Good evening, everyone. On Christmas Eve, the Green Bay Packers took on the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. Entering this game, the Packers were hoping to keep their playoff hopes alive after losing to the Giants and Buccaneers in back to back weeks. Luckily, the Packers were playing a Panthers team that owns the worst record in the NFL at 2-12 (but not their first round pick due to a trade with Chicago in the offseason). Even with this, the Packers had to hold on to the win by only three points. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
The Packers defense was able to force a three and out, but a roughing the kicker penalty on Lukas Van Ness gave the Panthers a free first down. Thankfully, the defense kept the Panthers from doing anything on that first drive and made them punt to Green Bay. From their own 20 yard line, the Packers offense started their first drive. Aaron Jones carried the load on this drive, with the only exceptions being a 27-yard catch and run (plus another attempted hurdle) by Tucker Kraft and (after a PI penalty) a one-yard TD plunge by AJ Dillon. I wish Jones would’ve finished that drive, but he was given the TD ball by Dillon. The extra point kick by Anders Carlson was good, giving the Packers a 7-0 lead with 7:30 left in the first quarter. Following the kick return, the Panthers started their second drive at their own 31 yard line. They got to scoring range when rookie QB Bryce Young found tight end Tommy Tremble for a 30 yard pass completion on second and 5 from the Carolina 36. After that big play, the Panthers’ drive stalled and they had to settle for a field goal. The kick was good from 52 yards out by Eddy Piniero, cutting the lead to 7-3 with 5:24 left in the quarter. After the kick return by Keisean Nixon, the Packers started their next drive at their own 21 yard line. Aaron Jones got the Packers into Panthers territory with a 39 yard run that ended at the Carolina 40. On the next play, Jordan Love found WR Bo Melton for a 17-yard pass completion. A few tough plays later (including converting a third and 7), the Packers completed the drive with a QB sneak touchdown by Jordan Love from one yard away. The bummer was that the extra point kick was wide left, but the Packers increased their lead to two scores (13-3) a few seconds into the second quarter. That lead was cut to three points after the defense was unable to stop the Panthers from scoring a touchdown. The drive took 8 plays and about 4 and a half minutes of game time. The drive ended when an end around was taken by Ihmir Smith-Marsette, who ran 20 yards mostly untouched for the score. The extra point was good, cutting the lead to 13-10 with 10:29 left in the second quarter. After the kickoff resulted in a touchback, the Packers started their next drive at the 25 yard line. Jordan Love found Romeo Doubs for a 13 yard pass completion to get things started. A few plays later, the Packers faced a third and 1 from the Green Bay 47 yard line. This was after a false start penalty against Rasheed Walker forced Green Bay to have a second and 12. On that second and 12, Jordan Love ran for 11 yards, setting up the third and one. The third down pass was incomplete, but a roughing the passer penalty gave the Packers a free first down at the Carolina 38 yard line. The drive stalled after only three more yards, resulting in Anders Carlson being brought onto the field for a 53 yard field goal attempt. Thankfully, he made the kick, increasing the lead to 16-10 with 7:51 left in the half. The Panthers tried to answer back with a score to potentially take the lead, but the drive ended in a turnover on downs when RB Chuba Hubbard was stuffed for a loss of two yards by Lukas Van Ness and Isaiah McDuffie on fourth and 2 from the Green Bay 38. From their own 40 yard line, the Packers had possession of the ball with 4:12 left in the half. During this drive, Bo Melton had a couple of big catches, with one of them converting a third and 10 from the Carolina 34 yard line. Three plays after that third down conversion, Jordan Love was able to find WR Dontayvion Wicks for a 21 yard touchdown pass. The extra point by Anders Carlson was good this time, increasing Green Bay’s lead to 23-10 with 49 seconds left in the half. The half wasn’t over yet as the Packers forced the Panthers to go three and out and gave the offense 18 more seconds to do something. Jordan Love had a chance to throw a Hail Mary, but it was batted down as time expired, keeping the score at 23-10 at halftime.
