Good evening, everyone. On Friday night in Brazil, the Green Bay Packers opened their 2024 season against the Philadelphia Eagles. There was plenty of excitement for this game going into it. It was the first NFL game played in the continent of South America. It was also the first Friday game in September since 1970 between the then St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Rams. The Packers had many opportunities to win this game, but they came up very short. There’s also the worry about Jordan Love’s health after the game, but hopefully it’s not the worst case scenario. Let’s go over what happened in this game.
The Packers started the game on offense. After the kickoff resulted in a touchback, plus an illegal formation penalty on Philadelphia, the Packers offense started their drive at their own 30 yard line. The drive almost ended in a touchdown when Jordan Love noticed that there were 12 men on the field for the Eagles defense and connected with Jayden Reed for a score. It turned out that each team had 12 men on the field, so the touchdown did not count. On the replay of third and 6 from the Philadelphia 38 yard line, Love threw incomplete to Christian Watson, who was basically mugged on the play yet no penalty was called. They tried to go for it on fourth down, but a false start penalty on Zach Tom forced Green Bay to punt the ball away. The punt by Daniel Whelon went out of bounds at the Philadelphia 10 yard line. From there, the Eagles offense, led by QB Jalen Hurts and RB Saquon Barkley (who left the Giants in free agency), started their first drive. Barkley lost 5 yards after he slipped on the field on the first play. Two plays later, Hurts threw an interception to safety Xavier McKinney, who returned the pick to the Eagles’ 19 yard line. This should have been a great opportunity for the Packers offense to get a touchdown, but miscues and penalties forced them to settle for a field goal instead. New kicker Brayden Narveson, who was acquired from the Titans, made the kick from 31 yards out, giving Green Bay a 3-0 lead halfway through the first quarter. The Packers quickly got the ball back after a miscommunication between Jalen Hurts and the center led to the ball being snapped to nobody. The fumble was recovered by Devonte Wyatt at the Eagles’ 13 yard line. Once again, the Packers couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity thanks to missed passes and penalties and had to settle for a field goal. The kick was good from 23 yards out, giving the Packers a 6-0 lead with 3:01 left in the first quarter. After the kickoff resulted in a touchback, the Eagles offense went on a 14-play drive that lasted nearly 5 and a half minutes. Jalen Hurts completed some passes to move the Eagles down the field. Late in the drive, Green Bay had a chance to get a stop. On third and 1 from the Green Bay 34, the Eagles unsuccessfully did their patented “Brotherly Shove”, which went nowhere. On fourth and one, TJ Slaton jumped offside, leading to a first down for Philadelphia. 3 plays later, Hurts found Saquon Barkley for an 18-yard touchdown pass that, with the extra point by Jake Elliott, gave the Eagles a 7-6 lead with 12:38 left in the second quarter. The Packers immediately responded with a touchdown of their own after an 8 play drive that lasted a little over 2 minutes. The drive started with three runs by Emanuel Wilson that covered 37 yards. After that, Jayden Reed took the end around handoff from Jordan Love and ran 33 yards for the touchdown. The extra point was good, but Matt LaFleur decided to try for 2 after an offside penalty happened on the extra point. On the two point conversion attempt, Josh Jacobs was tackled short of the goal line. As a result, the Packers had a 12-7 lead with 10:16 left in the quarter. That lead wasn’t for long because the Eagles answered right back with their second touchdown of the night. An 11 play drive culminated in an 11-yard touchdown run by Barkley. The extra point was good, giving Philadelphia a brief 14-12 lead with about 5 and a half minutes left in the first half. 23 seconds were all what the Packers needed to take back the lead. Jordan Love escaped the pocket and threw to a wide open Jayden Reed. Reed then made it all the way to the end zone for a 70-yard catch and run touchdown. The extra point was good (even after a false start penalty), giving Green Bay a 19-14 lead with a little over 5 minutes left. The Eagles then proceeded to use up the remaining time left to get their next score. Thankfully, the defense made sure that the Eagles were forced to settle for a field goal to end the half with the Packers leading by 2.
