Packers’ ‘Feast or Famine’ Offense Eats Just Enough vs. Rams

The Green Bay Packers made just enough good plays to beat the Rams on Sunday. An inconsistent offense needs to create more big plays and avoid foolish mistakes.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) drops back to pass against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – While the Green Bay Packers held off the Los Angeles Rams 24-19 on Sunday, their offense has devolved to look too much like the unit that sputtered through the first half of last season.

If Jordan Love completes a pass for a big gain, chances are the Packers are going to score. If not, chances are there will be some sort of self-inflicted wound standing between the Packers and the end zone.

“I was talking to Jordan about this in the locker room just in terms of it seems like we’re a little bit feast or famine offensively in terms of we either get the big plays and we go score or there’s no big plays and we’re punting. We do have to get a little bit more consistency, just making sure we’re getting positive plays, staying ahead of the sticks, trying to stay out of third downs as best we can.”

The Packers had four scoring drives against the Rams.

Their second drive of the game went 96 yards for a touchdown, highlighted by a 53-yard bomb to Jayden Reed that set up Josh Jacobs’ touchdown for a 7-0 lead.

Late in the first half, with the Packers trailing 13-7, an 18-yard completion to Reed was the key play on a drive that resulted in Brayden Narveson’s field goal on the final play of the half.

After Kingsley Enagbare and Xavier McKinney combined for a turnover to start the second half, Love threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Tucker Kraft that included 50 yards after the catch.

After McKinney’s fifth interception in as many games, Jacobs caught a wayward screen at his ankles, broke a tackle and gained 21 yards. That set up a 7-yard touchdown to Kraft that extended the advantage to 24-13.

Those four scoring drives featured the Packers’ only four plays of 15-plus yards.

All-or-nothing football might be good enough to beat a team like the Rams, whose offense has been hammered by injuries and whose defense is the youngest in the NFL. But it’s not going to be good enough against teams like the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions, who are two of the team’s four opponents before a Week 10 bye.

The “all” part led to all the points. The “nothing” part led to nothing on the scoreboard.

“I think explosive plays lead to points. That’s a fact,” LaFleur said. “The stats are pretty staggering when you talk about explosion plays and your ability to score or, if you don’t give them up, your ability to stop people. So that’s something that we’re always hunting. It’s just the consistency, I would say, down in and down out.”

That’s because the Packers keep making silly mistakes.

With Green Bay leading 7-0 for its second possession, Reed dropped a pass on third-and-2.

With the score tied 7-7, Malik Heath was flagged for holding and the Packers punted.

On second-and-7 late in the first half, Dontayvion Wicks was flagged for a false start. Moments later, on third-and-12, Love threw a pick-six.

On first-and-10 from the Rams’ 36 midway through the fourth quarter, a game-clinching drive stalled when Zach Tom was flagged for a false start on first down and Wicks dropped a pass on second down.

The Packers finished just 1-of-8 on third down, which limited them to 323 yards of total offense. However, they had four three-and-outs in the first half and ran only about 30 seconds off the clock when took possession with 3:30 to go.

“I think there’s so much that we need to build on,” Love said. “I think we leave a lot of plays out there, and then we make some really good players, as well. I think it just comes down to consistent execution and trying to be as clean as we can for four quarters.

“And I don’t think we’ve done that yet. I don’t think we’ve played a full four-quarter game that’s clean. There’s so much stuff that we can look back on, can watch film when we get back and stuff to clean up, but I like who we have. I think we’re just going to keep building, but there’s definitely a lot of stuff to clean up.”

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