The good news was that the Packers started the second half. The bad news was that the Packers went three and out on that first drive due to a 12-yard sack of Jordan Love and an incomplete pass on third down. After the punt, the Panthers were able to go down the field in a drive that lasted 14 plays and nearly 8 and a half minutes. Little by little, Carolina’s offense went down the field on this drive. After a lucky break on a botched Center to QB exchange and a questionable roughing the passer penalty on Isaiah McDuffie, the Panthers were able to finish the drive in the end zone. Chuba Hubbard ran it in from 4 yards away untouched. The extra point was no good, but the lead was cut to a single possession (23-16) with 5:11 left in the third quarter. After the kickoff return by Keisean Nixon, the Packers started their next drive at their own 34 yard line. On the first play, Jordan Love found Romeo Doubs for a big play. Doubs fumbled the ball during his run after the catch, but the ball was thankfully recovered by Josiah Deguara at the Carolina 33 yard line. Aaron Jones then ran the ball to the Carolina 7 yard line on the next few plays. Once again, Jones was not allowed to do the goal line situation. After two runs by AJ Dillon that resulted in only 2 yards, the Packers decided to throw it on third and goal from the 5. Love found Romeo Doubs for the touchdown that (with the extra point) increased the lead to 30-16 with 14:57 left in the fourth quarter. The Panthers’ next drive ended in a punt, but not before an impressive one-handed catch by Adam Thielen on the first play. After the punt, the Packers started their next drive at their own 11 yard line. The drive went nowhere after two incomplete passes (with a one yard AJ Dillon run in between) and the Packers punted back to Carolina. From their own 40, the Panthers then went down the field for a touchdown on their next drive. Bryce Young was able to find WR DJ Chark for an 11-yard TD pass. For some reason, they decided to go for two rather than kick the extra point. Young was able to run it in, but the attempt was nullified due to a holding penalty on one of the linemen. Because of that, the Panthers then settled for the extra point kick, which was missed. As a result, the score was now 30-22 with 7:14 left in the fourth quarter. The Packers offense needed to focus on going down the field and scoring at least a field goal to put this game out of reach while chewing out plenty of clock in the process. Instead, they went three and out and gave the Panthers the ball back. With 5:47 left, the Panthers had no issue with getting the touchdown and two point conversion to tie the game at 30 due to a defense that should not be coached by Joe Barry after today. With the game now tied at 30 with a little over 4 minutes left, the Packers needed to score while leaving as little time left as possible. On the third play of this crucial drive, Jordan Love found Romeo Doubs for a 36 yard pass completion that got the Packers into scoring range. The catch was reviewed after a challenge flag was thrown, but the officials kept the call as is, thereby forcing Carolina to use a timeout. Two plays later, Love found Tucker Kraft for a 20 yard pass completion that got them to the Carolina 13. From there, the Packers basically ran to let the clock wind down as much as they could after Carolina used their last timeout. With 22 seconds left, Green Bay used their last timeout and Anders Carlson was called upon for the go-ahead field goal. The kick was good, giving the Packers a 33-30 lead with 19 seconds left. Surely, this would be over, right? Well, not exactly. Joe Barry’s soft defense allowed the Panthers to get into scoring range in only two plays. The first play was a 22-yard pass from Bryce Young to DJ Chark that got to the Carolina 47 before Chark went out of bounds, this stopping the clock at 13 seconds. Te second play was a 22-yard pass to Adam Thielen over the middle that forced the Panthers to spike the ball and stop the clock. Thankfully, Young was not able to spike it before the clock went to 0:00, thus ending the game with the Packers winning by three points. With this win, the Packers are now 7-8 and are still alive in the playoff race.
