Good morning, everyone. Last night, the Packers took on the Eagles at Lambeau Field in what was a very dramatic game. Let’s just say that things didn’t go in Green Bay’s favor. This might be longer than others. I have a lot of thoughts about this game. Here’s how the game went down.
After giving up a first down run by Jordan Howard, the Packers defense made sure that the Eagles didn’t go any further. The ensuing punt was caught by Darrius Shepherd, who got hit hard by Rudy Ford at the 11 yard line. On the Packers’ first play from scrimmage, there was a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit by Derek Barnett on RB Jamaal Williams. The hit took Williams out for the rest of the game. The good news is that he has feelings in all of his extremities. The bad news was that Barnett was not ejected from the game, which he should have been. It also turns out that he won’t be suspended for the hit. After the hit, the Packers quickly went down the field for their first touchdown. The 3-yard TD run by Aaron Jones was set up by three straight catches from WR Davante Adams, including what should have been a TD on the second catch and run. The defense forced the Eagles to punt again, giving the offense the ball at their own 10. The Packers drove all the way to the Eagles 12 yard line before they were forced to settle for a field goal. The third down pass to Adams would have been a touchdown had it not been for a deflection by Andrew Sendejo. The next kickoff was returned to the Green Bay 34, giving Philadelphia a short field that they took advantage of. The touchdown pass from QB Carson Wentz to WR Alshon Jeffery was initially called back due to an offensive pass interference call on TE Zach Ertz. Upon review by the officials, the PI call was reversed. With that, the Packers were only up 10-7.
The Packers once again drove down to the red zone looking for another touchdown. Like last time, an incomplete pass to Davante Adams on third down forced the Packers to settle for 3 points. The ensuing kickoff by Mason Crosby was out of bounds, giving Philadelphia the ball at their own 40. During the Eagles’ drive, the refs didn’t blow the whistle when Wentz lost the football. Jaire Alexander recovered the fumble and ran it in for a touchdown. The problem was that the QB was clearly down before the ball popped loose. On the next play, Kenny Clark was called for roughing the passer, giving the Eagles a free first down. Later on, Wentz did another QB sneak to set up first and goal. 2 plays later, he threw a TD pass to Dallas Goedert. The extra point gave the Eagles a 14-13 lead over the Packers. The next drive for Green Bay ended in a disaster as QB Aaron Rodgers was strip-sacked by Barnett (who was still in the game after the hit on Williams). The fumble recovery gave Philadelphia great field position, which they took advantage of by scoring a touchdown on a 1-yard run by Jordan Howard. Even with no timeouts left for the Packers, QB Aaron Rodgers led the offense down the field for a touchdown. Rodgers threw back-to-back passes to WR Geronimo Allison. The first was a 31-yard completion to convert a 3rd and 6 from midfield. The second one was the 19-yard TD pass that, with the extra point, made it a one-point halftime deficit at 21-20.
The Packers’ first possession of the third quarter ended in controversy, as there was no pass interference called when the defender made clear contact on Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Head coach Matt LaFleur spiked the challenge flag down. After review, the officials upheld the ruling of no DPI against the Eagles. The entire crowd at Lambeau Field was mad after that, as they should be. I’ll get more into the officiating later. After the punt, the Eagles once again went down the field for a touchdown. They weirdly went for two after the TD. CB Kevin King made sure that the 2-point conversion was no good. At this point, it was clear that the Packers run game wasn’t working on offense. Yet on the next drive, they still ran it on first down for negative yardage. Even with that, they had a manageable third down. They couldn’t convert that and were forced to punt again. Thankfully, the defense finally forced a three-and-out, giving the offense another chance to tie the game. And that they did, as Rodgers found TE Jimmy Graham for a 14-yard touchdown pass. The extra point tied the game at 27-27. Unfortunately, the defense gave up their 5th touchdown of the night on a 2-yard run by Howard. Before that, the Eagles challenged a previous play for possible defensive pass interference. This one was not as egregious as the previous one. Thankfully, the refs upheld the ruling on this one.