The Eagles started the second half with a bang, as Jalen Hurts found AJ Brown for a 67-yard touchdown pass. The extra point was good, giving the Eagles a 24-19 lead just under a minute into the third quarter. Thankfully, the Packers answered back with a touchdown of their own. Josh Jacobs did lose a fumble, but Bo Melton recovered it, keeping the drive alive. After a roughing the passer penalty was called, the Packers had a first and 10 from the Eagles 45 yard line. Jordan Love connected with TE Tucker Kraft for a 29-yard pass play that got Green Bay in the red zone. After a pass interference penalty was called on Philadelphia a couple of plays later, the Packers had first and goal from the 2 yard line. Love connected on a short slant pass to Christian Watson for the touchdown. The extra point was good, giving Green Bay a 26-24 lead with 11:55 left in the third quarter. The Packers got the ball back after Rashan Gary sacked Jalen Hurts on third and 8 from the Eagles 32 yard line. The punt was fair caught by Jayden Reed at the Green Bay 20. Both teams proceeded to have a punt exchange with each other after that. With 7:21 left in the third quarter, the Packers started a drive with the chance to increase their lead. Josh Jacobs started the drive with a couple of good runs, but the second one was called back after a holding penalty was called on Rasheed Walker. After that penalty, Jordan Love threw an awful interception that gave the Eagles a chance to take back the lead. The Eagles did just that, capitalizing on the pick by scoring on a 2-yard run by Saquon Barkley. With the score now 31-26 in the Eagles’ favor, the Packers knew that they needed to answer back with a score on their next possession. During the drive, the Packers offense was able to get into field goal range. A couple of key plays were an 11-yard catch and then a 22 yard run by Josh Jacobs. Those two plays helped get Green Bay to the Philadelphia 25 yard line. But then, the drive stalled and Brayden Narveson had to be brought out for a 43-yard field goal that would have cut the lead to 2. The bummer was that the field goal hit the right upright and was no good, keeping the score as 31-26 in the Eagles’ favor. After the missed field goal, the Eagles went down the field in the hope that they would increase their lead. They got all the way to the Green Bay 11 yard line before the drive was stopped by the Packers defense. Jalen Hurts tried to scramble on first down, but was stuffed for minus 3 yards. On second down, Keisean Nixon nearly had a pick six, but he dropped it. On third and 13, Hurts threw into the end zone, only for Jaire Alexander to pick it off. Jaire should’ve just knelt down for a touchback, but he instead wasted some seconds for an opening to house the pick. He ran out the end zone and got tackled at the 13 yard line. From there, the Packers went down the field with the hope of taking back the lead. Josh Jacobs started the drive with a 32-yard run. Three plays later, Jordan Love connected with Jayden Reed for a 26-yard pass completion. Emanuel Wilson gained 11 yards on a 9-yard run and a 2-yard catch to set up a first and 10 at the Eagles 13 yard line. After a 5 yard run by Jacobs, the drive stalled due to two incomplete passes. This time, Narveson made the field goal from 26 yards out, cutting the lead to two with 7:52 left in the game. What happened next was a long drive by the Eagles that was full of frustration. During this drive, there were not one, but two phantom holding penalties against Green Bay that kept Philadelphia’s drive alive. Matt LaFleur messed up the clock management around the two minute warning, allowing the Eagles to take up most of the time. By the time Jake Elliott made the field goal that gave Philadelphia a 5 point lead, there were only 22 seconds left. Keisean Nixon received the kickoff deep in the end zone and tried to make a play with it. He only got to the 16 yard line. Thankfully, Jordan Love and Jayden Reed connected on a 33-yard pass that gave me flashbacks to the Aaron Rodgers throw to Jared Cook in the 2016 playoffs against the Cowboys. On first and 10 from the 49 yard line, Love had to pitch the ball to Josh Jacobs, who got around 4 yards before going out of bounds with 6 seconds left. Now, this would be a situation where Love would have to heave the ball for a potential game winning TD. The problem was that he hurt his knee due to Jalen Carter hitting his leg as he was trying to tackle him. Love was on the ground for a while before he was helped to the bench. Malik Willis came in and basically did nothing, giving the Packers their first loss of the season.
(Here are the highlights of this game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page.)
