Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday October 6, the Green Bay Packers took on the Los Angeles Rams at Sofi Stadium. Entering this game, the Packers were looking to get back to above .500 on the season. A win on Sunday would have also been the first win for the Packers against the Rams in the state of California since December 18, 1966. It was a frustrating game at times, but the Packers got the win in the end. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
The Packers started this game on offense, but their first drive ended in a three and out after Jordan Love was sacked on third and 7 from the Green Bay 33. Thankfully, the Packers defense forced the Rams to their own three and out after that. Xavier McKinney broke up the pass on third and 3 from the Rams 41 yard line. After the punt (plus a holding penalty), the Packers had to start their second drive from their own 4 yard line. Even with the bad field position, the Packers were able to move the ball down the field for their first score. The biggest play of the drive came on a second and 10 from the Packers 45 yard line. On the play, Jordan Love took the snap from shotgun, stepped back, and threw a deep pass to Jayden Reed, who caught the ball even though he was covered by multiple Rams defenders. The catch gave the Packers a first and goal at the Rams 2 yard line. On first and goal, Josh Jacobs ran all the way to the right sideline and got the ball past the pylon for his first touchdown run as a Packer. The extra point by Brayden Narveson was good, giving Green Bay a 7-0 lead with 6:45 left in the first quarter. The Packers defense was not able to keep the Rams out of scoring range, but they did get a goal line stop after forcing Matthew Stafford to throw incomplete on fourth and goal from the Green Bay 4 yard line. That turnover on downs should have been a great opportunity to add to the lead, but the offense went three and out on the ensuing drive. Jordan Love threw an incomplete pass intended for Jayden Reed on third and 2 from the 13 yard line. Three penalties later, the Packers punted back to the Rams, who then went down the field for the tying touchdown. The one-yard touchdown run by Kyren Williams completed a drive that was basically a dink and dunk drive with some runs mixed in. The extra point was good, tying the game at 7-7 with 9:47 left in the second quarter. Two punts followed after that scoring drive (one by each team). The Rams were in field goal range on their drive, but a sack of Matthew Stafford by rookie LB Edgerrin Cooper forced the Rams to punt. That punt was fair caught by Jayden Reed at the Green Bay 10 yard line. From there, the Packers started their next drive with 3:06 left in the half. That drive ended in disaster when Jordan Love got hit in the end zone (Rasheed Walker messed up his protection there) and decided to throw it away instead of taking the safety. His errant pass was picked off by Jaylen McCollough at the 4 yard line. McCollough took the pick all the way for a touchdown, giving the Rams the lead. The extra point kick was deflected, which made it no good. The score with 2:02 left in the half was 13-7 in the Rams’ favor. The Packers were able to move the ball down the field for a score before halftime. What kept them from scoring a touchdown was a disaster of a play where Jordan Love was looking for the deep ball TD. Because of that, Love found Jayden Reed way too late and ended up losing 19 yards thanks to throwing a backwards pass, which makes the ball live. So instead of a third and 7 at the 19, it was a third and 26 at the 38 yard line. That changed to fourth and 16 thanks to a 10-yard catch and run by Dontayvion Wicks. Brayden Narveson was called upon to kick a 46 yard field goal from the right hashmark. Thankfully, he made the kick, decreasing the halftime deficit to three points.
The Rams started the second half on offense with the hope of increasing their lead. They were able to get into scoring range, but Kyren Williams had the ball punched out of his hands by LB Kingsley Enegbare. The fumble was recovered by Xavier McKinney at the Green Bay 23 yard line, giving the Packers offense a chance to capitalize by scoring some points. They did just that, when Jordan Love found a wide open Tucker Kraft on a deep pass, which Kraft took all the way for a 66-yard TD while stiff-arming a defender in the process. The extra point was good, giving Green Bay a 17-13 lead with 11:15 left in the third quarter. The Rams tried to go down the field on their next possession, but they suffered another turnover when Matthew Stafford threw an interception to Xavier McKinney, who returned the pick to the Green Bay 46 (his fifth game in a row with a pick). The Packers took advantage of the interception by moving the ball down the field for another touchdown. The drive ended with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Love to Tucker Kraft, which was initially ruled short of the goal line but changed to a touchdown after some replay assistance from the offices in New York City. The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 24-13 with 3:55 left in the third quarter. After that, there was another punt exchange by both teams. During Green Bay’s drive, they did get into Rams territory, but a false start penalty, an incompletion to Wicks, and a pass to Emanuel Wilson that went for a 9 yard loss resulted in the Packers punting back to the Rams. From their own 9 yard line, the Rams went on a long drive that frustrated every Packers fan, including me. The drive ended with a one-yard TD pass from Stafford to Demarcus Robinson. Instead of kicking the extra point, the Rams tried to go for two points. The two point attempt came up short of the end zone, keeping the score at 24-19 with 3 and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. All the Packers had to do on their next drive was get a couple of first downs while forcing the Rams to use their timeouts. After the kickoff resulted in a touchback, the Packers started their drive with a 13-yard run by Josh Jacobs followed be a Rams timeout. The next play on first and 10 was a good plan, but the pass to Malik Heath was tipped at the line of scrimmage. On second and 10, Josh Jacobs went nowhere and the Rams took their second timeout. On third and 10, Jordan Love went for the deep pass to Dontayvion Wicks. Unfortunately, Wicks let the ball go right through his hands. Because of that, Daniel Whelan had to be called upon to punt. The punt was only 28 yards in length, giving the Rams the ball at their own 29 yard line with 2:57 left in the game. They were moving the ball down the field until, thankfully, the Packers defense kept them from stealing the game. On second and 5 from the Green Bay 38, Matthew Stafford was sacked for a loss of 7 yards (split between Preston Smith and Karl Brooks). Two plays later, the Rams faced a fourth and 5 from the 38. Edgerrin Cooper got to Stafford and forced him to get rid of the ball, which was broken up by rookie safety Evan Williams. That pass breakup sealed the 24-19 win for the Packers. With the win, the Packers are now 3-2 on the season.
