Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. Before the season started, this game was billed as a potential Super Bowl preview. The Bills were fresh off their bye week with a 5-1 record entering Sunday night’s game. The Packers, on the other hand, were in the middle of a losing streak that started in London against the Giants. Before the game started, I wanted the Packers to play with heart and not get blown out of the stadium by 40 points. Even though the Packers lost, they did show heart at points and only lost by 10. Let’s get started with how the game unfolded.
The Packers defense forced the Bills offense to go three and out. On second and third and 4, Jaire Alexander made two great pass breakups, with him almost getting an interception on the third down play. The punt was returned for only three yards by Amari Rodgers before he was pushed out of bounds. From their own 28, the Packers offense started their first offensive possession. The drive was going well with a couple of first downs and a balanced mix of run and pass. Late in the drive, they faced a third and 15 after Aaron Rodgers was sacked for a loss of 7 yards on second and 8 from the Buffalo 43. On that third down, Rodgers connected with rookie WR Christian Watson for a gain of 12 yards. The bad part for Watson was that he suffered a concussion on the play and missed the rest of the game. Rather than try a field goal on fourth and 3 from the 38, the Packers decided to go for it. Rodgers didn’t have time to throw a good pass due to interior pressure and the ball went incomplete. As a result, the Bills took over on downs. On the first three plays, Devin Singletary ran for a combined 44 yards to get Buffalo into scoring range. On second and 9 from the Green Bay 16, Isaiah McKenzie was stopped for a 5 yard loss, which set up a third and 14. Instead of stopping the Bills offense, the defense let Josh Allen scramble all the way to the 1 yard line. During this play, Darnell Savage completely missed a potential tackle that would have stopped Allen from getting near the goal line. 2 plays later, Josh Allen rolled to his left and found a wide open Dawson Knox in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. The extra point was good, giving the Bills a 7-0 lead with 3:34 left in the first quarter. The Packers’ next drive almost started with a bang. They tried to pull off a flea flicker bomb to Romeo Doubs, but Aaron Rodgers kinda underthrew the ball. To be fair, Doubs was covered by two guys. The pass went incomplete, and the Packers went three and out two plays later. The Bills started their next scoring drive at their 49 yard line after a nice punt return. Three plays into it though, there was a fumble forced by Quay Walker. Unfortunately, the Bills kept the ball and scored on the next play with a 26-yard TD pass from Allen to Stefon Diggs. With 14:53 left in the half, the Bills were up 14-0. The Packers offense then went on a 12-play drive that lasted more than 8 and a half minutes. Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon got almost all of the touches on this drive via run and pass plays. During this drive, an illegal use of hands penalty negated a sack of Aaron Rodgers and gave the Packers a free first down. The drive ended with a touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs, who made a twisting adjustment to catch the ball in the back of the end zone. The extra point by Mason Crosby was good, cutting the lead to 14-7 with 6:15 left in the first half. The defense then was not able to stop Buffalo from scoring yet another touchdown on their ensuing drive. During this drive, Quay Walker got himself ejected when he got into it with someone on the Bills sideline. It was a rookie mistake that he’ll definitely not do again. He himself felt bad for it after the game was over when talking to reporters in the locker room. After the ejection, the Bills went down the field and scored their third touchdown on a 7-yard run by Isaiah McKenzie. With 1:54 left, the Bills were up by a score of 21-7. The Packers offense had a chance to score before the first half was over, but the drive pretty much failed after Aaron Rodgers was sacked on second and 10 from the Green Bay 32. After Pat O’Donnell punted, the Bills offense had a chance to increase their lead before halftime. On the first play with 53 seconds left, Josh Allen connected with Stefon Diggs for a 53-yard pass completion that got Buffalo into scoring range. After that big play, the defense was able to hold Buffalo to only a field goal as the clock ran out in the first half.
The Packers offense was on the field first to start the second half. They went on an 8-play drive that should have resulted in a touchdown. This drive started at Green Bay’s 8 yard line due to a holding penalty that negated a kick return by Keisean Nixon that made it all the way to midfield. Like last week, an awful penalty caused a Green Bay touchdown to be nullified. Against Buffalo, it was a bogus offensive pass interference penalty that was called on Robert Tonyan, who caught the touchdown that should have counted. Because of the penalty and an incomplete pass on the next play, a drive that included a couple of big runs by Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon only resulted in a field goal. 4 plays into Buffalo’s first second half drive, Josh Allen connected with Gabriel Davis with a 29-yard pass play that got the Bills into Packers territory. The Bills were looking to score a touchdown on this drive until a holding penalty forced them to ultimately settle for a field goal. Down by 17 with 5:59 left in the third quarter, the Packers went on a time-consuming drive. Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon were running the ball down Buffalo’s throat for most of the drive, which lasted nearly 7 minutes. Facing a fourth and one at the Buffalo 26, the Packers decided to run it with Aaron Jones. Unlike earlier in the drive, Jones was stuffed and the Packers turned the ball over on downs. The defense responded by picking off Josh Allen. For some reason, Rasul Douglas pitched the ball to Jaire Alexander after intercepting the pass. What did the Packers do with this opportunity? Absolutely nothing. Aaron Rodgers’ first pass was tipped and picked by Buffalo’s defense. The Packers defense got another interception when Jaire Alexander picked off Josh Allen near the goal line. From their own 5 yard line with 10:05 left, the Packers offense went on a scoring drive. During this drive, Romeo Doubs made a great catch near the sideline that went for 26 yards to the Bills 48. 4 plays after that, Aaron Rodgers rolled to his left and found Samari Toure for a touchdown. Toure was able to get himself open for his first touchdown catch of his career. Mason Crosby’s extra point was good, decreasing the lead to 27-17 with 6:32 left in the game. The defense was able to force the Bills to punt, but not until 4 minutes were taken off the clock. In addition, the Packers had to take all of their remaining timeouts. After the punt was fair caught by Amari Rodgers, the Packers tried their best to get a score and have a chance to come back. Amari Rodgers made a 22-yard catch that set the Packers up in field goal range. A couple of incomplete passes later, Mason Crosby was called upon for a 55-yard field goal. Unfortunately, the kick went wide left, meaning that the game was over for Green Bay. With the 27-17 loss, the Packers are now 3-5 and on a 4-game losing streak.
