin Tomlinson at the Green Bay 33. At least the defense only allowed a field goal after the fumble. I have to give kudos to Greg Joseph for making it from 56 yards away. With 9:46 left in the third quarter, the Packers finally put together a touchdown drive. AJ Dillon and Aaron Jones were the workhorses for the drive, gaining most of the 75 yards. The drive concluded with a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Dillon, giving Green Bay their first points of the 2022 season. The defense gave the Packers a chance to cut the lead to single digits after forcing the Vikings to punt. The problem was that the offense didn’t take advantage of it. On third and 7 from the Green Bay 48, Rodgers held the ball too long and got sacked for a loss of 5 yards. A false start penalty forced the Packers to punt on 4th and 17. After the punt, the Vikings were able to increase their lead to 23-7 after a long drive that lasted a little over 5 minutes and 74 yards. The Packers went on one last drive with Aaron Rodgers to make the score more respectable. The drive ultimately resulted in a turnover on downs and the end of the game for Green Bay. Jordan Love completed a couple of passes to get his stats, but the game was over anyway. With the 23-7 loss, the Packers start their season at 0-1 for the second consecutive year. The only positive thing about this compared to last year (other than the margin of defeat) is that the Packers were able to score a touchdown against the Vikings.
(Here are the “lowlights” of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Just click on the "Watch on YouTube" link.)
Other than the touchdown drive, there were a lot of errors on offense. It didn’t help that the offensive line was without both David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins. On the sack of Aaron Rodgers by Za’Darius Smith, Smith just went by Jake Hanson with no problem at all. When Jon Runyan, Jr. was put into concussion protocol, Zach Tom was in his place at left guard. In my opinion, Tom should have been in place of Hanson. Hanson was that bad in pass blocking. Overall, Rodgers was sacked a total of 4 times. Some of those sacks were a result of Rodgers not getting rid of the ball in rhythm. On some non-sack plays, he was forced to throw away a few passes due to a guy in his face. The receivers didn’t help matters at times, especially when Christian Watson dropped his first pass that should’ve been a walk-on touchdown. They looked out of sync, and it stunk that Allen Lazard was out. The leading pass catcher was AJ Dillon, who contributed 46 yard on 5 catches. Dillon also ran for 45 yards and the Packers’ only touchdown. Dillon and Aaron Jones were pretty much the only positive thing that happened on offense. They should’ve gotten more chances on either run or pass plays. The strip sack of Aaron Rodgers in the third quarter was a result of abandoning the run (plus holding the ball too long). There were two timeouts wasted in the first half due to an old problem: letting the play clock run down to 0. If there is hope for anything, it’s that the offense should perform better at Lambeau Field next week.
The Packers defense didn’t perform as expected on Sunday. What irritated me the most is that the defense was mostly playing zone instead of manning up on the receivers. Justin Jefferson was able to go HAM again. This time, he caught 9 passes for 184 yards and 2 touchdowns. On some of his catches, he was wide open. The defense has the people necessary to play man, especially Jaire Alexander. Jaire, in particular, should have been on Jefferson all game. Rashan Gary was the only player on defense that got a sack of Kirk Cousins. Preston Smith was close to two of them (plus Kenny Clark bowling over a defender), but Cousins got rid of the ball just in time. There was mostly 4-man rushes, with little to no blitzes. The worst things that happened on defense, other than Jefferson, were the injuries to two of their linebackers. Quay Walker and Krys Barnes both got hurt on the same drive. Barnes suffered a high ankle sprain, although the injury looked worse when it occurred. If the defense struggles next week, then I’ll be concerned.
Other than a couple of penalties, the Special Teams unit played ok on Sunday. There were times, however, that Pat O’Donnell almost had his punt blocked. He punted well, with 3 of his punts being inside the Minnesota 20 yard line. On the other end, Amari Rodgers did well on his one punt return (he should’ve been on offense for a few snaps). What I meant was that he went mostly north for 12 yards. Mason Crosby made his only kick: an extra point after AJ Dillon’s touchdown run. I was surprised that Crosby did the kickoffs considering that he was coming off a knee issue. At least he did not kick a ball out of bounds. I hope that there are more splash plays in future games. Most importantly, I want them to not screw up.
Overall, it was a frustrating loss for the Packers. I’m hoping that it’s just another week me fiasco on their way to a great season. Next week, the Packers will play their first game of the season at Lambeau Field. Their opponent will be the Chicago Bears, who the Packers have beaten all 6 times during the Matt LaFleur era. Until then, I hope you all have a great day. Go Pack Go.
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