Good evening, everyone. On Sunday at FedEx Field, the Green Bay Packers took on the Washington Commanders. Entering this game, the Packers were looking to end a two-game losing streak and get back on the right track. Obviously, that didn’t happen as they are now losers of three straight games. Let’s get right into the game.
The first drive for the Packers started at their own 25 yard line after a touchback. It started well with two Aaron Jones runs for 11 combined yards that moved the chains. After two more rushes by Jones, the Packers faced a third and 4 from their own 42 yard line. Rather than running it with Jones again, the Packers opted for a third down pass from Aaron Rodgers to Allen Lazard, which was dropped. After the dropped pass, Pat O’Donnell punted the ball to the Washington 5 yard line. 2 plays into Washington’s first drive, Packers’ CB Rasul Douglas almost intercepted a pass intended for Curtis Samuel. The pass by Taylor Heinicke was initially ruled as caught for a three yard gain, but Packers coach Matt LaFleur challenged the ruling. He thought that Samuel was out of bounds. After a replay review, the officials ruled the play as an incomplete pass. After a deep pass to Terry McLaurin fell incomplete (thanks to Douglas and Rashan Gary), the Commanders were forced to punt back to Green Bay. An offensive holding penalty negated the first punt, so Washington had to punt again. On the second punt, Amari Rodgers took the ball and ran it to the Washington 42 yard line. From there, the Packers offense took advantage of the short field by scoring a touchdown after a 7-play drive. Allen Lazard caught a couple of passes that resulted in first downs, including one that set the Packers up with first and goal at the 3. 2 plays after they got first and goal, Rodgers connected with Aaron Jones for a four-yard touchdown strike that (with the extra point by Mason Crosby) gave the Packers a 7-0 lead with 6:38 left in the first quarter. The Packers defense once again forced Washington to go three and out, but they were able to put points on the board shortly after that because of a muffed punt by Amari Rodgers. The Commanders were forced to settle for a field goal thanks to the Packers defense playing tight in the red zone. The field goal was good, cutting the lead to 7-3 with 2:04 left in the first quarter. The Packers’ ensuing possession went downhill quickly due to an offensive holding penalty against Yosh Nijman, who started at right tackle on Sunday. Three plays after the penalty, the Packers were not able to move the chains and were forced to punt back to Washington. The Packers defense responded with getting a pick six off of Taylor Heinicke. The 63-yard interception return for a touchdown by De’Vondre Campbell was the first one for a linebacker since Clay Matthews in 2011 against the Giants on December 4th of that year. On the next drive, however, the defense was not able to keep Washington from scoring points. The Commanders went on a 12-play, 83-yard drive that lasted a little over 6 minutes. During this drive, Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson were able to run for plenty of yards against the Packers defense. Late in the drive, there was a moment where the Packers thought that they had a fumble. Once again, Matt LaFleur threw the challenge flag. After an extremely long replay review, the ruling of “down by contact” stood as called. Three plays later, Heinicke connected with Antonio Gibson for a 9 yard touchdown pass in which Gibson was able to get both feet down in the back of the end zone. The extra point was good, cutting the lead to 14-10 with 7:21 left in the second quarter. The Packers’ next offensive drive pretty much ended after an offensive holding penalty was called against Yosh Nijman again. After the punt, Washington took over at the Green Bay 48 yard line. Three plays into the drive, the Packers made a great play with Rashan Gary stripping Taylor Heinicke of the ball. Rasul Douglas recovered the fumble and returned it all the way for a touchdown. Unfortunately, the TD was nullified due to an illegal contact penalty on Eric Stokes, who was nowhere near the fumble and who was bumped into by the receiver he was covering. Matt LaFleur was infuriated at the call, as was every Packers fan at the stadium and watching at home. Thankfully, the defense was able to keep Washington from scoring anything as their field goal attempt hit the right upright. The Packers did absolutely nothing with this opportunity on offense and punted it back to Washington. They suffered a couple of offensive penalties and faced a third and 11 from their own 40 yard line. The pass went incomplete intended for Romeo Doubs, and the Packers went three and out. After Pat O’Donnell punted it away, the Washington offense did nothing and punted it back to Green Bay. Amari Rodgers didn’t bother going for the ball, which went all the way to the 1 yard line of Green Bay. After one running play to AJ Dillon that went for 5 yards, the teams went into halftime with the score of 14-10 Packers over Commanders.