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page. Click on the "Watch on YouTube"link.)
On offense, the Packers once again played a better second half than the first half. Some early problems were because of the offensive line not playing as well as last week. Elgton Jenkins was a late scratch due to a foot issue that occurred in pregame warmups. Zach Tom replaced him at the left guard spot, and it was obvious that he was getting beat. It was mostly interior pressure which caused Aaron Rodgers to get sacked twice (a third sack was nullified because of a penalty) and Aaron Jones to get stuffed on the fourth and one attempt in the fourth quarter. With Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb sidelined due to injury, the Packers receivers were led by Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, Samari Toure, and Sammy Watkins in addition to the tight ends and the running backs. It didn’t help matters that Watson left the game early with a concussion. Some good things happened on offense against the Bills. For one thing, Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon combined for nearly 200 rushing yards, with Jones rushing for 143 yards on 20 carries. Romeo Doubs and Samari Toure each caught a touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers, with Doubs’ catch being an extremely difficult one in which he had to twist in three directions to catch a contested ball. The major problem for Green Bay was not finishing certain drives with a touchdown. For example, there were two possessions that resulted in a turnover on downs. Both of them were due to the offensive line getting bullied and forcing a bad throw in the first quarter turnover on downs and stuffing Aaron Jones in the fourth quarter TOD (short for Turnover on Downs). The first drive in the third quarter was an awful penalty away from scoring a touchdown. Robert Tonyan was somehow called for OPI even though it was that much of a push at all. Even though some calls are not in Green Bay’s favor, they still have to play better. Ultimately, they did not do enough on offense to keep up with Buffalo. Hopefully they use some of the positive stuff as building blocks for their scheme next week and beyond.
On defense, the Packers played better in the second half like the offense did. One player in particular that played well all night was Jaire Alexander. When Josh Allen was targeting a receiver that was covered by Jaire, there were no pass completions, a couple of pass breakups, and an interception. Before the game, there was banter between Jaire and Bills WR Stefon Diggs, who used to be with Minnesota. When I saw that little video, I thought that Jaire was going to be on Diggs all game. The opposite was true, as Jaire was mostly on Gabriel Davis, who is less dangerous (but still a good weapon) in Buffalo’s offense. Diggs was able to score his touchdown due to beating another corner to the ball. The defense did allow a few deep shots and two touchdown passes, but they also picked off Josh Allen twice in the second half. Another instance of a bad problem happened on Sunday night: giving up over 100 yards on the ground, including 67 yards for Devin Singletary and 49 for Josh Allen. One play that infuriated me was when Josh Allen was able to scramble for a first down on third and 14. Darnell Savage, who whiffed that tackle, had his worst performance of his career. Late in the game, the defense lacked some physicality when they desperately needed to get a stop. It didn’t help that Quay Walker was ejected and De’Vondre Campbell left the game due to a knee injury. Once again, the talent is there, but the coaching at some points hold them back. I still think that Joe Barry’s seat may be hot. If they get torched by Detroit’s offense next week, then it will be scorching hot. On Special Teams, the Packers avoided turning the ball over. There were no muffed punts, no kicks blocked, and no bad fumbles. There were, however, a few mistakes and penalties. The biggest punch in the gut on Special Teams was a holding penalty that negated a long kick return right at the start of the third quarter. Mason Crosby made most of his kicks, with his last one being wide left from 55 yards away. Pat O’Donnell only punted twice in this game, with neither punt going very deep into Bills territory. At least he secured the holds for Crosby on each field goal and extra point attempt. A bummer was that there was no trick play attempted by the Packers. On the other hand, they did not have to worry about Buffalo doing a trick play. I still have trust in Rich Bisaccia and the unit.
Overall, it was a tough loss for the Packers. There are no moral victories in any loss, but I thought that Green Bay played with heart, at least in the second half. Guys like Aaron Jones, Jaire Alexander, and Romeo Doubs played well for Green Bay. I was kinda expecting a loss on Sunday night, but I’m relieved that it was not by 40+ points. For Green Bay, they must move on to the Detroit Lions, who are struggling at 1-6. This is a must-win game for the Packers, and I’m sure they will find a way to get it done. I’ll talk about that game later. I hope that you all have a great week. Win, lose, or tie, it’s always Go Pack Go.
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