On the Packers’ next possession, they went down the field for a potential touchdown. QB Aaron Rodgers was methodically torching the Eagles secondary with short passes. He also scrambled during the drive. At the 5 yard line, Avonte Maddox was called for DPI when defending WR Allen Lazard in the end zone, giving Green Bay the ball at the 1 yard line. Here’s the situation: 4 chances for a touchdown from the 1. Even without Jamaal Williams, they can run it in with either Aaron Jones or Danny Vitale. What did Green Bay decide to do with the 4 chances? They did 4 passes in a row, with all of them failing. On first down, Rodgers threw a goal-line fade to Graham, which was incomplete. On second down, Rodgers was under pressure and threw it incomplete. Had he thrown that a bit higher, Vitale would have caught it and ran it in. On third down, Rodgers just threw it away. On fourth down, he threw it to Jimmy Graham once again. Like on first down, Graham couldn’t hang on to the catch. A prime scoring opportunity wasted by the offense. Thankfully, the defense gave them one more chance to tie the game. During that previous drive, Davante Adams exited the game with a toe injury. This injury was in addition to Jamaal Williams head/neck injury and Bryan Bulaga’s shoulder injury. This final drive for the Packers started at their own 12. Like the previous drive, Aaron Rodgers led the offense down the field for a potential touchdown. He was throwing the ball to many receivers and backs and also scrambling for first downs. On 2nd and 10 from the 18, Rodgers found TE Robert Tongan for an 11-yard completion. During the play, Avonte Maddox was hit in the head by his own teammate and was down on the field. A stretcher was brought out for him, like in Jamaal Williams’ injury situation. After the long delay, the Packers had another goal-to-go situation. On first down, Aaron Jones ran for 4 yards to set up the potential scoring play. Rodgers threw the football to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. The bad news was that the ball bounced off his chest and landed in the hands of Nigel Bradham for the game-ending interception. One kneel-down later, the Packers lose to the Eagles by a final score of 34-27 at Lambeau Field.
There is a lot to unpack here from this game. I will talk about the offense first. With the running game shut down all night long, it was up to Aaron Rodgers to do most of the heavy lifting. He threw the ball 53 times total, completing 34 of them to a total of 9 targets for 422 yards (180 of those yards to Davante Adams) and 2 touchdowns. There were definitely missed opportunities for one or two more TDs, especially in the red zone. Rodgers was also the rushing leader for the Packers, with 46 yards on 5 carries. The play calls in those goal-to-go situations were not the best. They didn’t bother to run it once during those 4 chances from the one. The interception was not entirely Rodgers’ fault in my opinion. The receiver has to catch the ball in that situation. To be fair, Rodgers had a receiver wide open to the far right had he held on to the ball a bit longer. Also, MVS was clearly held by the defender. A pass interference penalty should have been called there.
The reason why Rodgers has to play like a superhero today (which he is great at) is because the defense didn’t get that many stops. They couldn’t get a single sack on Carson Wentz, although they were close a couple of times. The defense got torched by the running game and the quick passing game all night long. They also did not get a single takeaway in the entire game. I give the Eagles credit for being prepared to play last night. Special Teams was not great, as they had back-to-back times where they gave the Eagles great field position. First was the long kickoff return, second was the out of bounds kickoff by Mason Crosby. Despite the advantage in total yards and plays, the Packers made too many mistakes, which the Eagles took advantage of.
I know that the players have to play their best no matter how bad the officiating was, but there was no doubt that the officials gave the Eagles a few favors. First was not ejecting Derek Barnett after the brutal helmet-to-helmet hit that took Jamaal Williams out of the game. Second was upholding the non-call on what should have been pass interference against the defense in the third quarter. It was clear that the defender was not looking for the ball and only playing the receiver. They didn’t bother looking at the interception at the end, even though it should have been DPI against the Eagles again.
All in all, the Packers let one slip away in front of their home crowd. The good news is that they have a mini-bye before their next game. That next game will be at AT&T Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys on October 6th. If the Packers don’t fix their run defense, Ezekiel Elliott will run all over them. For now, it’s time for Green Bay to heal up and prepare for next week. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go.
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