(Here are the highlights of this game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube channel. Click on “Watch on YouTube”.)
On offense, the Packers did score more points in the first half than the previous week against Minnesota. Even then, it was not a consistent performance for Green Bay. This game should have featured the run a bit more since the Rams didn’t have a great run defense entering this game. Focusing on the run would have given the Packers a better chance at sealing the game instead of hoping for the defense to get another stop (which they thankfully did). In addition, the Packers were short at receiver with Christian Watson out due to injury and Romeo Doubs suspended by the team (he should be back this week). Still, it was nice to see Josh Jacobs (who finished with 73 yards on 19 attempts) get his first touchdown as a Packer. Jordan Love added a scramble for a first down, which is still risky considering that he is getting his knee back into good shape. Speaking of Love, he had some great throws, including the deep pass to Jayden Reed in triple coverage and the pass to Tucker Kraft that resulted in the 66-yard catch and run. Love thankfully rebounded from throwing that awful pick six near the end of the first half. I get that he was trying to get rid of it, but that pick was kinda like a play or two that Brett Favre did early on when he was in Green Bay. Rasheed Walker is at fault for allowing Love to get hit in the end zone on that particular play. A decision that basically kept Green Bay from going for a touchdown in the final minute of the first half was Love finding Jayden Reed too late on a backwards pass. The backwards pass resulted in a loss of 19 yards on that play. Hopefully Love doesn’t make those mistakes again. Tucker Kraft led the pass catching corps with 4 catches for 88 yards and two touchdowns. Jayden Reed wasn’t far behind with 4 receptions for 78 yards, including that big catch in traffic that set up Josh Jacobs’ TD run. Dontayvion Wicks did not have a great day on Sunday. He dropped a couple of crucial passes, including the deep pass that would have sealed the game in the final minutes. That ball literally went through his hands on that play. I’m hoping that he bounces back relatively soon and catch more of those passes. The offensive line played well at points, though they allowed some pressures and two sacks. This offense is still getting its groove figured out 5 weeks into the season. Hopefully Love gets better each week and the receivers catch more of the passes. One thing that they did great at was scoring a touchdown after the defense got a turnover, which they did twice. Next week should be more focused on Josh Jacobs against the Cardinals.
On defense, the Packers played well at times. They did force two turnovers and sacked Matthew Stafford a couple of times. However, the defense gave up 132 rushing yards to the Rams. 102 of those yards were by RB Kyren Williams, who was able to help the Rams convert some short yardage situations and score a touchdown on the Packers defense. Matthew Stafford was pressured a few times, but he was still able to lead some long drives by completing (mostly) short passes to receivers who you wouldn’t know the name of unless you Google them. Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp were both out due to injury, yet Stafford had mostly no issues with finding an open receiver. Still, the Packers defense got the stop that was needed to win the game in addition to the two turnovers. Kingsley Enegbare did a great job on the forced fumble, which Xavier McKinney recovered. McKinney was also the one who got the interception immediately after the 66-yard Tucker Kraft TD catch. I know that it’s only 5 games into the season, but Xavier McKinney looks to be a fantastic free agent acquisition by the Packers. The fact that he has gotten a pick in each game so far (though he was close to a couple more picks on Sunday) makes me happy that he is a Packer. I want to give a shout out to two rookies that played well on Sunday: LB Edgerrin Cooper and safety Evan Williams. Cooper was able to get to Stafford on a couple of pressures and a sack. He also got the pressure that forced Stafford to throw the errant pass that was broken up by Williams. I hope that both of these guys have a huge impact on the Packers defense this season. There are still some things to clean up on defense, including the pass rush and some linebacker play (the D-Line missed Devonte Wyatt a lot on Sunday), but I have hope that they can get better as the season goes on. Hopefully Jaire Alexander can come back to help the defensive backs. Next week will be a tough test against another mobile quarterback in Kyler Murray, and I hope that the defense is ready for the challenge.
On Special Teams, it was at least a kinda normal day for Green Bay, other than some penalties. Brayden Narveson made all of his kicks for once (three PATs and a field goal), there were no turnovers, and the kickoff coverage team didn’t allow a huge return to the Rams. Daniel Whelan didn’t punt as well as he did last week, with the last punt being only 28 yards long. It’s a bummer that the kickoff return has been mostly nonexistent for Green Bay due to this new format. There are exceptions, but there also have been no explosive kick returns by Green Bay yet. At least there were no mistakes that cost the Packers some points at the end of the game. As long as the unit stays consistent, especially the kicker, punter, and long snapper, things should be good for the Packers.
Overall, it was not a pretty win for the Packers. Considering that Week 5 had a lot of crazy finishes, including Ravens-Bengals and Bills-Texans, I am glad that the Packers got the win in Los Angeles. For Matt LaFleur, he is now 5-0 against his former boss Sean McVay. It’s crazy that this win was the first win against the Rams in California since the Vince Lombardi era. Next week for the Packers is a home game the Arizona Cardinals, who upset the San Francisco 49ers in Week 5. The game is at Lambeau Field, but nothing is guaranteed in the NFL. The Packers need to be ready for anything. For now, I am celebrating a Victory Monday. Have a great week, everyone. Go Pack Go!
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