Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers took on the Los Angeles Chargers at Lambeau Field. Both teams were desperate to get a win on Sunday. It wasn’t the prettiest game, but the Packers were able to take the win in the end. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
The game didn’t start well for either offense, as they both turned the ball over on downs on their first drive. In Green Bay‘s case, they faced a third and 1 from the Chargers 49 yard line. Rather than give the ball to either Aaron Jones or AJ Dillon, the third down play was a handoff to Jayden Reed for a loss of one. Even worse was the fourth down play, where Jordan Love threw behind the sticks to Luke Musgrave, who got tackled for a loss of one. After the Chargers turned the ball over on downs, the Packers had good field position at their own 43 yard line. Unfortunately, they went three and out thanks to an incomplete pass intended for Jayden Reed on third and 7. After the punt, the Packers defense allowed the Chargers to go down the field to get a score. The Chargers got close to scoring a touchdown, but a drop by Keenan Allen on third and 5 from the Green Bay 7 forced Los Angeles to settle for a 25-yard field goal. The kick was good, giving the Chargers a 3-0 lead with 1:22 left in the first quarter. The Packers quickly responded with a touchdown on their next drive. On the first play of the second quarter from the Chargers 32 yard line, Jordan Love gave the ball to Jayden Reed on an end around. Reed then ran down the right sideline mostly untouched for a touchdown and a Lambeau Leap. Elgton Jenkins joined in the Lambeau Leaping fun as well. The extra point kick by Anders Carlson was good, giving the Packers a 7-3 lead with 14:53 left in the second quarter. That lead did not last long as the Chargers scored a touchdown of their own. On third and 3 from the Chargers 49, Justin Herbert completed a pass to Stone Smartt, who took the pass and broke a pathetic tackle attempt by Jonathan Owens on his way to a touchdown. The Packers went down the field to respond with a score of their own, but things went awry when they got to the Chargers 23 yard line. A third and 10 got changed to a third and 15 due to a false start penalty on Yosh Nijman. On the third and 15, an aborted snap forced the Packers to land on the ball for a loss of 6 yards. That made the field goal attempt longer (52 yards). The kick went wide right, keeping the score at 10-7 in the Chargers’ favor with 7:16 left in the second quarter. Thankfully, the defense forced the Chargers to go three and out. After the punt, the Packers took possession of the ball at their own 19 yard line. During this drive, the Packers faced a third and 12 from their own 29 after a false start penalty on Christian Watson. Jordan Love completed a pass to Jayden Reed that went for 17 yards on the third and 12, keeping the drive alive. Three plays later, AJ Dillon converted a third and 2 by running for three yards down the middle of the field. Eventually, they got all the way to the Chargers 10 yard line. The bummer is that they were only able to score a field goal to tie the game at halftime (all the Chargers did after they got the ball with 7 seconds left is kneel down to end the half). The worst thing that happened was that both Aaron Jones and Emanuel Wilson got injured during the drive (knee and shoulder, respectively).
The Packers defense did not have a great start to the second half as they allowed the Chargers to go down the field to take the lead. The most maddening play occurred on third and 7 from the Green Bay 35 yard line. Justin Herbert escaped a sack attempt by Devonte Wyatt and scrambled all the way to the 7 yard line. Thankfully, the Chargers had to settle for a field goal after a third down pass to Keenan Allen went incomplete. The kick was good, giving Los Angeles a 13-10 lead with 10:44 left in the third quarter. The Packers tried to respond with a score of their own, but they were forced to punt after Jordan Love was sacked out of field goal range by Khalil Mack on third and 6 from the Chargers 38 (one play after AJ Dillon lost 4 yards on a run play). The Chargers went three and out on their next drive, giving the Packers the ball back quickly (though Jayden Reed had to recover a muffed punt). From their own 30, the Packers were able to score a touchdown after a 5-play drive. The first play was a pass completion from Jordan Love to Dontayvion Wicks, who took the catch and got to the Chargers 43 yard line. After a 4-yard run by Dillon, Tucker Kraft took a short pass and took it all the way for a touchdown and a Lambeau Leap. However, after review, it was revealed that he stepped out of bounds at the Chargers 12 yard line. Thankfully, the Packers still scored a touchdown when Love found Christian Watson for an 11-yard touchdown pass. Watson celebrated by leaping into the stands. The extra point kick went wide right, keeping the score at 16-13 with 4 seconds left in the third quarter. It only took a couple of chunk plays for the Chargers to get into scoring range on their next drive. They were about to score when Austin Ekeler took the handoff on second and goal from the Green Bay 2 yard line and fumbled the ball. The fumble was forced by Kenny Clark and recovered by Rashan Gary at the Green Bay 6 yard line. The Packers offense did nothing with the opportunity and punted back to the Chargers, who took over at their own 37 yard line with 11 minutes left. Another Packer got injured during this drive: De’Vondre Campbell. He had to leave as the defense once again allowed the Chargers to go down the field for a score. The drive ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Keenan Allen that (with the extra point) gave the Chargers a 20-16 lead with 5:24 left in the fourth quarter. After the kickoff resulted in a touchback, the Packers started their next possession at their own 25 yard line. Things almost turned disastrous when Jordan Love lost the ball after being sacked by Khalil Mack. Zach Tom recovered the ball at the Green Bay 15. The third and 20 play resulted in an incomplete pass, but a defensive pass interference penalty gave the Packers a free first down. Two plays later, Jordan Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a pass completion that Wicks took to the Chargers 35 yard line. 2 plays after that, Love found Romeo Doubs, who made a great leaping catch in the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown. Unlike his teammates, Doubs didn’t do a Lambeau Leap after his touchdown (2 out of three is not bad). The extra point was good this time, giving the Packers a 23-20 lead with 2:33 left in the game. The Packers defense held the Chargers to a punt after Rashan Gary sacked Justin Herbert for a loss of 10 yards on third and 10 from the Chargers 25. After the punt, all the Packers had to do was run out the rest of the clock while making Los Angeles take their timeouts. The timeout part was done correctly, but the Packers basically played not to lose by taking the ball out of Love’s hands on third and 6 from the Green Bay 45. The run by AJ Dillon went for only two yards, forcing the Packers to punt back to the Chargers, who started their final drive from their own 20 after the ball went into the end zone for a touchback. The Packers defense was able to get a stop to seal the win thanks to a drop by Quentin Johnston (whose pass would’ve got the Chargers into field goal range), and a Kenny Clark pass breakup on fourth and 1 from the Chargers 35. One kneel-down later, the Packers were victorious by the score of 23-20. With the win, the Packers are now 4-6 on the season.
