Good evening, everyone. On Monday December 23rd, the Green Bay Packers hosted the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field. Entering this game, the Packers had one goal in mind: get the win and clinch a playoff berth. The cold weather was definitely in Green Bay’s favor during this game. Their opponent was a Saints team that, like Miami on Thanksgiving night, is not accustomed to playing well in the cold. Also, the Saints entered this game banged to heck and basically out of the playoff picture. The Packers thankfully took care of business at home and clinched their spot in the playoffs. Even better, they put up the first shutout of the 2024 NFL regular season. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
The Packers started this game on the offensive side of the football. The Packers’ first drive started at their own 37 yard line after the kickoff return by Keisean Nixon. Early in the drive, they faced a third and 6 from the 41 yard line. Jordan Love was able to draw Saints defender Cameron Jordan offside, but there was no free play as an O-Lineman moved after the defender did. After the free 5 yards, it was now third and 1 from the 46. Josh Jacobs ran for three yards to pick up the first down. The next two plays also went to Josh Jacobs. On first and 10 from the 49 yard line, he ran for 7 yards. On the second play, he caught a pass that eventually went for 11 yards. On first and 10 from the New Orleans 33 yard line, Love found TE Tucker Kraft for a 12 yard pass play. On the following play, Josh Jacobs did a huge stiff arm on Tyronn Mathieu. He nearly got into the end zone, but he was unable to keep his balance and stepped out of bounds at the 1 yard line. 3 plays later (including a cute shovel pass play that went for negative yards), Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a two yard touchdown pass. The extra point by Brandon McManus was good, giving Green Bay a 7-0 lead with 8:41 left in the first quarter. The Saints tried to answer back on their first possession, but their effort failed as the drive ended in an incomplete pass by rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler (Derek Carr was out with a left hand injury). The Saints were intending to go for it on fourth and 7 from the Green Bay 40, but Lucas Patrick (who used to play in Green Bay) jumped before the snap. After the false start penalty, the Saints punted the ball away. The punt was fair caught by Jayden Reed at the 8 yard line. Because of a holding penalty, the Packers’ second drive started at their own 4 yard line. Like the previous drive, the Packers faced a third and 6. Once again, the Packers were given 5 free yards thanks to a neutral zone infraction penalty on New Orleans. On third and 1 from the 13 yard line, Tucker Kraft took the direct snap and got the first down. Josh Jacobs then caught a short pass that went for 13 yards and another first down. Three plays later, the Packers faced a third and 7 from the 31 yard line. Jordan Love found Romeo Doubs for a 15-yard pass completion that converted the third down. Later in the drive, the Packers converted a fourth and 1 with a QB sneak play. Another fourth down was converted when Jordan Love found Tucker Kraft for a 21-yard pass play. 2 plays later, Josh Jacobs finished the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 14-0 with 11:43 left in the second quarter. The second drive for the Saints ended in a three and out. On the first play, Edgerrin Cooper tackled RB Kendre Miller for a three yard loss. After that, there was a false start penalty that forced the Saints to face a second and 18 from their own 22. The next two plays only got them to the original start of the drive and the Saints punted the back to Green Bay. After the fair catch by Jayden Reed, the Packers’ third drive started at their own 33 yard line. The first play was an end around by Christian Watson that went for 9 yards. On the second play, Love found Tucker Kraft for a pass that went 30 yards to the New Orleans 28 yard line. Two plays later, Watson took an end around play 14 yards to the 6 yard line. He hurt his knee on the play, which was a scary moment, but I’m hoping that it’s a minor injury. 2 plays later, Chris Brooks ran it in from one yard out for his first touchdown of his career. The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 21-0 with 6:28 left in the second quarter. The Saints tried to go down the field for a score on their next drive, but the drive ended when Keisean Nixon strip-sacked Spencer Rattler. The fumble was recovered by Rashan Gary at the Green Bay 34 yard line. The Packers offense did nothing with the opportunity after two straight deep passes went incomplete. After the punt by Daniel Whelan, which was a booming punt that went into the end zone for a touchback, the Saints’ next drive started at their own 20 yard line. On their third play, there was a pass that was initially ruled a completion to Jordan Mims. The officials looked at it and ruled it incomplete. It was clear that the ball hit the ground. The Saints got the first down anyway due to a roughing the passer penalty on Brentan Cox Junior. The Saints were able to get into field goal range, but then Spencer Rattler was sacked for a loss of 12 yards by Devonte Wyatt. The first half ended on a Hail Mary attempt that would have been intercepted by Xavier McKinney had he stayed in bounds.
