Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs at Lambeau Field. Entering this game, the Packers were looking to extend their winning streak to three games as they try to keep their playoff hopes alive. I knew that this game was going to be tough, but I thought that the Packers would be able to pull off the upset. In the end, the Packers were able to get the win and improve to 6-6 on the season. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
After the kickoff by Harrison Butler went for a touchback, the Packers started their first drive at their own 25 yard line. Led by QB Jordan Love, the Packers offense were able to move the ball down the field with a mix of run and pass plays. AJ Dillon was running well, and the receivers were able to catch their passes during this drive, including Jayden Reed, Tucker Kraft, Christian Watson (who had the biggest play of the drive with a 19 yard reception), Dontayvion Wicks, and (of all people) Ben Sims, who caught the TD on a great play design on second and goal from the KC one yard line. Sims celebrated his touchdown with a Lambeau Leap, which is always awesome to see. The extra point by Anders Carlson was good, giving the Packers a 7-0 lead with 7:13 left in the first quarter. That seven minutes and 13 seconds was fully used by the Chiefs during their first drive, which saw KC’s offense moving the ball down the field against Green Bay’s defense. During the drive, the Packers gave up a first down on a third and 11 by leaving former Packers WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling wide open for a 16-yard catch. Thankfully, the defense was able to get after Patrick Mahomes a couple of times and force the Chiefs to settle for a field goal. The kick was good by Butker from 34 yards out, cutting the Packers’ lead to 7-3 at the end of the first quarter. After the kickoff resulted in a second touchback, the Packers started their next drive at their own 25 yard line to start the second quarter. The Packers got into Chiefs territory quickly thanks to 2 big plays: a 19-yard catch and run by Tucker Kraft on first and 10 from the 25 and a 27-yard deep pass connection from Jordan Love to Dontayvion Wicks on second and 8 from the Green Bay 46 yard line. 4 plays later, the Packers faced a second and 5 from the Chiefs 9 yard line. On the play, Jordan Love stepped back to pass, took a step or two forward, and threw the ball to the end zone, where Christian Watson was able to catch it with no problem for Green Bay’s second touchdown of the game. Watson didn’t celebrate with a Lambeau Leap to keep his hamstring safe, but he did a nice dance in the end zone. The extra point by Carlson was good, increasing the lead to 14-3 with 10:39 left in the second quarter. For the second time, the Chiefs were able to move the ball down the field and get into scoring range. Thankfully, the Packers defense was again able to force Kansas City to settle for a field goal by sacking Patrick Mahomes on a third down play. The kick was good, cutting the lead to 14-6 with 2:19 left in the first half. The Packers were able to get all the way to the Kansas City 32 yard line during their drive as they looked to add some points before halftime. But then, everything went downhill. First, there was a false start penalty on Jayden Reed. Second, Jordan Love had to throw the ball away due to a defender (Chris Jones) in his face. Finally, James Robinson was tackled for a loss of 2 yards on the third down play. Not wanting to risk a missed field goal, Daniel Whelon was called upon to pin the Chiefs deep in their own territory. Thanks to the hustle by the gunners, including Rudy Ford, the ball was downed at the KC 3 yard line, where Patrick Mahomes kneeled to end the half.
After the first kickoff of the second half ended in a touchback, the Chiefs started their drive at their own 25 yard line. During this drive, the Packers defense looked like it was going to get off the field. After the first play resulted in a 21-yard pass completion to Travis Kelce (whose date was at the game, but thankfully not shown too many times on NBC), the Chiefs suffered 2 straight penalties: a holding penalty that negated an 11-yard pass play to Isiah Pacheco and an illegal shift penalty. Both of those penalties resulted in the Chiefs facing a first and 25 from their own 31 yard line. After a couple of plays that gained a total of 7 yards, the Chiefs faced a third and 18 from their own 38. The Packers only rushed three guys and allowed Travis Kelce to be wide open for a 27 yard pass completion that converted that third down. A few plays later, Pacheco ran it in from one yard out for a touchdown. He tried to do a Lambeau Leap, but was pushed down by the fans. The Packers defense was able to keep the Chiefs from tying the game during the two-point conversion attempt. Seeing their lead down to just two points, a touchdown was needed for the Packers on this next drive. After Keisean Nixon returned the kickoff to the Green Bay 33 yard line, the offense went to work. The first play was a short pass to AJ Dillon, who took the pass to the GB 47 yard line. The game then paused because a Chiefs defender named Bryan Cook hurt his ankle badly and was carted off the field (there were a few other KC defenders that got injured during this game). 