Good afternoon, everyone. On Monday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Entering this game, the Packers were looking to continue their winning streak and increase their chances of making the playoffs. This game should have been easy against a Giants team that has struggled in many aspects, including protecting the quarterback. Unfortunately, the Packers had a bad night on all sides of the ball and allowed the Giants to get the win at MetLife. Let’s get started on how this game went down.
Like the past two weeks, the Packers started this game on offense. Unlike those two games against the Lions and Chiefs, the Packers were not able to score on their first drive against the Giants. The drive only lasted 5 plays, with one penalty on each team in between. Two incomplete passes on second and third and 3 from the Green Bay 43 yard line forced the Packers to punt to the Giants. The punt was fair caught at the Giants 21 yard line, where the New York offense (led by QB Tommy DeVito and RB Saquon Barkley) started their first drive. During this drive, the Giants were given a free pass interference penalty even though the ball was nowhere near being catchable. Thankfully, the Packers defense was able to keep the Giants from scoring on this drive and forced them to punt. During the punt, Anthony Johnson was called for an illegal blindside block. As a result, the Packers started their second drive at their own 6 yard line. That drive resulted in a three and out after Jordan Love threw incomplete to AJ Dillon, who would have had a tough time catching the ball because it was thrown a bit too high. During the punt, Rudy Ford ran into the punt returner before he was able to catch the ball, resulting in a 15-yard penalty that gave the Giants possession at the Green Bay 32 yard line. Green Bay’s defense was able to stop them from getting a touchdown and force them to settle for a field goal. The kick from 48 yards out by Randy Bullock went wide right, resulting in no points for the Giants. From their own 38 yard line, the Packers were able to go down the field and score the first points of the game. They faced a fourth and one during this drive from their own 47 yard line. The pass was caught by Dontayvion Wicks behind the first down marker. However, he was able to keep his feet inbounds and stretch his arm with the ball past the first down marker, keeping the drive alive. On the next play, Jordan Love threw a short pass to AJ Dillon, who took it all the way to the Giants 17 yard line while running over a defender in the process. Two plays later, Jayden Reed took an end around and was untouched for a 16-yard touchdown run. The extra point kick by Anders Carlson was good, giving the Packers a 7-0 lead with 1:01 left in the first quarter. The Giants started their next drive at their own 25 yard line even after the kick was fair caught at the 9 yard line (a new rule for this season). During the drive, Tommy DeVito was able to escape the pressure and scramble for some good yards. The drive ended when Saquon Barkley ran it in from 5 yards out to score the Giants’ first touchdown of the game. The touchdown was set up by a big play when there was a direct snap to Barkley on first and 10 from the Green Bay 37 yard line. The ball then went to Wan’Dale Robinson, who took it to the 5 yard line. That big play helped set up the touchdown that (with the extra point) tied the game at 7-7 with 11:55 left in the second quarter. After the kickoff resulted in a touchback, the Packers started their next drive at the 25 yard line. The drive was going well as they went down the field in search for another touchdown to retake the lead. Unfortunately, the drive ended in disaster when Jordan Love tried to run for the first down on third and 2. Rather than go near the sideline, Love decided to cut inside, which ended with him being tackled and losing the ball before he was fully down. The fumble was recovered by Xavier McKinney at the Giants 27 yard line, resulting in no points for the Packers. The Packers defense was able to force the Giants to punt back to Green Bay after Sequin Barkley was stuffed on fourth and 1 from the Giants 49 by Eric Wilson and Isiah McDuffie. The Packers didn’t get any points out of that opportunity due to Jordan Love throwing an interception on a play where Dontayvion Wicks was held (but that was not called). The Packers defense once again was able to force the Giants to punt, giving Jordan Love and the offense another chance to get points before halftime with 2:45 left in the half. They were able to get points before halftime, but not without some bad moments during the drive. On first and 10 from the Giants 24 yard line, Patrick Taylor caught a pass and failed to get out of bounds, resulting in the Packers having to take a timeout with 24 seconds left. On the next play, it looked like Romeo Doubs caught a pass for the first down before going out of bounds. After the officials looked at the play, they saw that Doubs didn’t have full control of the ball, resulting in an incomplete pass. After a pass to Wicks went incomplete on third and 4 from the Giants 18 yard line, the Packers sent Anders Carlson out onto the field to attempt a 36 yard field goal, which was good. After a kneel-down by the Giants, the first half ended with the Packers being up by a score of 10-7.