The Packers defense was not able to keep Washington from scoring a touchdown on their first offensive drive of the second half. It didn’t help that a tackle for -1 yard by Preston Smith was nullified by a defensive holding penalty called on Kenny Clark of all players. 4 plays later, Jaire Alexander was not able to stop Terry McLaurin from catching a 37-yard touchdown pass that gave Washington the lead with 11:49 left in the third quarter. The Packers were not able to respond after only a 5 play drive that ended with an incomplete pass on third and 2 intended for Romeo Doubs. After Pat O’Donnell punted the ball away, the Commanders started their next drive at their own 15 yard line. During this drive, they were able to convert a third and 11 and, later, got saved from a 10-yard sack after a successful challenge by head coach Ron Rivera (it was reversed to an incomplete pass). They got all the way to the 12-yard line of Green Bay before the defense tightened up and forced them to settle for a field goal, which was good. The Packers now trailed by the score of 20-14 with 8 seconds left in the quarter. The Packers’ next drive started well with a 17-yard pass completion from Aaron Rodgers to Allen Lazard. On the next play, an 8-yard pass completion to AJ Dillon was nullified by an illegal formation penalty on Lazard. The Packers were able to get a first down with two Aaron Jones plays following that penalty. 4 plays later, the Packers faced a fourth and one from the Washington 37. Rather than hand it off to Dillon, who could get them that yard and then some, they opted for a short pass to Romeo Doubs that was dropped. After that failed fourth down conversion, the Washington offense went down the field and put more points on the scoreboard. Once again, they had to settle for a field goal, which gave them a 23-14 lead with 6:40 left in the game. Green Bay’s offense finally got a good drive going. Granted, two third downs were converted because of defensive penalties against Washington. Another penalty that occurred was a pass interference penalty against Kyle Fuller, which gifted the Packers a first down at the the Washington 21. On the next play, Rodgers connected with Aaron Jones on a 21-yard touchdown pass that (with the extra point) cut the lead to two with 3:26 left. The Packers defense had a great opportunity to stop Washington and give Rodgers and the offense plenty of time to win this game. With 2:13 left and the Packers with no more timeouts, Washington faced a third and 9 from their own 44 yard line. Under pressure, Heinicke threw a pass that McLaurin caught near the sideline for a first down. The only reason that the game wasn’t over was because of the two minute warning that was still looming. Three plays later, Washington had to punt the ball back to Green Bay with 23 seconds left. On the first play from the Green Bay 18, Rodgers completed a 28-yard pass to Sammy Watkins. After that, the clock was spiked with 5 seconds left. Due to concerns about Rodgers’ thumb, there wasn’t a Hail Mary on the last play of the game. Instead, the Packers tried a multi-lateral play that I thought was going to work. The play went to Robert Tonyan, who lateraled it to Amari Rodgers, who fumbled the ball after going for -5 yards. The fumble was recovered by Zach Tom, who went for -2 yards before lateraling it to Samari Toure. Toure went for 11 yards before tossing it to Aaron Rodgers, who then tried to throw it to Jon Runyan, Jr. The ball went through his hands and out of bounds. Even if the play was successful, it would’ve been called back due to a penalty on Yosh Nijman for an illegal blindside block. After that nonsense, the game was over with Washington winning 23-21. With the loss, the Packers look to be broken at 3-4 on the year.
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page. Click on the "Watch on YouTube" link.)