4 plays later, the Packers faced a fourth and one from the Kansas City 44 yard line. They decided to go for it instead of playing it safe (which teams can’t do against KC). Jordan Love was under pressure but was able to find Romeo Doubs for a 33-yard pass completion to convert the fourth down (kudos to Romeo for getting the catch). 2 plays later, Love threw a pass that only Christian Watson could catch, which he did. Watson jumped up, caught the ball and stayed in bounds for his second touchdown of the night. He did a dance in the end zone again, but played it safe by not leaping into the stands. The extra point was good by Anders Carlson, increasing the lead to 21-12 with 5:23 left in the third quarter. That lead was decreased to 2 points after the Chiefs marched down the field during an 11-play drive that lasted a little over 5 and a half minutes. The drive ended when Patrick Mahomes found Noah Gray for a 2-yard touchdown pass on third and goal from the Green Bay 2 yard line. The extra point was good, cutting the lead to 21-19 with 14:51 left in the fourth quarter. After two drives that resulted in a punt (one by each team), the Packers had the ball at their own 23 yard line with 10:41 left in the game with the score still at 21-19. Early in the drive, the Packers faced a second and 16 from their own 17 due to a holding penalty on Rasheed Walker. Jordan Love found Romeo Doubs for a 27-yard pass completion to get out of that situation. Christian Watson took an end around for a gain of 13 yards on the next play to get into Chiefs territory. Later in the drive, the Packers were able to get to the KC 18 yard line. They could not get the touchdown after two incomplete passes and a sack on third down. The field goal by Carlson was good from 40 yards out was good, increasing the lead to 24-19 with 6:03 left in the game. The Chiefs tried to answer back with a touchdown to take the lead on their next drive. They got a bad pass interference penalty in their favor, even though the ball was nowhere near being catchable. On the next play, Patrick Mahomes threw an awkward pass that was picked off by Keisean Nixon and the crowd went wild. From their own 35 yard line, the Packers offense did their best to run out as much clock as they could before they had to settle for a field goal. During this drive, Christian Watson caught a pass from Jordan Love and was able to stay in bounds before falling down. The sad part was that he might have hurt his hamstring again before falling down on his own accord (at least he was in good spirits after the game, which is a good sign). The final play before the field goal was a sack of Jordan Love for a loss of 10 yards. As a result, the kick was from 48 yards away. There was immense pressure for Carlson to make this kick. Thankfully, the kick was good, increasing the lead to 27-19 with 1:09 left in the game. The final drive for the Chiefs started with a fair catch, which let them start at their own 25. They got an extra five yards thanks to an offside penalty on Green Bay. This last drive was crazy, to say the least. After an incomplete pass on first down, the Chiefs faced a second and 10 from their 30 yard line. Patrick Mahomes was able to run to his right near the sideline for 10 yards before being legally hit by Jonathan Owens. Mahomes’ feet were inbounds, yet Owens was called for unnecessary roughness, giving the Chiefs an extra 15 yards in addition to the run. On the very next play, it looked over for the Chiefs when Isiah Pacheco caught a pass and then fumbled the ball. The fumble was returned by Corey Ballentine, who took it all the way for a touchdown. Meanwhile, Isiah Pacheco was called for a personal foul after punching Nixon after the play. The officials looked at the play and the penalty. After reviewing everything, there was no fumble as Pacheco’s butt was down before the ball popped loose. However, Pacheco was kicked out of the game for punching an opposing player. After that craziness was settled with no touchdown for Green Bay, the Chiefs had the ball at midfield. A couple of plays later, they had first and 10 at the Green Bay 33 yard line. On first down, Patrick Mahomes looked for Marquez Valdes-Scantling on a potential TD pass. Carrington Valentine might have escaped a PI penalty, but I think he played the ball well on that pass. 2 more incomplete passes later, the Chiefs had one last play with 5 seconds left. Mahomes ran to his left and threw a prayer to the end zone. This prayer was not answered as the pass was broken up by Rudy Ford, sealing the Packers’ 27-19 win at Lambeau Field. With the win, the Packers are now 6-6 on the season.