The Packers defense started well, forcing the Giants to punt on their first second half drive. A maddening thing happened when Keisean Nixon muffed the punt, recovered the ball, tried to run with it, and fumbled the ball. The fumble was recovered by the Giants, who started their scoring drive at the Green Bay 31. It only took three plays for the Giants to score a touchdown, including a play where Tommy DeVito was able to get all the way to the one yard line on second and 6. During that play, Darnell Savage slipped while trying to get to DeVito. On first and goal, Saquon Barkley was able to evade De’Vondre Campbell and fight his way into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night. The extra point kick was good, giving the Giants a 14-10 lead with 11:22 left in the third quarter. The Packers went three and out on their first possession of the third quarter, but were given a gift when the ball grazed a Giants player during the punt and Rudy Ford recovered the fumble at the Giants 14 yard line. The offense was not able to turn this gift into a touchdown due to a sack of Jordan Love on second and 5 from the 9 yard line and an incomplete pass on third and 10. The field goal by Anders Carlson was good from 32 yards out, cutting the New York lead to 14-13 with 7:31 left in the quarter. The Packers defense then gave up a long touchdown drive to the Giants, who were able to convert a third and 9 thanks to very soft coverage and get into the red zone thanks to a flea flicker pass to Wan’Dale Robinson. The drive ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Tommy DeVito to Isaiah Hodgins that (with the extra point) increased the Giants lead to 21-13 with 1:28 left in the third quarter. After the kickoff resulted in a touchback, the Packers started their next drive at their own 25 yard line. Despite a bad flea flicker play, the Packers were able to get into scoring range during the drive. They managed to get all the way to the Giants 16 yard line before things went bad. On first and 10, a double reverse play that ultimately went to Jayden Reed was stuffed for a one yard loss. On second and 11, Jordan Love threw incomplete to Samori Toure. On third down, Jordan Love was sacked for a 10-yard loss, forcing the Packers to settle for a field goal. To make things worse, the field goal attempt was wide left from 45 yards out, resulting in no points for the Packers. Thankfully, the Packers defense forced the Giants to go three and out after the missed field goal. From their own 16 yard line, the Packers offense tried once again to get more points and attempt a comeback. Things started great when Jordan Love found tight end Tucker Kraft for a 43-yard pass completion that got Green Bay into Giants territory. They got to the 25 yard line before the drive stalled. On second and 5, Jordan Love found Jayden Reed on a pass play that went for a loss of 5 yards. On third and 10, Love went for the touchdown looking for Toure. The pass was underthrown and was batted down by Deonte Banks, forcing the Packers to settle for a field goal. Thankfully, Carlson made the kick from 48 yards away, cutting the lead to 21-16 with 5:30 left in the game. It looked like the Giants were going to be able to run out the rest of the clock and win the game when something crazy happened. On first and 10 from the Giants 48 yard line, Saquon Barkley took a handoff and had no problem getting into Packers territory. During the run, he fell and lost the ball without being touched by a Packers defender. The resulting fumble was recovered by Carrington Valentine, who took the ball all the way to the Giants 36 yard line. Just like that, the Packers were in prime position to score a touchdown and take the lead. They were able to do just that, scoring a touchdown when Jordan Love threw a pass to Malik Heath, who was able to get to the pylon and score. The previous play should have been a touchdown even after the ball was stripped out of Heath’s hands. I’m glad that he got to redeem himself on the play after. The two-point conversion attempt with an end around to Jayden Reed failed, keeping the score at 22-21 in Green Bay’s favor with 1:33 left in the game. With the Packers now in the lead, all the defense needed to do was to keep the Giants from getting into field goal range. Well, the opposite happened, as the Giants had no problem getting into field goal range thanks to the soft defensive scheme by Joe Barry (plus Keisean Nixon being beat on a big chunk pass play). The Giants were able to run the clock all the way down to 2 seconds before calling timeout and setting Randy Bullock for a walk-off field goal from 37 yards away, which he made right down the middle. As a result, the Packers leave MetLife as losers by a score of 24-22. With the loss, the Packers are now 6-7 on the season.