On offense, the Packers played well for the most part. Aaron Jones had himself a game, rushing for 127 yards on 21 carries. My issue is that he was not given any running opportunities near the goal line at all. On the first drive, he helped the Packers get into scoring position. Yet it wasn’t Jones who got the TD on that drive. AJ Dillon scored the TD, but he was gracious enough to give Jones the ball afterwards. Another situation was when the Packers went down the field to score a TD in the second half. Jones ran the ball to the Carolina 7 yard line, yet was not allowed to touch the ball after that. Jones was “on fire” in NBA Jam terms while Dillon was not. At least Romeo Doubs was able to get the touchdown on that drive. Doubs led the receiving corps with 79 yards and a touchdown on four receptions while Bo Melton contributed well with 44 yards on four catches. Tucker Kraft played well too, with 60 yards on 4 catches, including a 20-yard catch that helped set up the field goal by Anders Carlson near the end of the game. Dontayvion Wicks caught a touchdown in the first half before he had to leave the game with a chest injury, which I hope isn’t too serious. Jordan Love was able to get those receivers their catches thanks to his throws. Once again, he wasn’t perfect, but he made the throws when they mattered, especially the touchdown passes and the big pass to Romeo Doubs that helped the Packers get the field goal late in the fourth quarter. I just wish that the play calling by Matt LaFleur was a bit better in some drives and Jones was used more in the goal line situations. At least the Packers were able to put up more than 30 points on Sunday.
Even though the offense was able to put up over 30 points, there was no excuse for the defense giving up 30 points to an offense that has been averaging less than 15 points per game and hasn’t scored a touchdown in weeks. Like against the Giants and Buccaneers the two previous weeks, the Packers defense allowed Carolina’s offense to move down the field with relative ease in most drives. There were a couple of three and outs, a turnover on downs, and 2 sacks (1.5 by Preston Smith and half a sack for Quay Walker), but there were no turnovers in the forms of fumbles or interceptions by Green Bay’s defense. Bryce Young, who has struggled for the most part in his rookie season, threw for 312 yards and 2 touchdowns with no picks. Two receivers nearly topped 100 receiving yards on the day, with Adam Thielen having 94 yards on 6 receptions and DJ Chark catching both of Young’s touchdowns while totaling 98 yards on 6 receptions. Those two receivers were responsible for the catches that got the Panthers into scoring range after the Packers took the lead with only 19 seconds left. The Packers defense (and Joe Barry) got extremely lucky when Bryce Young snapped the ball with 0 seconds on the clock. Even though the Packers won in the end, Joe should be gone from Green Bay. To allow the worst team in football to have over 400 yards and 30 points is inexcusable for a potential playoff contender. Whether or not the Packers make the playoffs, I want Joe Barry to be fired either before next week or after the season is over. After that occurs, I hope that the Packers get current Panthers DC Ejiro Evero to come to Green Bay. Evero was on the shortlist for DC in Green Bay back in 2021, but Matt LaFleur chose Joe Barry instead to mediocre/bad results. Matt can redeem himself here as long as he doesn’t blame the players for Joe’s shortcomings.
On Special Teams, the Packers were not perfect by any means. Anders Carlson missed another extra point and there was a roughing the kicker penalty in the first quarter. Other than those mistakes, the Packers played well on ST. Keisean Nixon held onto the ball and had a couple of solid returns, and Anders Carlson made every other kick, including the 53-yard field goal that followed the missed PAT in the first half and the go-ahead field goal with 22 seconds left in the game. The good thing is that there were not any field goals or punts that were blocked by Carolina. On the flip side, the Packers weren’t able to block any of Carolina’s kicks. Rich Bisaccia’s unit was solid in this game other than the couple of mistakes. I hope for a big splash play in the last two weeks of the season.
Overall, I am glad that the Packers got the win on Christmas Eve, but that game shouldn’t have been close at all. As much as I want Joe Barry gone, I expect him to stay until the season is over, regardless of whether or not the Packers make the playoffs. For now, the Packers need to focus on the next opponent. That next opponent is the Minnesota Vikings, who are starting Nick Mullens at quarterback. The game is in Minnesota, so it won’t be easy. I hope that the Packers can take care of business on the road. In the meantime, I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas. Go Pack Go!
(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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