Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers took on the Philadelphia Eagles at Lambeau Field. The Packers looked to improve their record to 9-3 on Sunday at home. They did just that, taking care of the Eagles by double digits. Let’s go into detail on what exactly happened in this game.
The Packers started this game on the defensive side of the ball. They had a chance to get off the field after an incomplete pass by Carson Wentz on third and 8 from the Philadelphia 39. The problem was that Chandon Sullivan was called for defensive holding, giving the Eagles an automatic first down. The Eagles ended up going all the way to the Green Bay 34 before the Packers defense forced them to settle for a field goal. The field goal by Jake Elliott was good from 52 yards away, giving Philadelphia a 3-0 lead after a 7-minute drive. The first offensive drive nearly went disastrous on the first play, as Aaron Rodgers messed up the first snap of the game. Luckily, the fumble was recovered by Aaron Jones. A sack of Rodgers on second and 16 pretty much spelled the end of that drive, and JK Scott punted back to the Eagles. The Packers defense forced the Eagles to punt after only a 6-play drive. The last 2 plays were sacks of Carson Wentz (one each by Rashan Gary and Kinsley Keke) that forced Philadelphia to punt away. The Packers offense started their next possession at their own 12 yard line. From there, they went on a 14-play drive that nearly took 8 minutes of game time. During the drive, they were moving the ball down the field efficiently on their way to their first touchdown of the game. On fourth and goal from the one yard line, Aaron Rodgers found Davante Adams, who made a contested leaping catch for the touchdown. The TD (plus the extra point by Mason Crosby) gave the Packers a 7-3 lead over the Eagles. The defense did their job again in forcing the Eagles to punt after a short drive. On third and 7 from the Eagles’ 24 yard line, Wentz was sacked by both Rashan Gary and Raven Greene (who each got half a sack on the play). The ensuing punt return by Tyler Ervin would have gotten the Packers good field position at their own 40. Unfortunately, Will Redmond was called for holding during the return, meaning that the offense started their next drive at the 18. The field position ended up being no problem for Green Bay, as they went down the field for another touchdown. During this drive, Aaron Rodgers found TE Marcedes Lewis for a 36-yard pass play that got Green Bay into Eagles territory. A few plays later, Rodgers found TE Robert Tonyan for a 25-yard touchdown that increased the lead to 14-3. The defense made sure that the Eagles did not score before the end of the second quarter, as Wentz was sacked again by Kingsley Keke during the failed drive.
The Packers started the second half on offense, and they almost got a big play to kick things off. After a kick return by Tyler Ervin gave the Packers good field position at their own 33, the offense took the field. Aaron Rodgers threw it deep to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who would drop the beautifully thrown pass and kept a big play from happenning. 2 plays later, the Packers were forced to punt after a three and out. JK Scott booted the punt all the way to the Eagles’ 10 yard line, where Philadelphia would start their first third quarter drive. Carson Wentz found a wide open Dallas Goedert for a 41-yard pass play that got the Eagles to the Green Bay 49 (partly due to Darnell Savage slipping on the field). After that play, the defense kept the Eagles from going any further and forced them to punt back to Green Bay. The Packers started their next possession back at their own 1 yard line. On the first play of the drive, Rodgers found Davante Adams for a 42-yard pass that was executed perfectly. Rodgers threw it with just enough power for Adams to make the catch while covered by 2 Eagles defenders. 3 plays later, Rodgers found Allen Lazard for a 31-yard pass play that converted a third and 3 from midfield. 3 plays after that, Rodgers found Adams for a 9-yard touchdown pass that increased the lead to 20-3 (the extra point kick hit the left upright). With that TD pass, Aaron Rodgers reached the milestone of 400 career touchdown passes. Adams knew this milestone and gave the ball to Rodgers while Allen Lazard gave him an invisible crown (which was funny to see). After the lead was increased to 20-3, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson decided to bench Wentz in favor of Jalen Hurts for the rest of the game. Despite allowing a 34-yard pass play from Hurts to Jalen Reagor, the Packers defense kept the Eagles out of field goal range thanks to a sack by Za’Darius Smith and a holding penalty against the offense. The punt was fair caught by Chandon Sullivan at the Green Bay 6 yard line, where the Packers offense started their next drive. The offense moved the ball down the field as they looked to increase their lead. They got all the way to the Philadelphia 22 yard line before the drive stalled. On third and 6, Rodgers threw incomplete to Davante Adams, which meant that the field goal unit was brought onto the field. The 40-yard field goal by Mason Crosby gave the Packers a 20-point lead over the Eagles. That lead was changed to 23-10 after a touchdown that should not have been allowed. Here’s the situation: the Eagles were facing a fourth and 8 at the Green Bay 22 yard line. Jalen Hurts threw to Alshon Jeffery, who caught the pass for a first down. Jeffery was called for offensive pass interference, nullifying the first down and giving the Eagles a fourth and 18. The Packers defense then allowed a 32-yard touchdown pass from Hurts to WR Greg Ward that cut the lead to 13 points. After the Packers offense went three and out, JK Scott punted to Jalen Reagor, who would return the punt 73 yards for a touchdown. During the return, JK Scott once again whiffed at a tackle opportunity. Just like that, the lead was only single digits. At least the extra point was wide right after the punt return TD. After 2 more drives that ended in punts (one for each team), the Packers had the ball at their own 20 with 2:57 left in the fourth quarter. The drive only lasted 2 plays before the Packers found the end zone again. On second and 7 from the 23, Aaron Jones took the handoff from Rodgers and went all the way for a touchdown, juking away from defenders on the way. He also had a bunch of blockers downfield with him, including Marquez Valdes-Scantling and David Bakhtiari. The touchdown (plus the extra point) increased the lead to 30-16 with 2:36 left in the game. The Packers defense sealed the win with a diving interception of Jalen Hurts by safety Darnell Savage.
