Good morning, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers took on the Washington Football Team (yes, that is the actual name of the team) at Lambeau Field. The Packers were looking to add to their 5-game winning streak against a Washington team that was desperate for a win. They were also looking for their first win in their new all-green throwback uniforms that dated back to the 1950s. It wasn’t pretty at times, but Green Bay was able to get it done. Want to know what happened? Let’s find out now.
The Packers started this game on the offensive side of the ball. During the 13-play drive that lasted nearly 8 minutes of game time, the Packers offense was able to get 5 first downs. Two of those first downs were converted on third downs of 4 and 11 yards, respectively. Late in the drive, the Packers faced a fourth and 3 from the Washington 17. Rather than settle for a field goal, the offense decided to go for it. On the play, Aaron Rodgers rolled to his right and then threw the ball across the field to Davante Adams. Adams caught the pass near the 10 and ran it in for a touchdown. After the extra point kick by Mason Crosby, the Packers had a 7-0 lead with 7:11 left in the first quarter. That lead did not last long, however, as Washington answered back with a touchdown of its own. The 8-play drive by the WFT ended with QB Taylor Heinicke finding wideout Terry McLaurin for a 40-yard touchdown pass. The extra point kick by Chris Blewitt (what a name for a kicker) was good, tying the game at 7-7. The Packers’ next drive resulted in a three and out after Rodgers was sacked on third down by Jonathan Allen for a loss of 13 yards. The punt by Corey Bojorquez went 49 yards to the Washington 37, where it was fair caught by DeAndre Carter. From their own 37, Washington’s offense went down the field to try to get another score. They got some luck in the form of a pass interference penalty against Rasul Douglas that got them into Green Bay territory. The WFT offense was able to get to the 24 yard line of Green Bay before the drive stalled. An incomplete pass on third and 5 forced Washington to send the field goal unit out. The field goal attempt by Blewitt was blocked by TJ Slaton, giving the Packers their first blocked field goal since 2015 against the St. Louis Rams. From their own 32, the Packers took over possession of the ball. It was an all pass-play drive other than an end-around run by Equanimeous St. Brown that went for 13 yards. During this drive, Rodgers was sacked again by Jonathan Allen. This sack came at a bad time because the Packers were threatening to score another touchdown. In the end, Green Bay had to settle for a field goal. Unfortunately, the kick was blocked by Washington, giving them the ball at their own 28. After giving up a 38-yard run to Heinicke, the Packers defense was able to stop Washington from scoring any points on their next drive. On third and fourth down and 3 from the Green Bay 27, Heinicke threw incomplete. Eric Stokes made a great play on the fourth down incompletion. As a result of the incomplete pass, the Packers took over on downs with 2:58 left in the first half. Aaron Rodgers led the offense down the field on a 9-play drive that culminated in a 10-yard touchdown pass to Allen Lazard that (with the extra point) gave the Packers a 14-7 lead at halftime.
The Packers quickly scored a touchdown to start the first half thanks to the defense forcing a fumble. On second and 4 from the Washington 29, Rashan Gary strip-sacked Taylor Heinicke. The fumble was recovered by Dean Lowry at the 27. Three plays later, Aaron Rodgers found TE Robert Tonyan for a 20-yard touchdown pass that (with the PAT kick by Mason Crosby) increased the lead to 21-7 with 12:30 left in the third quarter. On back to back possessions, the Washington Football Team was so close to scoring a touchdown against Green Bay inside the 5 yard line. On both possessions, the Packers defense made sure that Washington did not score. The first possession that ended in a goal-line stand was an 11-play, 76 yard drive that got all the way to the 1 yard line. Taylor Heinicke was initially ruled in the end zone for a touchdown, but the officials ruled him short after a replay review. That reversal resulted in a fourth and goal from the one. De’Vondre Campbell stopped him short of the goal line, and even forced a fumble in the process. Heinicke did recover the fumble, but he was down short of the goal line anyway. After a three and out by Green Bay, Washington got their second try near the goal line on their next drive. The Packers defense once again made sure that Washington ended up with no points. On fourth and goal from the Green Bay 3, Adrian Amos broke up a Taylor Heinicke pass intended for TE Ricky Seals-Jones. After the Packers took over on downs, the offense was able to go down the field for another score. On the third play of the drive, Aaron Rodgers found Davante Adams, who made a spectacular catch to convert a first and 17. 