Overall, there were plenty of missed opportunities for the Packers on Friday night. On offense, there were chances to capitalize on the three turnovers with touchdowns. Unfortunately, those opportunities only led to a field goal each time. Things were not perfect at all on offense. There were some penalties on the offensive line that messed up some drives, there were some passes that were dropped by the receivers, and Jordan Love threw a bad pick in the second half that led to an Eagles touchdown. Josh Jacobs didn’t look great at first, but he was then able to get 84 yards on the ground and 20 yards receiving. I still hope for that receiving TD by Jacobs sometime this season. The leading receiver was Jayden Reed with 4 catches for 138 yards and 1 touchdown. The other touchdown that he scored was on an end-around play in which he outran everyone. Christian Watson caught the 2-yard touchdown to redeem himself after getting mugged by his defender with no call at all. The bummer was that neither Luke Musgrave nor Dontayvion Wicks caught a pass on Friday night, but I am sure that will change soon enough. On the last drive of the night, I was ready to see Jordan Love get the opportunity to throw a Hail Mary pass for a touchdown. Love and Reed connected on that 33-yard pass that got them in the range to do that, but Love got hurt after pitching the ball to Josh Jacobs on the following play. My heart sank when I saw him down on the ground. My worst fear was that he was going to miss the whole season. Thankfully, when the Packers got back home and Love got evaluated by team doctors, it was revealed that it was a sprained MCL. He will miss at least a couple of weeks, but I am glad that it wasn’t a season-ending injury.
On defense, they did give up a little over 400 net yards of offense to the Eagles. They allowed Saquon Barkley to score three total touchdowns. Even in a new uniform, Saquon is still a pain in the butt. There were too many instances of defenders missing tackles and allowing the Eagles receivers to get extra yardage. The defense however forced the Eagles to commit three turnovers, including a fumble and two interceptions. Even then, there was the missed opportunity by Keisean Nixon to get a pick six on the play before the Jaire pick. That Jaire interception was redemption for him after giving up a huge touchdown to AJ Brown earlier in the second half. Xavier McKinney got the first pick of the night, and it was great to see that. It was hilarious to see the Eagles fumble that ball on a bad snap. I just wish that the Packers offense would have taken better advantage of the turnovers. I don’t fault Jaire or Kenny Clark for those penalties in the fourth quarter. Those were two penalties that should not have been called at all. Jeff Hafley’s unit wasn’t perfect, but I was expecting some good and bad moments on the first game of the season with a new defensive coordinator. Here’s to a better defense as the season goes on.
On Special Teams, there weren’t too many mess ups. There were a couple of penalties and Brayden Narveson did miss one of his kicks. At least there were no silly turnovers from the unit. There wasn’t too much action going on with the new kickoff format, as most of the kickoffs ended up being touchbacks anyway. I don’t fault Keisean Nixon too much for trying to make a play on the last kickoff, but he should have knelt for a touchback and gave the offense a better starting spot. I’m hoping that there are less mess ups on Special Teams (and the team as a whole) next week and beyond.
Before I conclude this post, I will give an overview of the new kickoff rules. With the new kickoff format, a touchback gives the offense a staring spot at their own 30 yard line rather than the 25 yard line with the previous kickoff. Nobody on the kicking team moves from the opposing team’s 40 yard line until the kick has landed either in the end zone or in the hands of a returner. Any kick that lands between the goal line and the 20 must be returned. So far, no touchdown returns have happened, but I may have a feeling that it will happen at some point this season for any team. As for onside kicks, they can only be done by the losing team in the fourth quarter. In addition to that, there can be no surprises as the kicking team has to announce their intention on doing an onside kick in the first place. The bummer here is that anything like the surprise onside kick done by the Saints in Super Bowl XLIV against the Colts can’t happen again. We’ll see how these new rules can help with player safety, as well as allowing some players to wear guardian caps that look like igloos.
Player safety should be a priority after what happened on Friday night. For both teams, the field was not in good condition. There were times that players slipped and nearly hurt themselves. After the game was over, the field was pretty much damaged to heck. Honestly, I hope for two things: that the field conditions be better if the NFL plays in Brazil again and that the Packers are kept from playing international games. The trips to London and Brazil have been bad luck for the Packers as the quarterbacks have gotten hurt during the game. Back in 2022, Aaron Rodgers hurt his thumb after he was sacked on the final play trying to throw a Hail Mary. On Friday night, Jordan Love hurt his knee on the third to last play of the game and didn’t get a chance to make a miraculous game-winning play happen. The Love injury looked really serious when it happened, but I am still glad that it wasn’t the worst case scenario: missing the whole season. I just hope that the Packers can win some of the games in his absence, starting with their home opener at Lambeau Field against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday September 15th. Look for the recap of that game after it is done. In the meantime, I am breathing a huge sigh of relief for Love. Have a great weekend. Go Pack Go.
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