Good morning, everyone. Last night, the Green Bay Packers took on the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. The game turned out to be a very dramatic one with lead changes and crazy plays. I am here to give you my thoughts on what exactly happened in this game. Let’s get started.
The Packers started this game on offense. They went down the field for a touchdown on a drive that lasted over 6 minutes. During this drive, Aaron Rodgers threw a great pass to Jake Kumerow, who made a diving catch to convert a third and 9 from the Kansas City 45 for 34 yards. Despite a holding penalty on the next play (which nullified an 11-yard touchdown run by Aaron Jones), the Packers scored a touchdown 2 plays later. It was a quick shovel pass from Rodgers to Jones from 4 yards out. The Chiefs offense was forced to punt on their first possession. On third and 2, Matt Moore connected with Sammy Watkins for what was initially ruled a first down. Packers coach Matt LaFleur threw the challenge flag because he thought that the receiver was short of the first down marker. It turns out that Lafleur was right, as the ruling was reversed to short of the marker. After the punt, the offense did nothing with the ball. Aaron Rodgers was sacked on third and 6 for a 17-yard loss. The ensuing punt return by Mecole Hardman gave the Chiefs the ball at the Green Bay 30. The Packers defense made sure that the Chiefs got nothing on that drive, forcing a three-and-out. The field goal try by Harrison Butker from 50 yards away went wide left (thanks to the wind). On the second play of the Packers’ next drive, Aaron Rodgers found a wide open Aaron Jones for a pass that went 60 yards for a touchdown. Unfortunately, Aaron Jones stepped out of bounds at the 10 yard line. There was pretty much no reason for Jones to be that close to the sideline on that play. He had great separation from the defender. The Packers got the touchdown on the drive anyway, thanks to Jamaal Williams from 1 yard out. That touchdown gave Green Bay a 14-0 lead.
The lead changed to 14-7 after the Chiefs finally got on the board with their own touchdown. On first and 10 from the Green Bay 29, Matt Moore found Travis Kelce wide open on a busted coverage by the defense for a touchdown pass. Blake Martinez was caught looking at the backfield for a split-second. That is how Kelce was wide open for the touchdown. The next drive for the Packers on offense stalled after Rodgers was sacked again by the Chiefs. An incomplete pass on the next play forced Green Bay to punt back to Kansas City. The Chiefs tied the game with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Matt Moore to Mecole Hardman (which was similar to the one from Aaron Rodgers to Aaron Jones). Once again, Green Bay’s drive ended with an incomplete pass on third down. Danny Vitale was open on the play, but the pressure by the Chiefs forced Rodgers to get rid of it quickly. After the punt, the Chiefs tried to get a score to take the lead at halftime. They got all the way to the Green Bay 10 yard line before the Packers defense forced them to settle for a field goal. With 56 seconds and 2 timeouts left, I thought that the Packers would get at least a field goal before halftime. Instead, they had bad clock management and got nothing on the drive. The first half ended on another sack of Rodgers. The Chiefs were up 17-14 at halftime over the Packers.
The Packers defense responded on the first possession of the second half in a big way. On third and 7 from the Green Bay 47, Za’Darius Smith got his second sack of the night (with help from Rashan Gary and Preston Smith). After Darrius Shepherd fair caught the punt at the 11, the Packers offense went down the field for a score. They got plenty of first downs on this drive, getting all the way to the Chiefs’ 6 yard line before the drive stalled. After a delay of game penalty, the Packers were brought back to the 11. 2 plays later, they had a third and goal from the 7 yard line. Unfortunately, Aaron Rodgers was sacked and the Packers settled for a field goal to tie the game at 17-17. The very next play from scrimmage turned out to be crucial for the Packers, as Tyler Lancaster stripped LeSean McCoy of the football. Lancaster also recovered the fumble, giving the Packers offense great field position at the KC 27. 5 plays later, the Packers got a touchdown in one of the best throws that I have ever seen from Aaron Rodgers. Under pressure from the Chiefs defense, he threw a pass that I thought was going to be just an incompletion. Instead, he found Jamaal Williams in the back right corner of the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown pass. I give huge kudos to Williams for the catch that he made in the end zone.
The 24-17 quickly changed to a tie game after the Chiefs scored their third touchdown of the night. On third and goal from the 8, Darnell Savage nearly had an interception in the end zone. There was a late flag on Tramon Williams for hands to the face, which shouldn’t have been called. On the next play, Damien Williams ran it in from 3 yards out. The Packers answered right back with a touchdown in 2 plays. On second and 2 from the Green Bay 33, Aaron Rodgers found Aaron Jones on a short pass that Jones took 67 yards for a touchdown. He outran all of the defenders to the end zone. The defense made sure that the 31-24 lead was kept that way by stopping the Chiefs on third and 3 from the KC 40. Chandon Sullivan has great coverage of Travis Kelce on that play. For some reason, Darrius Shepherd let the punt go all the way to the Packers 2 yard line, where it was downed by the Chiefs. At this point, the Chiefs defense was gassed thanks to the long drives by Green Bay. The drive was dominated by Aaron Jones, as he ran the ball down the defense’s throats. After the Chiefs used all their timeouts with 2:41 left, the only thing that the Packers needed to do was to get another first down. With 2 minutes left, the Packers had a third and 5 from the Green Bay 33. Matt LaFleur trusted Rodgers to win the game with the next play. Rodgers connected to Aaron Jones for the game-sealing first down. 3 kneel-downs later, the game was over with the Packers on top by a score of 31-24. This win improves the Packers’ record to 7-1 on the season.
I have to give the Chiefs a lot of credit for making this game a dramatic one. With all of the injuries that they had (including Patrick Mahomes), I thought that the game was going to be a bit easy for Green Bay to win. I was wrong on all fronts. Head coach Andy Reid had a great game plan to get the ball to the play-makers on offense, including Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. There were times where the receivers were wide open, including the touchdown by Kelce on the blown coverage (which was on Blake Martinez). There were also times where the defense couldn’t complete the tackles, giving the Chiefs easy first downs.
With all of that said, the Packers defense got the stops when they mattered the most. Za’Darius Smith sacked Matt Moore twice on the night. After the first sack, he did the Pennywise dance from the most recent “IT” movies. I was surprised that the Packers didn’t get more sacks. They couldn’t get to Matt Moore at points because he got rid of the ball quickly. The fumble that was caused by Tyler Lancaster was the turning point for the Packers in the game.
Once again, Aaron Rodgers had a great game. He threw for 305 yards and 3 touchdowns, getting a 129.0 passer rating. He also scrambled for 29 rushing yards. He had a couple of fantastic throws in this game. He had the third down throw to Jake Kumerow, who made a great catch. He also made a ridiculous throw to Jamaal Williams for the touchdown while being under a lot of pressure by the Chiefs defense. Aaron Jones had 226 total yards on the night (67 rushing, 159 receiving) and 2 touchdowns. He would’ve had three if he didn’t step out of bounds on the deep pass from Rodgers. Matt LaFleur had a great game plan in terms of scheming the receivers open, although there were times when they were covered and Rodgers had nowhere to throw to. That’s part of the reason why he was sacked 5 times on the night. I loved that LaFleur trusted Rodgers to win the game with the third down pass to Aaron Jones.
This team is something special at 7-1. I think that they have a chance on doing big things down the road. But it’s one game at a time. Next up for the Packers is a west coast trip to take on the Los Angeles Chargers at Dignity Health Sports Park, which is usually used for soccer games. For now, it’s another Victory Monday for the Packers. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Below are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's Youtube page.)
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