Packers Beat Dolphins: Snaps, Stud, Dud, Defining Play

The Green Bay Packers had no problem beating the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night. We take a closer look, including an incomplete pass that was one of the biggest plays of the game.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson (9) celebrates while holding a turkey leg after beating the Dolphins. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers started fast and beat the Miami Dolphins 30-17 on Thursday night. Jordan Love threw two touchdown passes to Jayden Reed in the first half as Green Bay led 24-3 at halftime.

Let’s dive into some of the snap counts and other postgame analysis.

Packers Snap Counts on Offense

Out of 54 snaps.

Running back: How would the Packers deploy their backfield after Josh Jacobs carried the ball 26 times four days earlier against the 49ers? By relying on Jacobs. He played 42 snaps, with his 77.8 percent share his second-highest rate of the season. Chris Brooks played 15 – some in passing situations and some in two-back sets. Emanuel Wilson got only four despite getting 15 and 5 yards on his two touches.

Receivers: How would the Packers deploy their receivers with Romeo Doubs inactive? Christian Watson led the way with 51, his 94.4 percent playing time crushing his previous season-high 74.3 percent. He was followed by Dontayvion Wicks with 48, Jayden Reed with 36, Bo Melton with nine and Malik Heath with one. Wicks hadn’t played that many snap since Week 4, and he had played a total of 44 the previous two games.

Tight ends: Tucker Kraft played 49 (and 11 on special teams for an offense-high 60). Ben Sims played 15 and John FitzPatrick, who was questionable for the game but active, did not see any action.

Offensive line: The starting line went the distance, and there were no extra-lineman snaps for Kadeem Telfort.

Packers Snap Counts on Defense

Out of 74 snaps.

Defensive line: Kenny Clark, who had his first sack of the season, and Rashan Gary and Kingsley Enagbare played 43 apiece. Devonte Wyatt (28), TJ Slaton (26) and Karl Brooks (26) shared the rest of the snaps at defensive tackle. At end, Lukas Van Ness played 22, Brenton Cox played 20 and Arron Mosby played some key snaps among his 14. It’s still wild to note that Van Ness was a first-round pick last year and Cox hadn’t played a single snap until after the Preston Smith trade. Both had one sack.

Linebackers: With Edgerrin Cooper inactive, Quay Walker went the distance, Isaiah McDuffie played 63 – by far his most since Week 1 – and Eric Wilson played 32 (and a special-teams high 18). All three had strong moments. Rookie Ty’Ron Hopper, who got his first defensive snaps last week, was relegated to special teams.

Cornerbacks: As has become the routine without Jaire Alexander, Keisean Nixon went the distance at one corner, Eric Stokes (36) and Carrington Valentine (35) rotated series at the other spot and Javon Bullard manned the slot.

Safeties: Xavier McKinney went the distance. The only time he got his hand on the ball, it ricocheted to Tyreek Hill for a garbage-time touchdown. Bullard played 66 and Evan Williams 52.

Stud: Quay Walker

Linebacker Quay Walker would have been a worthy pick last week, when he played his best game of the season and perhaps the best game of his career.

What was encouraging is Walker turned in another strong performance. He had 10 tackles, one sack and two tackles for losses. Yes, tight end Jonnu Smith had it pretty easy with 10 receptions, but Walker was one of the ringleaders in holding Miami’s explosive running game to just 2.8 yards per carry.

De’Von Achane had a 13-yard run and Raheem Mostert had a 12-yard run. Their other 10 carries gained 8 yards.

Nobody is harder on himself than Walker. Therefore, he wasn’t about to take a bow in the locker room.

“I think I just do too much thinking and, being honest with you, instead of going out there and just play,” he said. Rather than “just trying to do everything right,” Walker is focusing on letting his instincts take over.

“Anytime I have that mindset – see it, go – I can be a real, real productive player. I don’t want to give myself too much credit but that’s how I see it.””

Dud: Stupid Penalties

The Packers were guilty of seven penalties for 44 yards. They played a cleaner game than the Dolphins, who were flagged 10 times for 75 yards.

It’s not the volume of penalties but, really, the stupidity of some of them.

In order: false start by Tucker Kraft, offside by Rashan Gary, offside by TJ Slaton, offside by Kingsley Enagbare, false start by Rasheed Walker, offside by Devonte Wyatt and unnecessary roughness by Elgton Jenkins.

Gary and Enagbare lined up offside, which has become something of a Packers specialty. “It feels like it’s Groundhog Day,” coach Matt LaFleur said. Slaton jumped offside on a fourth-down field goal, which allowed the Dolphins to extend their drive. He did the same thing in the loss to Detroit, which allowed the Lions to score a touchdown.

Jenkins’ penalty came with the Packers looking at fourth-and-goal from inside the 1. LaFleur said he probably would have kicked the field goal, anyway, but, “We can’t take ourselves out of opportunities like we did in that situation.”

Defining Play

Christian Watson had two big catches. Late in the first half, with the Packers facing first-and-15 from the Dolphins 41, he fought through pass interference against Cam Smith for a 21-yard catch to the Dolphins’ 20. That set up a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed in which Watson had a pancake block to make the score 21-3.

Then, early in the third quarter, he made a tumbling catch 46 yards. Once again, just like he did Chicago, he had the presence of mind to get up in a hurry to tack on yards after the catch. A field goal to end the drive extended the margin to 27-3.

His biggest play, though, came on Green Bay’s second possession. And his name is not mentioned in the play-by-play.

On first down from the 35, Jordan Love fired across the middle to Dontayvion Wicks, who deflected the pass into the air. Starting cornerback Kader Kohou was about to grab the interception when he was clobbered by Watson.

Watson turned an interception into a harmless incompletion – well, not harmless to Kodou, who missed the rest of the game – and the Packers drove downfield for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead.

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