Good evening, everyone. We’re now at Week 3 of the 2023 NFL season. On Sunday, the Packers will play their first regular season game at Lambeau Field in the Jordan Love era against the New Orleans Saints. The Packers are not only looking for their first home win, but they are also looking to rebound from a tough loss to the Falcons that happened the week before. The home crowd will be there to cheer for the Packers as well as plenty of alumni players who will be at the game. Here is what the Packers need to do on all sides of the ball to win on Sunday at Lambeau Field.
On offense, the Packers need to have a balanced attack to keep the Saints defense from pressuring Jordan Love all day. After missing last week due to a hamstring issue, it looks like Aaron Jones will be able to play on Sunday for the Packers. Jones should get plenty of touches on the ground and through the air to help Green Bay move the ball down the field against a tough Saints defense. The offensive line needs to do a great job in creating the holes for Jones and the rest of the running backs to run through either with or without David Bakhtiari. Bakhtiari is still dealing with a knee issue that began when he tore his ACL in the 2020 season. When he is able to play, he is fantastic in protecting the QB’s blind side and blocking defenders. I hope that Bakhtiari plays on Sunday because the O-Line is already depleted with Elgton Jenkins being out for at least a couple of weeks with an MCL sprain. The Packers need the best linemen to play to protect Love from any pressures and sacks. It will help if the Packers are able to run the ball well without any RBs tripping over themselves (looking at AJ Dillon here). A great run game can help set up the play action passing game by making defenders fall for the fake. As long as the O-Line protects Love, Love should be able to find an open man and throw it to him. It is up to the receivers, including Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson (who hopefully plays), Dontayvion Wicks, Jayden Reed, Luke Musgrave, and the running backs, to run their routes, win their battles with the defensive backs, and catch each pass that is thrown (obviously with the exception of throwaways). Whether or not Watson plays, I hope that Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, and Luke Musgrave have plenty of catches on Sunday at Lambeau Field. They have already proven to be great weapons for Love, in addition to Doubs and Watson. Another thing that I hope is that a deep pass is connected for a touchdown. It will be tough to do that due to the Saints secondary, which includes Marshon Lattimore, but the Packers offense should have an opportunity for a big play on Sunday. Whether or not a deep pass play is possible, the Packers need to do the most important thing: win the time of possession battle. Getting some good yardage on the first two downs can help the Packers convert third downs my making those situations more manageable. They have to capitalize on those third downs to move the chains. The offense can win the time of possession battle by avoiding penalties and any form of turnovers. Any ball carrier needs to keep the ball secure and the quarterback needs to not throw any interceptions. In the red zone, the Packers need to continue scoring touchdowns to give the Saints more pressure to answer back. Lastly, the offense needs to play all four quarters very well. In the fourth quarter last week against Atlanta, the Packers only got 7 yards in 10 plays. That is inexcusable and it was one of the reasons why they lost last week. Hopefully the offense doesn’t do that again this season. I have faith in Matt LaFleur, the coaching staff, and the players to do well at Lambeau Field.
On defense, the Packers need to make the Saints one-dimensional on offense. Last week, the Packers allowed over 200 rushing yards to the Falcons, which was another reason why they lost that game. Entering Sunday’s game, the Packers will be facing a Saints team that is short on running backs. Alvin Kamara is suspended for a fight that happened in Las Vegas a year or so ago, and Jamaal Williams (who used to be in Green Bay) left the previous game against Carolina with a hamstring injury. That leaves the Saints with Tony Jones and hybrid QB/RB/WR Taysom Hill as the only runners on offense. The defense needs to have 3 defensive linemen in addition to the edge players on every play no matter what the Saints do. In addition to that, someone on defense needs to be assigned to spy on Taysom Hill to make sure that his runs are not for much yardage. Both Hill and Jones need to be tackled for little to no yards on each play. The defense has plenty of playmakers that can make this possible, including Kenny Clark, Lukas Van Ness, Colby Wooden, Rashan Gary, Quay Walker, De’Vondre Campbell, and Preston Smith. These players can’t miss any tackles and not be fooled by any tricks. Stopping the run can help the pass rush as they can pin their ears back and get after former Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. What can help the defense is the fact that Carr doesn’t scramble that much if at all. When he does scramble, he might be prone to fumbling the ball away. Twice (including against the Packers in 2019), he lost the ball while trying to reach the pylon, resulting in a touchback that benefited the other team. While that would be fun to see again, the pass rush should be able to get past the blockers and keep Carr in the pocket. Any pressure of Carr can force him to throw errant passes that need to be intercepted by Jaire Alexander, Quay Walker, Rasul Douglas, or anyone else in the position to pick the ball off. This is extremely important because there were two dropped interceptions that would have helped the Packers win last week against Atlanta. One of those drops would’ve been a pick six by Jaire Alexander. Capitalizing on any turnover opportunities is crucial for the Packers on defense in addition to stopping them on third downs and limiting them to only field goals in the red zone. All of these can help Green Bay win the time of possession battle and the game itself. As long as everyone does their assignments well and limit the impact of any playmakers on New Orleans’ offense, including Chris Olave and Michael Thomas, the Packers should have a better day on Sunday than last week.
On Special Teams, the Packers need to be mistake free on every play. They can’t allow any field goal or punt attempt to be blocked by New Orleans at all. The lineman need to keep any defenders from getting near the kick. The long snapper needs to accurately snap the ball to punter Daniel Whelon, who is also the holder for field goal attempts. Whelon needs to catch the ball cleanly and secure the hold for Anders Carlson to kick the ball. Whelon needs to punt each ball deep in Saints territory when he is called upon, which I hope is not that often. Carlson needs to make every single kick, which hasn’t been an issue so far in the regular season. He also needs to be given a chance to make 50+ yard kicks, which he is able to do. If there is an opportunity for him to kick a field goal to win the game or send it to overtime, then I hope that he comes through in the clutch. When it comes to kickoffs and punts, the return coverage unit needs to make sure that no long returns are allowed. What can help the Packers not allow long returns is for Carlson to kick each ball out of the end zone for a touchback. On the other side, I really hope Keisean Nixon runs a kickoff back for a touchdown. The last time the Packers had a home opener against New Orleans, rookie Randall Cobb ran a kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown while spinning 360 degrees during the run. A touchdown similar to that, minus the spinning part, would make the crowd go crazy. Nixon needs to follow the blocks and evade defenders to make the touchdown possible. Regardless of whether he scores or not, he, along with punt returner Jayden Reed, needs to make smart decisions with the ball. Mainly, he needs to secure the ball and not lose it. On punt returns, Reed needs to make each fair catch cleanly if there is no room to run. Rich Bisaccia will get his men ready for anything. As long as there are no mistakes, including fumbles and penalties, the Special Teams unit should not mess up the game for Green Bay.
Overall, Sunday’s game should be good for the Packers. The crowd will be on their side and the Packers should have plenty of motivation thanks to the fans. I am sure that the Packers don’t want to disappoint the home fans at Lambeau Field. As long as everyone does their part on all sides of the ball, they should get the win on Sunday and improve to 2-1 on the season. Regardless of the outcome, I pray that nobody on either team gets seriously injured on Sunday. I’ll be back on Monday or Tuesday with the recap of the game no matter what the outcome is for Green Bay. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great weekend. Go Pack Go!
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