Offensively, the Packers did not play their best game at all. Coming out of the games against Detroit and Kansas City, I was hoping that the Packers would continue their good play on offense, even without some key players like Aaron Jones and Christian Watson. That did not happen, as the offense struggled at some points in this game. It didn’t help that Jordan Love was inaccurate and pressured by the Giants defense pretty much all night long. There were throws that Love either missed or under-threw, including a potential touchdown to Samori Toure that should have had a bit more power so he would be the only one to catch it. A throw that should have been a touchdown was when Love threw a pass that was perfectly positioned in the corner of the end zone. The problem was that Jayden Reed stopped short of the ball, resulting in an incomplete pass. There was also a bad interception that he threw in the first half, although Dontayvion Wicks (who exited the game with a high ankle injury due to the turf at MetLife) was held during that particular play. The play-calling was not good by Matt LaFleur. There were too many instances of trick plays not working at all. After Jayden Reed scored the first touchdown on an end around, every other trick play (including the end arounds) failed as the Giants defense was not fooled. Jayden Reed got hurt after the Packers tried to be cute on the two-point conversion that followed the Malik Heath touchdown catch. That two-point attempt was an end around that was stuffed and resulted in Reed being evaluated for a concussion. With both Reed and Wicks potentially out for next week (and, in Wicks’ case, potentially the rest of the regular season), it is going to be tough for Jordan Love to find some groove with his receivers, besides Tucker Kraft, who played well on Monday night. Hopefully there are fewer trick plays and they just run it up the gut with Dillon and the rest of the backs. The other turnover on offense was when Jordan Love cut inside rather than staying near the sideline as he is trying to get a first down on the ground. He fumbled the ball on that play, which resulted in no points for the Packers. The end of first half drive could have been executed better, with the Packers having to settle for a field goal due to a couple of incomplete passes and Patrick Taylor staying in bounds and wasting a timeout in the process. The Packers did score a touchdown in their final drive in the fourth quarter, but they should have taken more time off the clock to make the Giants burn their timeouts. Overall, it was not a great night for the Packers offense. Even with some guys potentially out, I hope they play better at home next week.
On defense, the Packers played well at parts, but they were not able to keep the Giants from marching down the field when it mattered the most. The most maddening part, other than the last minute and a half, was the fact that the defense could not sack Tommy DeVito at all, even with an offensive line that has allowed a bunch of sacks so far this season. In addition to that, some of the linemen were substitutes for the regular starters. Every time a defender like Rashan Gary got close to DeVito, the attempt to sack him failed, which allowed the QB to run up the middle for some good yards. All in all, DeVito ran for 71 yards on 10 rushing attempts, which was second only to Saquon Barkley’s 86 yards on 20 carries. In total, the Packers defense gave up 209 rushing yards to the Giants, making this game the fourth in the 2023 season where the Packers defense gave up at least 200 rushing yards. That is the most for a Packers defense since they gave up 200+ rushing yards on 6 occasions in the 1983 season (not great at all). What’s maddening to me (and pretty much every Packers fan) is that the Packers defense played well against two of the top teams in the NFL in Detroit and Kansas City yet they played bad against a team that is injured to heck and have been struggling to put up points. Similar to the games against Atlanta, Denver, and Las Vegas, the Packers defense failed to defend when Jordan Love led the offense to a go-ahead score. Seriously, the Giants only needed 5 plays to get into scoring range and didn’t have to take a timeout during that drive. There is no way that Joe Barry comes back in 2024 in my opinion. Like I said before, this team needs an aggressive guy who is not afraid to put the pressure on any quarterback, regardless of how good he is. Granted, some players did not play well, including Darnell Savage, De’Vondre Campbell, and Keisean Nixon, but it is up to the coordinator to put those players in good position to make a big play and not have to hope for a miracle fumble. I at least hope that Jaire Alexander comes back and the injury to Devonte Wyatt is not too serious. Anything to help the defense for the rest of the season.
On Special Teams, the Packers made some errors on Monday night. Two big penalties against Anthony Johnson and Rudy Ford, which were correctly called, did not help the Packers at all in terms of field position. Anders Carlson was not perfect, as he missed one of his field goal attempts against the Giants. He did make every other kick, so it wasn’t an awful game for Carlson. Daniel Whelon punted his balls well, though one of his punts started from near his goal line. The Rudy Ford penalty did not help matters on that particular punt in the first half. Thank goodness that the Giants did not get any points out of that. The Packers got a free three points when another one of his punts grazed a Giants player and Rudy Ford recovered the fumble that followed. The worst mistake on Special Teams has to be when Keisean Nixon muffed a punt and recovered the ball and not fall down on it. He tried to run with it, but he fumbled the ball to the Giants, who were able to score a touchdown off of that fumble recovery. Had that not happened, plus the two turnovers on offense, then the Packers would have been victorious in an ugly game. Instead, Rich Bisaccia’s unit helped contribute to a frustrating loss.
Overall, this game was a whole team loss on all sides of the ball. There were mistakes by everyone, including the coaching staff. Had they not turned the ball over and given up over 200 rushing yards for the fourth time this season, the Packers would have been winners even with some key players out. They still control their playoff destiny, but they need to focus on just winning the next game. Thankfully, that next game is at the friendly confines of Lambeau Field, though that is never a guaranteed win anymore. Their next opponent is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are in a three way tie for first place in the NFC South at 6-7 (with New Orleans and Atlanta also being 6-7). I’m hoping for the Packers to rebound and win that game at home. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great week ahead. No matter what happens, I’ll be cheering proud for the Packers. Go Pack Go.
(Here are the "lowlights" of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page. Click on "Watch on YouTube" if you are curious.)
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