With the 30-16 win, the Packers are now at 9-3 on the season with 4 games to go. Other than a few drives that went three and out, the Packers once again scored at least 30 points on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers had a good game, throwing for 295 yards and 3 touchdowns with a passer rating of 128.9. Entering Sunday, he was at 397 career touchdown passes. His 3 touchdowns gave him 400 total for his career, which is yet another milestone that he reached this year (in addition to reaching 50,000 career passing yards the previous week). It was great seeing Davante Adams going to his knees and giving Rodgers the ball after the 400th career touchdown (bonus points to Allen Lazard for giving Rodgers an invisible crown). RB Aaron Jones ran for 130 yards on 15 carries, including the 77-yard touchdown run that sealed the win for Green Bay. What I loved the most about that play in particular was the blockers that helped Aaron Jones go all the way for the score. Another play that I liked was the Rodgers to Adams connection that began in the back of the end zone. It was perfectly thrown by Rodgers and caught by Adams while covered by 2 defenders. Other than a couple of sacks, the offensive line did their job in protecting Rodgers (plus creating the running lanes for Jones and Jamaal Williams). I have to give head coach Matt LaFleur credit for how well the offense has been playing this season, other than a couple of dud games. With 4 games left, I hope that the offense gets into their peak in preparation for the playoffs. They do have to fix the mistakes, including dropped passes and going three and out a couple of times. I have no doubt that those issues will be looked at before next week.
Other than giving up a couple of chunk plays (including a 4th and 18 touchdown), the Packers defense played well against the Eagles offense. The pass rush got a total of 7 sacks, including 2 by Kingsley Keke and 1.5 each by Rashan Gary and Za’Darius Smith. Raven Greene (who unfortunately left the game due to injury) assisted on one of the sacks on Sunday. Jaire Alexander had another good game, stopping the short passes and even barking at Carson Wentz after an incomplete pass. Darnell Savage had the great leaping interception that sealed the game with less than 2 minutes left in the game. In the remaining games, the Packers defense can’t let opposing teams crawl their way back into the game. Come playoff time, mistakes like this might come back to haunt them. Hopefully the Packers get back their injured players (including Greene and Billy Winn) and perform well during the final stretch of the season.
Before the game, I thought that Tavon Austin was going to play and be the return guy. He was listed as inactive, but Tyler Ervin came back to the game. He had a good 33-yard kick return and did not make big mistakes. Hopefully his injury is not too serious and he can come back against Detroit. Malik Taylor also returned a couple of kickoffs for 45 total return yards. JK Scott unfortunately did not give any effort when it came to tackling the punt returner. At some point, he has to make the tackle instead of letting the returner run free. Mason Crosby made every kick except for the extra point after Rodgers’ 3rd TD pass (the ball hit the left upright). The good news was that there were no other big plays allowed by Green Bay on Special Teams. From now on, plays like the punt return TD can’t happen again (especially in the postseason).
Overall, it was a good win for the Packers on Sunday. Other than the 2 touchdowns scored by the Eagles in (essentially) garbage time, the Packers had a comfortable lead throughout the game. Entering these last few weeks, it is important for the Packers to put away their opponents without letting them sniff a comeback. The last thing they would want is for those teams to take the win from Green Bay. This upcoming Sunday, the Packers will take on the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. I will talk about that game at a later date. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page.)
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