Packers Grades After 23-21 Loss to Commanders

The Green Bay Packers lost to the Washington Commanders on Sunday. It was an across-the-board bad performance, as shown in our weekly report card.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With Aaron Rodgers winning MVP honors in 2020 and 2021, the Green Bay Packers finished with records of 13-3 and 13-4. With Rodgers unable to be that rising tide that lifts all boats, like the great quarterbacks are paid to do, the Packers are a stunning 3-4 following Sunday’s loss at the Washington Commanders.

Afterward, coach Matt LaFleur tried to deflect the criticism off his star quarterback.

“I think it takes everybody. It takes everybody around him,” LaFleur said. “You’ve got to have the protection in front of you to be able to hold up. You’ve got to have the guys making plays, too. I feel like we had a ton of drops. We had a lot of penalties that put us back behind the sticks. Those are tough situations to climb out of.

“We’ve got to be more disciplined and mindful of what we’re doing on each individual play because, right now, it’s not good enough.”

He’s right about those things. There’s more than one thing wrong with the passing offense than Rodgers, just like there’s more wrong with the Packers than the passing attack.

The running game was an afterthought. The run defense was terrible. Tyler Heinicke made the type of clutch plays that have eluded Rodgers all season. The Commanders won third down by a landslide. And the special teams had the one game-turning blunder.

If you’re looking for a silver lining, the new-look offensive line showed promise and the red-zone defense was the only thing standing between the Packers and a blowout loss.

Here are the Packers’ grades from our weekly report card.

Passing Offense

Aaron Rodgers was 23-of-35 passing for 194 yards and two touchdowns. At the end of the day, his 99.0 passer rating was perfectly fine. The reality, of course, is much different.

Rodgers didn’t cross 100 passing yards until the final play of the third quarter. And one-fourth of his passing yards – 49 – came on his final two completions, a 28-yard catch-and-run by Sammy Watkins and 21 yards to Robert Tonyan on the lateral play to end the game. Eight of those completions were thrown behind the line of scrimmage.

Meanwhile, he was 2-of-6 on passes thrown 10-plus yards downfield, with the exquisite 21-yard touchdown to Aaron Jones and the 28-yarder to Watkins coming in the waning moments. Everybody in the world knows the Packers can’t make a play down the field, and that’s making it more difficult to win with the short stuff.

With so much quick game, Rodgers was hit only twice. About the only abuse he took was trying to block Montez Sweat on Aaron Jones’ run for minus-6 midway through the second quarter.

There were more drops (five) than missed tackles (two; by Amari Rodgers and Samori Toure in the second-to-last series). That’s never a good thing for an offense so dependent on short passes and run-after-catch. Aaron Rodgers was 2-of-6 for 16 yards on third down and never moved the chains. He was 0-for-1 on fourth down, with Watkins appearing to blow his assignment on a receiver screen to Romeo Doubs. The only hope for this offense is for Doubs to blossom but he’s perhaps trending the wrong way.

The protection was really good given the opponent, with the Commanders ranking first in the NFL in pressure percentage entering the game. Thrown in at left tackle at a moment’s notice, rookie Zach Tom got a good bit of help but didn’t give up any pressures.

Grade: F.

Rushing Offense

The play breakdown was 35 passes vs. 12 runs. Judging by those numbers, you might have guessed the Packers were down by two touchdowns at halftime. Instead, the Packers led at halftime and didn’t fall behind by more than two scores until 6:40 was left in the game. So, there was no reason to abandon the run. They just chose to do so. Shocking, right?

Aaron Jones carried eight times for 23 yards (2.9 average; long of 8) and AJ Dillon got four chances for 15 yards (3.8 average; long of 7). That’s it. Twelve carries. Jones’ first four carries went for 21 yards so, naturally, he got four more carries the final 52 minutes. By our count, Jones had the only four missed tackles.

Making his debut at right tackle, Yosh Nijman was called for two holding penalties. One of those was in the run game. His athleticism and ability to hit targets in space is impressive.

The snarky grade here would be incomplete. How do you grade 12 plays? But a 3.2-yard average isn’t going to cut it.

Grade: F.

Passing Defense

Taylor Heinicke was 20-of-33 passing for 201 yards. He threw three touchdowns – two to his players and one to linebacker De’Vondre Campbell.

Through five games, Green Bay had a league-low seven passes defensed. It had five vs. the Jets and six more vs. the Commanders. Rasul Douglas had three; if only he had corralled even one of those for an interception. He and Campbell had their best games of the season. Jaire Alexander, on the other hand, lost his battle to Terry McLaurin, who had a 37-yard touchdown and two first downs on the clinching series.

The knockout punch was a big-time play by Heinicke, who stood firm in the pocket and got crunched by Kenny Clark but made a perfect throw to McLaurin on third-and-9. Heinicke converted six third downs through the air. That includes third-and-2 and third-and-11 on the 16-play drive that made it 20-14, third-and-8 on the nine-play drive that made it 23-14, and the aforementioned third-and-9 to essentially wrap up the game.

The pass rush was excellent. Kingsley Enagbare had the only sack but the team had nine quarterback hits – three by Rashan Gary, two by Enagbare and two more by Quay Walker leading the way.

Grade: D-plus.

Rushing Defense

It’s a tale as old as time: The Packers can’t stop the run. The Commanders rushed for 166 yards. The 4.4-yard average not only was manageable but a noteworthy improvement over the season-wide numbers. De’Vondre Campbell’s three tackles for losses were promising, too, given his underwhelming start to the season.

Still, the Commanders dictated the game and set up some easy passes with Brian Robinson carrying 20 times for 73 yards, Antonio Gibson rushing 10 times for 59 yards and Curtis Samuel chipping in five carries for 26 yards. Robinson (24 yards) and Gibson (20) had 20-yard runs. They had 100 yards by halftime. Rashan Gary’s had a lot better days against the run. He gave up the edge and missed a tackle on Robinson’s long run and hadn’t a clue on Samuel’s 16-yard end-around. La’Darius Hamilton, making his season debut, had more misses (one) than tackles (zero).

Grade: D-minus.

Special Teams

Amari Rodgers giveth (a really sharp 16-yard punt return) and taketh (a muffed punt that ruined Green Bay’s early momentum).

As is typically the case on special teams, the only thing that matters are the really big plays. Who cares if the punters almost battled to a draw and the Packers earned a slight edge on field position after kickoffs?

Grade: D-minus.

Coaching

I get it. It’s a year-to-year league. Bad teams aren’t permanently bad and good teams – even with legendary quarterbacks – don’t have a guaranteed spot in the playoffs.

Still, last season, the Giants were 4-13, the Jets were 4-13 and the Commanders were 7-10. The Packers didn’t just lose those games. They’ve been barely competitive for the last 10 quarters. They were blown out of London by the Giants in the second half, soundly beaten by the Jets and were outgained 364-232 by the Commanders.

Coach Matt LaFleur has no answers on offense. Over the last 30 years, the Packers have never scored so few points through seven games. Why they’ve thrown the ball 70 percent of the time the last three games defies explanation. Over the last four games, Joe Barry’s defense has given up seven touchdowns and four field goals in 16 second-half possessions. Rich Bisaccia’s special teams are trending the wrong way.

Otherwise, the scenery from the Hindenburg is exquisite.

Grade: F.

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