Packers Report Card: Grades From Victory Over Dolphins

The Green Bay Packers beat the Miami Dolphins 26-20 on Sunday. Here are the weekly grades from an all-around solid performance.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When the Green Bay Packers lost at the Philadelphia Eagles to tumble to 4-8, they had a 2 percent chance of reaching the playoffs, according to ESPN. After beating the Miami Dolphins on Sunday for a third consecutive victory, that’s up to 37 percent.

“I think it speaks to the character of the men in that locker room and our coaches, just everybody sticking together,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday. “You see it get sideways in a hurry in this league. That’s something we talk about all the time, but until you’re really put in the fire and you’ve got to be able to handle it, I thought it was a really cool deal with what our team accomplished yesterday, being down 10 points on the road against a really good football team.

“It wasn’t pretty, we all know that. It was not a pretty win, and there’s a lot of things we can do a lot better really in every phase, but we found a way. At the end of the day, that’s what matters most. Now we’ve got to learn from the things we did screw up and get our mistakes corrected.”

It wasn’t pretty because the Packers were terrible on third down and the red zone. They wasted too many opportunities that would have put away the game well in advance of Rasul Douglas’ clinching interception. They were saved by their four takeaways in beating a team that had been 5-1 at home.

Here are the grades from this week’s Packers report card.

Passing Offense

Aaron Rodgers was 24-of-38 passing for 238 yards. He threw a goal-line touchdown to Marcedes Lewis and overthrew Christian Watson on fourth down for what should have been another. He threw one interception and another was dropped.

Most teams don’t blitz Rodgers. The Dolphins did and were beaten. According to Pro Football Focus, Rodgers was 17-of-23 for 180 yards and one touchdown when blitzed compared to 7-of-15 for 58 yards with one interception when not blitzed.

The Packers made a concerted effort to get Watson involved. He caught 6-of-8 targets for 49 yards. It was a day of almosts. On the opening series after Keisean Nixon’s long kickoff return, Watson had a step for what could have been a touchdown but Rodgers didn’t throw it and was sacked. Late in the first quarter, on the play before the touchdown to Lewis, Rodgers threw behind Watson for what should have been a touchdown. The fourth-and-1 play early in the second quarter could have been a 37-yard touchdown.

Allen Lazard had a bad drop and Romeo Doubs had a drop, as well. Rodgers was sacked twice, with Rodgers to blame for the first and Jon Runyan for the second.

Grade: C.

Rushing Offense

Eliminating Aaron Rodgers’ three kneel-downs to end the game and the fake punt, the Packers rushed 21 times for 82 yards. AJ Dillon had 11 carries for 36 yards with a long of 11 and one touchdown. Aaron Jones, getting limited snaps as he deals with injuries, had six carries for 25 yards, with his 18-yarder offsetting Josh Myers’ holding penalty on Green Bay’s final scoring drive. Allen Lazard and Tyler Davis had the key blocks on that one, one of the biggest plays of the game.

Jones forced two missed tackles and Dillon forced one, by our count. The Dolphins’ tackling was excellent, not just in getting them to the turf but in limiting yards after contact.

On Green Bay’s go-ahead scoring drive, Rodgers and Dillon botched the exchange on first-and-goal at the 7; Dillon recovered to prevent an absolute disaster. On the next drive, Dillon can’t get tripped in the open field for what should have been a long run on second-and-13 from the 18.

The Packers obviously missed right tackle Yosh Nijman, who missed most of the game with a shoulder injury, and Jones.

Grade: C-minus.

Passing Defense

Tua Tagovailoa was 16-of-25 passing for 310 yards. He struck for two big plays – the 84-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Jaylen Waddle and the 52-yard bomb to Tyreek Hill that set up another touchdown. On the other hand, Green Bay had three interceptions. In a big-play league, the Packers won 3-2 and won the game.

On the touchdown to Waddle, his speed was just too much. He outflanked Rasul Douglas and ran through Jaire Alexander’s wing-and-a-prayer tackle attempt around Green Bay’s 40. On the bomb to Hill, he got between safeties Adrian Amos and Rudy Ford.

Jarran Reed and Preston Smith each had one sack and two quarterback hits. With Miami in scoring range midway through the third quarter, Devonte Wyatt had back-to-back pressures that resulted in incompletions. Reed has had a quietly good season, especially as a pass rusher, and Wyatt needs more snaps after a season-high 24.

All in the fourth quarter, Alexander, De’Vondre Campbell and Rasul Douglas had interceptions. Campbell and Douglas made big-time plays. Campbell appeared to see something pre-snap that put himself in position to make an impressive all-hands grab. Douglas made one of those vintage Douglas plays. Like he did at Buffalo, Douglas went from underneath coverage to making a play downfield in the blink of an eye.

The play of the season, if Green Bay indeed makes the playoffs, was Kingsley Enagbare’s hit on Tagovailoa late in the first half. It didn’t look like much but that was the play in which Tagovailoa suffered a concussion.

Grade: B.

Rushing Defense

Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson combined for 17 carries for 82 yards. That’s 4.8 yards per carry. It only seemed like more at the time, perhaps because it was nine carries for 57 yards (6.3 average) before Mostert’s game-changing fumble late in the first half.

That fumble was one of the huge plays of the game, with Jarran Reed ripping it free and recovering it. The Dolphins were on their way to perhaps extending their 20-10 lead; instead, the Packers kicked a field goal to make it 20-13 at halftime.

Quay Walker and Reed had the only missed tackles vs. the run. With Alexander and Walker missing on passing plays, the Packers had only four for the game.

Grade: C-plus.

Special Teams

With a 93-yard kickoff return, Keisean Nixon has a league-high four kickoff returns of 50-plus yards this season. Isaiah McDuffie and Patrick Taylor had key blocks and Nixon stepped through a tackle around the 35 to get into the open field. The next quick was a squib that hit Josiah Deguara, so the Packers started near midfield. When Nixon exited with an injury, Romeo Doubs looked like one of the 987 ineffective returners over the last decade.

Green Bay’s kickoff coverage was excellent, with Miami’s average starting point being the 22 on Mason Crosby’s kickoffs.

The one blunder was a huge one, with Dallin Leavitt running into a brick wall on fourth-and-2 from the 20. The play didn’t have a prayer. The Packers hadn’t faked a punt since, unofficially, 1934, but the Dolphins kept most of their defense on the field.

“That was all bad, obviously,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday. “It’s a turnover. So, the saving grace is that that’s the first punt we’ve attempted to fake in four years and we actually, we won the game. So, now at least we put one on tape, although it was a bad one. We have to give our guys the ability to get out of that, no doubt.”

Grade: B.

Coaching

Green Bay needs to fix its situational offense. Now. Immediately. It went 2-of-14 on third down and 2-of-5 in the red zone, lowering its rankings to 19th and 24th, respectively. That’s just not winning football in the long run.

Imagine not giving Dallin Leavitt – a smart guy and someone that special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia trusts – the ability to abort mission on the fake punt. That’s not winning football, either.

What is winning football is limiting Tyreek Hill to four receptions. Hill ranks second in the league with 113 receptions and had fewer catches in only one game this season. Defensive coordinator Joe Barry has been a punching bag this season, and for good reason for much of the season, but you’ve got to give him credit for this one.

Grade: B.

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