Three Overreactions From Packers’ Loss to Broncos

The Green Bay Packers lost their third consecutive game on Sunday at the Denver Broncos. Here are three enormous problems confronting the 2-4 team.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With their loss at the Denver Broncos, the Green Bay Packers have mostly wasted the soft spot of their schedule.

Facing one of the worst teams in the NFL, the Packers tumbled to 2-4 on Sunday. After getting demolished by the NFC North’s new bully, the Detroit Lions, on a Thursday night, the Packers had their mini-bye but lost at the Las Vegas Raiders (3-4). Following their regular bye, they lost at the Denver Broncos (2-5).

Through six games, Green Bay’s opponents are a combined 19-23, so it’s not as if the team’s fallen just short against a bunch of championship contenders. No offense to the Atlanta Falcons, who are 4-3, but they’ve played only one quality opponent. That was the Lions, who stormed into Lambeau Field and led 24-0 before the Packers had their initial first down of the night.

The Raiders are a bad team. So are the Broncos. What does that make the Packers?

That question needs no answer.

Here are our weekly overreactions.

1. Franchise-Defining Questions at Quarterback

With six touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first two starts, optimism was practically overflowing that Jordan Love was the worthy successor to the team’s quarterbacking throne.

And maybe he will be, though it certainly doesn’t seem that way with his ineffective play the last four games.

Even after completing 21-of-31 passes on Sunday, Love remains last in the NFL in completion percentage. Even with some good fortune resulting in two touchdown passes, he’s plunged to 28th in passer rating.

For the billionth time, Love replaced Aaron Rodgers under challenging circumstances. When Rodgers replaced Brett Favre in 2008, he had Donald Driver and Greg Jennings as proven receivers. The offensive line, including left tackle Chad Clifton, stayed mostly healthy.

Love, of course, has neither of those things to help him through the season.

With the Packers off to a 2-4 start, they’re on pace to win about six games. That’s all Rodgers won in 2008. But he quickly showed that he was ready to be the man. In his first seven starts, he had five games with 100-plus passer ratings and four with completion percentages better than two-thirds. Love finally hit that two-thirds threshold against the Broncos, though it came with a season-low 5.81 yards per attempt.

Remember, the Packers gave Love a meager one-year extension this offseason. Love got immediate cash and the Packers bought a no-risk extra season. Green Bay has to decide its long-term quarterback future. No, not now or next week or next month, but probably after this season.

Progress, at least to the naked eye, has been fleeting. With 11 games left, Love might be on the clock.

Packers QB Jordan Love completed 21-of-31 passes at the Broncos :: Photo by Ron Chenoy/USA Today Sports Images

2. Overrated … Everything

It wasn’t supposed to be this way for Love.

Sure, the receiver corps was historically young but, man, they were talented with Christian Watson, Jayden Reed and even tight end Luke Musgrave ready to join Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams as second-round studs.

The offensive line, bolstered by the prospects of a healthy David Bakhtiari, was so deep that general manager Brian Gutekunst didn’t draft any blockers after adding six the previous two years.

Then, of course, there was Matt LaFleur’s offense. It was a scheme so good that any quarterback could run it successfully. The Sean McVay-coached Rams got to the Super Bowl with Jared Goff; the Kyle Shanahan-coached 49ers got to the NFC Championship Game with undrafted rookie Brock Purdy. Surely, with a live arm and excellent mobility, Love could do the same.

Well, perhaps all that analysis was a bunch of baloney.

Watson hasn’t been the same playmaker who burst onto the scene as a rookie. The other so-called veteran, Romeo Doubs, has three catches the last two games. Musgrave is second on the team in receptions but hasn’t been unleashed. Reed, as is typical for a rookie, has run warm and cold.

The line, of course, is a hot mess without Bakhtiari and with a hobbled Elgton Jenkins.

And where’s LaFleur’s schematic magic? The mini-bye provided no answers. Neither did the regular bye. Was Love too aggressive to start the season? Probably. So, did he become too conservative? Absolutely.

For a myriad of reasons, this was supposed to be a work-in-progress season. Instead, the offense has gotten progressively worse.

3. Fool’s Gold on Defense

With Rodgers, defensive performances like the ones that limited the Raiders to 17 points and the Broncos to 19 points might have led to him smiling with a baseball cap on as Tim Boyle or Love ran out the final irrelevant few minutes.

Not this year.

Everyone’s favorite defensive coordinator, Joe Barry, has cobbled together a unit that’s performed well enough to win games.

The key has been strong play in the red zone. After winning three of four possessions on Sunday, Green Bay ranks seventh in the red zone and fifth in goal-to-go situations.

The problem is the Packers aren’t good in any other area. They are 14th in yards per play, including 25th in rushing per play. They are 20th in interception percentage, 15th in sack percentage, 15th in opponent passer rating and 27th in takeaways per game.

You’d feel better about the defense’s ability to be that fortress in a storm if they had a no-fly zone secondary, a smothering run defense or harassing pass rush. Instead, they don’t have any of those things.

It might not matter on Sunday against the Vikings at Lambeau Field, but it will when they have to face the likes of Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert, Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes.

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Here's our weekly #Packers report card, in which I turn to the legendary folk singer Loudon Wainwright III's "Dead Skunk" for the pertinent analysis. ⬇️⬇️https://t.co/SZdgCFwxjN

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 23, 2023

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