First things first, I have to give major kudos to head coach Matt LaFleur for the coaching job that he did on Sunday night. He came up with some great play designs that made sure that no receivers ran into each other. Some of the trick plays, including the end arounds, worked very well. The touchdown pass to Ben Sims was a clever play design right at the goal line on the first drive. Not everything was perfect, including one or two bad plays, but LaFleur coached a great game. Jordan Love had himself a great game under the lights of prime time, throwing for 267 yards and 3 touchdowns on 25/36 passing. He made some fantastic throws even under pressure from the Chiefs defense, including a pass to Dontayvion Wicks in the first half and the fourth down conversion to Romeo Doubs that helped set up Christian Watson’s second touchdown catch in the second half. Speaking of that play, that throw was perfect placement by Love to Watson, who made a great leaping catch for the score. Watson had a great game with 71 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Romeo Doubs had 4 catches for 72 yards, including that big catch on the fourth down conversion. Tucker Kraft had 3 catches for 37 yards, while Wicks had 3 catches for 43 yards. Overall, 9 players caught a ball from Jordan Love on Sunday night, with little to no drops at all. AJ Dillon ran hard on Sunday night, as he tallied 73 yards on 18 carries. He was so close to a touchdown on the first drive, but he did help set up the Ben Sims touchdown with his running. Patrick Taylor contributed to the running game with 29 yards on twi carries during the 2 minute drill drive in the first half that should have resulted in points. Like I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t a perfect game on offense due to a couple of sacks, timeouts being used in the first twi drives, and a couple of offensive penalties that messed up potential scoring drives. I was glad that the Packers were able to start the game hot like the previous week against Detroit. It was a tough Chiefs defense that they played against, but the Packers held their own and put up three touchdowns against them. Most importantly, they went on long drives that kept the Chiefs offense off the field in the first half. Even though Christian Watson exited the game with maybe a hamstring issue, I hope that it’s not too serious. He was in a great mood after the game, so at least there’s that. Overall, I was impressed with how the offense played on Sunday, especially Jordan Love. There is no doubt that Love is the QB of the future in Green Bay. He’ll get paid in the offseason with a huge extension. I hope that the offense continues playing fantastic in the last 5 games of the season.
On defense, the Packers held their own against a Chiefs offense that is coached by Andy Reid and has the duo of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. There were moments when the defense allowed some easy catches, including on two deep third downs (that third and 18 play was awful on defense). In addition to that, there were times where Isiah Pacheco ran for some good yardage against the Packers defense. When it mattered in those first two drives and in the fourth quarter, the Packers defense made sure to keep Kansas City from taking the lead away or tying the game (even with some questionable calls in favor of KC). Patrick Mahomes was sacked 3 times by the Packers defense, with two of those sacks being shared by multiple defenders and Lukas Van Ness getting his own solo sack during the first drive. Mahomes was able to escape the pressure on some plays, but he definitely made some mistakes on Sunday night, including throwing an interception to Keisean Nixon in the fourth quarter. The Packers should have gotten another turnover when Isiah Pacheco fumbled the ball during the final drive. If it wasn’t for his butt being down, Corey Ballentine would have gotten a touchdown. Thankfully, the defense kept their composure during the confrontation after the fumble that saw Pacheco get ejected. I was relieved and happy when the Packers defense kept the Chiefs from scoring in that last drive. Everyone on defense should be given kudos for how well they performed when it mattered the most. I hope that the defense plays great in the last stretch of the season.
On Special Teams, the Packers did not make too many mistakes. There were no field goals or punts that were blocked by KC and there were no huge kick returns allowed. For that second part, some of the kickoffs were touchbacks and a punt by Daniel Whelon was downed at the KC 3 yard line just before halftime. I did question not trying a field goal there, but I did get that they didn’t want to risk the chance of Mahomes making a huge play to end the half after the offense messed up on that drive. There was one other punt by Daniel Whelon, which went out of bounds at the KC 19 yard line. Anders Carlson played great on Sunday night as he made each and every kick. The most clutch moment was when he had to kick the field goal from 48 yards out that would have changed the game. Had he missed, Mahomes and the Chiefs offense would be in good position to potentially win the game. Thankfully, Carlson made the kick and madd every Packers fan breathe a sigh of relief. There was a mistake when an offsides penalty gave the Chiefs an extra 5 yards after the fair catch on the kickoff, but I’m glad that it wasn’t worse. Overall, I’m glad that the Special Teams unit played well enough to not give the Chiefs extra momentum and help the Packers win.
Overall, I was thrilled to see the Packers win on Sunday night against the reigning Super Bowl champions. Everyone deserves credit for the win in front of the Lambeau Field faithful. Now, the Packers have all of the momentum entering a stretch of games that should be easy. Anything can happen on Gameday, so it’s up to the Packers to take care of business every week. Their next game is on Monday Night Football on December 11th against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. On paper, this should be a big win, but anything can happen. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, I am celebrating another Victory Monday. Have a great week, everyone. Go Pack Go! (Also: Simone Biles>Taylor Swift in terms of everything on Sunday Night.)
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you want to.)
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