Before I focus on the negative stuff, I will highlight some good things that happened on Sunday offensively. The offensive line, who had Zach Tom at left tackle (David Bakhtiari was inactive due to a knee issue), Elgton Jenkins at left guard, Josh Myers at center, Jon Runyan, Jr. at right guard, and Yosh Nijman at right tackle, performed much better than last week. The line only allowed one pressure and zero sacks of Aaron Rodgers. I have to give great credit to rookie Zach Tom, who held his own at left tackle in relief of Bakhtiari. Aaron Jones had two receiving touchdowns to go along with 76 total yards (23 rushing, 53 receiving). With that, I’ll go through the negative stuff now. Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, once again, did not get the ball enough in the running game. Jones rushed the ball 8 times while Dillon only got 4 carries. 12 total rushing attempts combined is inexcusable. One thing that didn’t help was that they mostly ran out of shotgun, which is not as reliable as the QB handing off from under center. Another thing was that the Packers tried to get a spread passing game going with a QB (Aaron Rodgers) that is nursing a thumb issue and missing on some throws. Outside of the completed passes, Rodgers’ throws had these three outcomes: overthrown, underthrown, and dropped. The receivers dropped 7 passes, and that was because of either Rodgers not throwing accurately or just the receiver not getting it. On one occasion, Rodgers threw a pass that went near Romeo Doubs’s ankles. Doubs tried to catch it, but he could not hold on. On the Fox broadcast, Rodgers was caught mouthing out loud “What the **** are we doing?” That was on Rodgers for throwing it near the ground. It didn’t help that Randall Cobb was out and Allen Lazard exited the game due to a shoulder injury. On offense, the Packers went 0-6 on third downs, not counting ones converted by penalty. This was the first time since Week 6 of the 1999 season (back when Brett Favre was QB) that this happened. At this point, I’m tired of saying that the Packers need to run the ball more. I understand that they will sometimes struggle, but the Packers need to keep doing it. After a while, those 2-3 yard gains will turn to 10-20 yarders. They are not the same on offense as with Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. I’m sure that Rodgers and Matt LaFleur are tired of admitting the lack of the run as well. If this offense has any chance of getting better this year, they need to execute their assignments and avoid penalties that could derail drives like on Sunday.
The Packers defense played well for about a half. There were a couple of three and outs and a pick six by De’Vondre Campbell that gave the Packers the 14-3 lead in the first half. That said, they had a few more turnover opportunities that they missed out on due to penalty or replay review. Obviously, the most infuriating one was when there was a scoop and score by Rasul Douglas that was nullified by a bogus illegal contact penalty that the refs called for some reason. Eric Stokes did nothing wrong on the play. The receiver ran into him and that’s why the official threw the yellow flag that negated the touchdown that would’ve given the Packers a double digit lead near the end of the second quarter. In the second half, the defense once again was tired because of the offense not giving them a rest. Constant stalled drives with no points are not going to help the defense at all. In other words, the Packers are not playing complimentary football on both sides. The Packers defense ended up surrendering over 160 rushing yards on the day. Jaire Alexander got beat a couple of times by Terry McLaurin, who made clutch catches for Washington. After shutting down Taylor Heinicke early, they let him make some good throws to his targets, including TD passes to McLaurin and Antonio Gibson. Other than Rasul and De’Vondre, I have to give credit to Preston Smith, who played well in his return to FedEx Field ever since he left Washington for Green Bay in 2019. He had a few tackles for a loss and got in the face of Heinicke a couple of times, as did other defenders. The problem was that the pass rush wasn’t getting home and sacking him numerous times. Even worse was that Rashan Gary had to exit the game before it was over due to being evaluated for a concussion. If the Packers continue to not play complimentary football, then these defensive lapses will continue no matter how talented their defense is.
On Special Teams, the Packers played better than last week in terms of limiting the mistakes. For example, they buttoned it up when it came to protecting the kicks from getting blocked by the opposing team. Pat O’Donnell punted a couple of balls that went inside the Washington 20 yard line, including one that went to the 5. Mason Crosby was 3 for 3 on extra point kicks. Jack Coco did his job with accurate snaps. A major issue though is that the coaches keep letting Amari Rodgers get second chances at punt returner. Once again, he muffed a punt that Washington recovered in field goal range. That was basically a free field goal that the Packers gave up because of that. On another punt, which was right before halftime, Amari Rodgers let the ball go all the way to the one yard line. At least he had a punt return that set up the first touchdown for Green Bay before those two blunders happened. At some point, they need to make that change at punt returner. We all know that Amari can’t be trusted back there. Of all three units, it’s still crazy that the Special Teams unit is playing the most polished football, with some mistakes and penalties. I’m glad that Rich Bisaccia is here this season to coach this unit with heart.
Overall, it’s a lack of execution and complimentary football on all sides. The offense is sputtering out a lot, which means that the defense gets tired earlier than usual. On top of that, there might be a blunder or two on Special Teams that could give the opposing team free points. The Packers are also extremely undisciplined, committing quite a few penalties on offense and defense (that one on Eric Stokes is still bogus though). There needs to be a lot of players stepping up and being leaders on the sidelines to keep the team from surrendering when they get punched in the mouth by a tough team. Next week is going to be a tough game against a Buffalo Bills team that probably could win it all this year. I just want everyone involved with the Packers to have heart, determination, and the resolve to respond to adversity, from coaches to players. We’ll see what ultimately happens next week and beyond. Regardless of the outcome, it’s always “Go Pack Go!”
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