Due to deferring to the second half at the coin toss, the Saints started the second half on offense. The drive stalled after 5 plays, though they tried to do something with their punt formation. Thankfully, the Packers did not fall for any tricks. After a delay of game penalty, the Saints punted to Green Bay. The Packers’ first second half drive started at their own 16 after the fair catch by Jayden Reed. The Packers were able to move the ball down the field thanks to runs by Josh Jacobs, Bo Melton (on an end around), and Chris Brooks. The bummer was that the drive stalled after an incomplete pass intended for Jayden Reed on third and 6 from the New Orleans 37 yard line. Thankfully, Brandon McManus was able to make the field goal from 55 yards out. With that field goal, the lead was increased to 24-0 with 7:03 left in the third quarter. The Saints were able to get into scoring range on their ensuing drive as they got all the way to the Green Bay 22 yard line. Then, the drive ended when Zayne Anderson read a Spencer Rattler pass perfectly and intercepted it. Anderson returned the pick to the Green Bay 20 yard line before being tackled. The next play was almost disastrous as Jordan Love’s pass was deflected and nearly picked off by Khalen Saunders. The pick was dropped, keeping the drive alive. The drive eventually didn’t result in any points. There was a fourth and 5, but all Green Bay did was try and draw the defense offsides, which didn’t work. After the delay of game penalty, the punt by Daniel Whelan was fair caught at the 8 yard line. However, they had to punt again due to a tripping penalty called on Lukas Van Ness. The second punt only got to the New Orleans 34 yard line before going out of bounds. After the defense forced the Saints to punt again, the Packers offense started their next drive (Jordan Love’s last of the night) at their own 16 yard line. On third and 12 from the 14 yard line, Jordan Love found Jayden Reed for a 37 yard pass play that went to the New Orleans 49 yard line. 2 plays later, Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a 12-yard pass on second and 7 from the 46 yard line. The drive stalled after an incomplete pass on third and 4 from the New Orleans 28, which resulted in Brandon McManus attempting a 46 yard field goal. The kick was good, increasing the lead to 27-0 with 7:13 left in the fourth quarter. After a four and out by New Orleans, the Packers were able to add to their lead with a 1-yard scoring run by Emanuel Wilson. The TD was set up by a pass from Malik Willis to Jayden Reed that gave the Packers first and goal at the 6 yard line. The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 34-0 with 2:41 left in the game. After another stop by the defense, the game was sealed with two kneel downs by Willis. The final score was 34-0 in the Packers’ favor. With the win, the Packers are now 11-4 and have clinched their spot in the playoffs.
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you’re interested.)
On offense, the Packers played great for most of the game. They dominated the time of possession battle by nearly 15 minutes of game time. They were able to score a touchdown on each of their first three drives. There was some fight left in the Saints defense, so a lot of those yards in those drives were earned the hard way, with only a few big chunk plays. On the first drive, there was a fantastic stiff arm by Josh Jacobs on the run that was almost a TD. Some end around plays worked well, including one that unfortunately resulted in Christian Watson hurting his knee. He did come back after that, but he was ruled out for most of the second half out of caution. Thankfully, Matt LaFleur said after the game that it was just a bruise. Still, I hope that he comes back next week. Jordan Love didn’t have his best night, but he did make some good throws and took the check downs when they were there. He almost was picked off during the second half, but that pick was thankfully dropped. Other than that moment, he didn’t have any turnover-worthy plays and he didn’t get sacked once. I would like to give a shoutout to the offensive line for blocking well against New Orleans’ defensive front. Not only did they keep Love (and Malik Willis) upright , but they allowed the running backs to total 188 yards on the ground. In the second half, the Packers were less efficient on offense due to Josh Jacobs resting after a busy first half. Still, it was great to see both Chris Brooks and Emanuel Wilson score a touchdown on Monday night. All three running backs were willing to be physical with their runs, especially Josh Jacobs. Hopefully that continues next week and beyThere were third down conversion issues, but the Packers were able to convert a couple of fourth downs on their way to their second touchdown of the night. I’m glad that Luke Musgrave came back after he was out for a few weeks due to his ankle injury. He didn’t contribute much, but I am sure they wanted to ease him back into action. Everyone on offense needs to be at their A game from here on out, especially next week against the Vikings. Hopefully the game plan is good for that game. (Please, no waves on offense next time, Packers fans at Lambeau)
On defense, the Packers played fantastic against a Saints offense that was obviously depleted by injuries. Derek Carr, Alvin Kamara, and Taysom Hill were out for this game. For the Packers defense, they were missing Jaire Alexander and Evan Williams. Jaire has been out for a few weeks now and Evan Williams hurt his quad during practice on Saturday. Both of these are players might be out until the playoffs. Even with their absence, the Packers played excellent defense against a Saints team that basically wanted to get out of Lambeau as soon as the score was 21-0 at halftime. They didn’t allow New Orleans to get into the red zone once. When the Saints did get close to the red zone, the Packers forced the two turnovers: the strip sack by Keisean Nixon, who was great in coverage tonight, and the interception by Zayne Anderson. The defense was able to get three sacks, including a crucial sack by Devonte Wyatt that kept the Saints from scoring a field goal on their final first half drive. Spencer Rattler had a bad night, as a lot of his passes were inaccurate in the cold. Apparently practicing in a freezer room doesn’t help when you’re at Lambeau Field with a bunch of Packers fans cheering against you. It was great that Jeff Hafley’s unit was able to produce the NFL’s first shutout of the season on Monday night. Hopefully the Packers defense is ready for a second showdown with the Vikings next week.
On Special Teams, the Packers thankfully played well against the Saints. There were a couple of penalties, but there were no turnovers committed by Green Bay. There was a decent kick return allowed, but the defense made sure that the Saints didn’t take advantage of the good field position. Keisean Nixon had a nice return on the opening kickoff, but not much more after that. There were no punt returns for either team as all of the punts resulted in either a fair catch or in the ball landing out of bounds (or in the end zone in one instance). Brandon McManus made every kick on Monday night, including the 55 yard field goal in the third quarter. No kicks were blocked by either team and the Packers didn’t fall for anything that the Saints were attempting to do (but didn’t do). Hopefully the Special Teams unit is ready for more challenges in the next few weeks.
Overall, I was happy that the Packers got the win on Monday night and clinched their playoff spot. It was a mostly stress free game for the Packers and their fans at a cold Lambeau Field. A shutout win was a great early Christmas present for Green Bay on Monday night. Everyone deserves credit for the job they did during this game. Mark Murphy, who is the President/CEO of the Packers, was honored at halftime prior to him retiring due to the age limit of 70. It was nice to see him with the players in the locker room after the win. Hopefully the next president, Ed Policy, will do great for the Packers and the community. The Packers' next game will be against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday December 29th. Hopefully the Packers get that win and build more momentum going into the playoffs. Have a wonderful holdisay week, everyone. Go Pack Go!
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