3 plays later, Rodgers connected with Robert Tonyan for a 25-yard pass play that got Green Bay into Washington territory. On the next play, the Packers were able to get to the 11 after a pass interference penalty against Washington. After that though, the drive stalled for Green Bay. An illegal use of hands penalty against Billy Turner killed the drive and Mason Crosby was called upon for a 39-yard field goal attempt. The kick was good, increasing the lead to 17 points with 11:22 left in the fourth quarter. Washington was able to once again get in scoring range on their next possession. However, the defense was able to get another red zone stop in the form of an end zone interception of Heinicke by CB Chandon Sullivan (who gave the ball to his father after the game, which was a wonderful gesture of love). The Packers were not able to take advantage of the turnover because AJ Dillon fumbled the ball on the second play of the ensuing drive. The fumble was recovered by safety Landon Collins at the Green Bay 38. At least the defense was able to hold Washington to a field goal after that turnover by the offense. The Packers were also able to recover an onside kick. After a three and out by the offense (and a punt by Corey Bojorquez that was extremely close to touching the goal line), Washington tried desperately to get one last score. With no timeouts left, they were unable to do so before time expired. The final score was 24-10 in favor of Green Bay.
With the win, the Packers are now 6-1 on the season. As a bonus, the Packers win their first game with the new throwback uniforms, which look awesome in my opinion. Things were not always pretty on offense for Green Bay against Washington. The Packers only had 57 rushing yards on the day. That included a couple of scrambled by Aaron Rodgers, who threw for 274 yards and 3 touchdowns on 27/35 passing. It was an ugly game for AJ Dillon, who fumbled the ball twice on Sunday (and lost one of them). Davante Adams led the receivers with 6 catches for 76 yards and a touchdown. Adams is now second all time in receptions for a Packers receiver with 596 career catches, passing Sterling Sharpe (595) in the process. Both Robert Tonyan and Allen Lazard were not that far behind (4/63/1 for Tonyan, 5/60/1 for Lazard). Seeing that Sunday was National Tight Ends Day, it was great that Robert Tonyan caught a touchdown pass from Rodgers. Even though Rodgers was pressured and sacked a few times (and the running game not being its best), the offensive line did a solid job on Sunday. Hopefully the offense makes the right adjustments by Thursday night.
The Packers defense did a great job on Sunday, for the most part. They were finally able to get a red zone stop. In fact, they got 4 of them, with 2 of them being goal-line stands and another resulting in an interception by Chandon Sullivan. The defense was also able to sack Taylor Heinicke 4 times, including twice by Rashan Gary (one of those was a strip sack in the third quarter). De’Vondre Campbell led the defense with 13 total tackles, including the fourth down stop of Heinicke. Eric Stokes had a good game, other than allowing Terry McLaurin to score a touchdown in the first quarter. He also made a great play on a fourth down stop. A major problem on defense, however, was allowing Heinicke to run for 95 yards on 10 scrambles. Stuff like that can’t happen in future games, especially on Thursday night. More on that game later. For now, I am still impressed with Joe Barry as defensive coordinator. He has coached his butt off despite the defense missing a few key players, including Jaire Alexander and the pass rush duo of Za’Darius and Preston Smith. Hopefully the adjustments are made quickly.
On Special Teams, the Packers had a major mistake that was made. The line did not prevent a field goal attempt from getting blocked in the first half. Other than that though, the Packers were solid on ST. That blocked kick was the only “miss” by Mason Crosby on the day, as he made every other kick. Corey Bojorquez continued his punting prowess by nailing the WFT inside their own 5 yard line in the fourth quarter. Another positive thing was that the Packers did not allow a long return to Washington. Green Bay was also able to luckily recover an onside kick in the fourth quarter. Hopefully they don’t allow any major mistakes like the blocked kick again.
The Packers are about to enter a tough stretch of games. The first of these games will be on Thursday night against the unbeaten Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. I will talk more about this game on Wednesday. In the meantime, it’s a Victory Monday once again for Green Bay. 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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