On offense, the Packers played well at parts. There were a couple of three and outs, a turnover on downs (no more throws behind the sticks), and a couple of sacks allowed, but they avoided turning the ball over (though there was that one fumble that Zach Tom thankfully recovered). Jordan Love had his best game of the season so far, throwing for 322 yards and 2 touchdowns. He made some great throws, including the touchdowns and a throw to Dontayvion Wicks in which he escaped the pressure and ran to his left before throwing it to Wicks (who led the receiving corps with 91 yards on 3 catches). Even though he did miss a couple of potential big plays by a couple of yards, I thought that Love played great on Sunday in terms of passing and his poise on the field. I hope that he continues this great play in future games. With the running game, the leader of it was Jayden Reed, who ran for 46 yards (including the 32-yard touchdown run). AJ Dillon ran for only 29 yards and Aaron Jones ran for only 14 yards before injuring his knee. It was feared that Jones hurt his ACL on the play, but Matt LaFleur said that the injury should not be long term at the victory press conference (thank goodness). Emanuel Wilson was the other running back who suffered an injury on Sunday. He hurt his shoulder on the same drive that Jones hurt his knee. Because of this, the Packers might have to play on Thanksgiving Day with AJ Dillon, Patrick Taylor, James Robinson, and Ellis Merriweather at running back. The offensive line play wasn’t perfect, but they gave Love time to throw for over 300 yards, which is a first for a Packers quarterback since Aaron Rodgers in December of 2021 (first QB outside of Aaron Rodgers to throw for over 300 yards since Scott Tolzien in 2013). Some of the play calls were bad, including the turnover on downs pass behind the sticks in the first quarter and the “playing not to lose” run play that gave the Chargers a chance to either win or tie the game in the final minutes. Any plays like that turnover on downs play should be taken off the game plan in the future. Some things still need to be worked on, but I am glad that the Packers were able to score three touchdowns on Sunday (plus do a Lambeau Leap two out of three times).
On defense, the Packers played well at times. They were not able to get an interception off of Justin Herbert (who was allowed to scramble for 73 yards), but the defense did sack him twice. The biggest plays were the two sacks, a forced fumble near the goal line that kept the Chargers from scoring a touchdown in the second half, and the pass breakup by Kenny Clark that sealed the Packers win. There were other times that the Chargers were able to move the hall down the field with no problem, with a few exceptions. Those exceptions were 7 drops by the Chargers receivers, including a drop by Keenan Allen that kept the Chargers to only a field goal in a first half drive and a drop by Quentin Johnston that would have put the Chargers into scoring range. To be fair, the secondary was banged up with Jaire Alexander missing another game. At least Darnell Savage should be back soon from injured reserve. The worst play allowed by the defense, besides the Justin Herbert scrambles, was when Stone Smartt caught the pass and Jonathan Owens made a pathetic tackle attempt that was broken by Smartt on his way to a touchdown. The clutch plays and the dropped passes saved the Packers defense from giving up over 30 points to the Chargers. Joe Barry is still not safe to me. He can’t get bailed out by dropped passes and the bright sun every week, including on Thanksgiving Day in a dome.
On Special Teams, the Packers did not play perfect. For one thing, Anders Carlson missed a couple of kicks wide right, including an extra point kick after the Christian Watson touchdown catch. Dallin Leavitt ruined a kickoff return by Keisean Nixon due to a holding penalty and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that forced the Packers to start at their own 8 yard line. With those two penalties, Leavitt is no longer on the Green Bay roster. Other than those mishaps, the Packers played well. They didn’t turn the ball over, although a muffed punt by Jayden Reed almost resulted in one. Carlson made the other kicks besides the two misses, and Daniel Whelon punted a couple of balls inside the Chargers 20 yard line. At least no kicks or punts were blocked this time around. Consistency is all I am asking for with the Special Teams unit. I do hope for a big play touchdown by the unit at some point. Maybe that can happen in the coming weeks.
Overall, I am happy that the Packers got the win over the Chargers on Sunday in their 1950s throwback uniforms. They can’t celebrate the win for long because their next game is on Thanksgiving Day against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Look for the recap of that game on either Friday or Saturday. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you’re curious.)
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