Packers’ Offense Trounced by Patriots at Joint Practice

After a solid Day 1, the Green Bay Packers’ fledgling offense took its lumps against the New England Patriots on Thursday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The New England Patriots came to Green Bay and threw a block party against the Jordan Love-led offense on Thursday.

Love had a solid first day of joint practices on Wednesday, but Bill Belichick’s defense bounced back in dominating fashion.

Love was 14-of-31 passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions. As Packers coach Matt LaFleur has said several times throughout training camp, the fate of the passing game involves more than just Love. Time and again, New England’s defensive backs were in passing lanes. Either Love was making the wrong read, there wasn’t enough separation between receiver and defensive back or there wasn’t enough fight to get the ball.

By our count, the Patriots finished with eight passes defensed against Love. Add in another six against backups Sean Clifford and Alex McGough, and the story of the day was painted. New England’s pass defense was much, much better than Green Bay’s young passing attack.

“Kind of the same thing as yesterday,” said receiver Christian Watson, who caught both of Love’s touchdown passes during a red-zone drill. “There was some really good things and there were some things we’ve definitely got to work on.”

The low point for the No. 1 offense was the practice-ending 2-minute drive. Starting at the 25 with 1:40 on the clock and two timeouts and in need of a touchdown, Love’s first pass was intercepted. His throw to Romeo Doubs along the sideline was undercut by 5-foot-8 cornerback Marcus Jones, who made a leaping catch.

Green Bay’s offense was given a mulligan. Love drove the offense to New England’s 32 but Luke Musgrave couldn’t make a one-handed grab and Love’s end-zone shot to Josiah Deguara sailed through the fingers of the leaping tight end.

Apparently, there was a defensive penalty on the play, which gave the offense a first down at the 27. On third-and-1 from the 18, first-round pick Christian Gonzalez broke up a pass for rookie receiver Dontayvion Wicks. On fourth down, Love bought time and had Musgrave open in the end zone but the talented rookie tight end had his second drop of the possession.

If there’s a silver lining, a day like Thursday should make Green Bay’s offense better in the long run. Belichick is one of the greatest defensive minds in the history of football. He’s made a bunch of really good quarterbacks look really bad. While he wasn’t game-planning to stop Love, his multitude of defensive looks can make things incredibly difficult on a quarterback who hasn’t had all week to prepare.

“Every single day, you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse, and you’ve got to take what they give you and run with it,” Clifford said. “I thought we had some ups, we had some downs but, overall, continuing to learn. That’s a team where you’re going to need a week of preparation to get ready for a game, so just being able to throw together a script and you don’t really know what you’re getting, it’s tough. Just being able to go out there, play fast, play physical and react, I think everybody improved a lot this week.”

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Was it really a joint practice if there wasn't a fight? Here's the scoop on all the pushing and shoving from #Packers vs. Patriots.https://t.co/pISvhZb00i

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) August 17, 2023

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