Packers’ ‘Frustrating’ Passing Offense Needs Improvement Before Playoffs

In the last stretch of the regular season, the Green Bay Packers' passing offense has gone stagnant. Somehow, they must figure it out before their playoff game at the Eagles.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) is tackled by Chicago Bears defensive tackle Gervon Dexter Sr. (99) against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, January 5, 2024 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The clock is about to strike 10 p.m. on the NFL season.

Do the Green Bay Packers know where their passing offense is?

Entering the playoffs as the No. 7 seed, the success the Packers found through a stretch of November games has gone missing.

Green Bay’s regular-season finale featured the same struggles in the passing game that the Packers have dealt with for a majority of the last five weeks. It resulted in a 24-22 loss to the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field.

"It hasn’t been good," coach Matt LaFleur said of the passing game. "It is extremely frustrating right now, so I think that’s something that we’re going to have to take a deep dive into and we have been. It’s not like it’s anything new, but we’ve got to do a better job."

In the final stretch of the 2023 season, quarterback Jordan Love had hit full stride with his receiving corps.

Starting with Week 15 of 2023 and ending with a win over the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round, Love averaged a passer rating of 126.3, a completion percentage of 73.7 and totaled a combined 12 touchdowns and zero interceptions over the five games.

Green Bay will not be entering the playoffs this year on the same offensive high. Over the last three games of the regular season, Love and backup Malik Willis have averaged a combined passer rating of 85.0, completion percentage of 59.6 and had a combined two touchdowns and zero interceptions.

"It’s definitely been a little stagnant," Love said of the pass game after the loss to the Bears. "It just feels like we’re just missing right now. Missing on some of these opp[ortunitie]s that obviously before we were hitting on."

Chicago Bears cornerback Terell Smith (32) breaks up a pass intended for Green Bay Packers wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks (13) on Sunday, January 5, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The Bears won the game, 24-22, on a 51-yard field goal as time expired. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In November through early December, it seemed like the Green Bay passing offense was building the right momentum that would lead to a dangerous offense to face in the playoffs. In wins over Miami and Seattle, Love delivered his two highest passer ratings of the regular season.

Green Bay scored on each of their first five possessions against Seattle, fueled by a heavy dose of Josh Jacobs in the run game and a passing unit that consistently hit on crucial plays to continue drives.

But in the last two weeks, it’s been the opposite. Love and his wide receivers have not been clicking at the same rate, and the receivers have created a bad habit of drops on key downs. Love partly attributes it to his ball placement and accuracy being "inconsistent."

"When we are hitting on all cylinders, there’s not a lot of teams that can mess with us," Jacobs said. "It’s just more so about doing it on a consistent basis and having the attentiveness to want to do the little things right every play."

Green Bay has reasons to be optimistic that its offense can put it together. There’s been plenty of flashes. The struggle has been putting it all together to play a complete game.

But Love believes the issues, at their core, are not about talent but, rather, stemming from execution that is fixable.

"It’s not like we’re far off," Love said. "It’s not like everything we’re running is just not working. Stuff’s there. We’ve just got to go out there and make plays. ... I think it’s a lot of stuff we’ll clean up."

The passing offense’s lack of consistency has been a key factor to Green Bay’s slow starts in important games, an issue that has followed the Packers in all six of their losses.

On the first four series of the loss to Minnesota in Week 17, Green Bay completed seven of its first 11 passes for just 45 yards. On the second drive of the game, Love’s pass on third-and-10 sailed far over the head of any nearby target. Two drives later, on a fourth-and-2 attempt, in the red zone, Love’s pass hit Jayden Reed square in the hands, but the wide receiver dropped it.

Against Detroit in Week 14, Love started the game completing two of his six passes. He was sacked for a loss of 7 on his first dropback. On each of Green Bay’s first two possessions, Love had to chuck it down the field to avoid being sacked.

With LaFleur hoping the offense would find rhythm early against Chicago before pulling starters, the slow starts continued, and Green Bay quickly found itself trailing 14-3 a minute into the second quarter. Green Bay’s first two offensive drives stalled due to incompletions on third downs.

Though the continued struggles are a concerning sign for the Packers as they enter the playoffs, injuries suffered by two of the unit’s most important players against Chicago are much more troublesome.

First, when receiver Christian Watson was cutting outside for a route in the first half, he fell to the ground and grabbed his knee. After Watson failed to return to the game, LaFleur said that he’s "not super-confident" about Watson’s availability moving forward.

"Christian is a phenomenal player," Love said. "So, other guys will have to step up and fill that void, and I’m confident those guys in that receiver room will be just fine doing that. But, yeah, it’s a tough loss."

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson (9) is tended to after being injured during the first quarter of their game Sunday, January 5, 2025 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers 24-22. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Green Bay did have Malik Heath step up as a deep threat after Watson went down, with the former undrafted free agent leading Green Bay with 53 receiving yards on three receptions. He kept Green Bay’s hopes alive late in the game by hauling in a 41-yard completion on a third-and-21, leading to a touchdown from Emmanuel Wilson on the next play.

Additionally, Love exited the game early in the second quarter after falling on his elbow, causing his hand to go numb. Neither Love nor LaFleur had any concern about him being available next weekend for the wild-card game, but it shapes up to be another obstacle for the Packers to find rhythm in the pass game.

Green Bay will need to hope Love returns to full health and can connect with his receivers next week, having to travel to take on the No. 2-seeded Philadelphia Eagles, who are No. 1 in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game.

It’s a fitting way for Green Bay to begin the postseason, having to face the same team it opened the season against. The Packers lost that Week 1 matchup but look at the start of the playoffs as a fresh slate.

"It is kind of the mindset of it’s a new season," Love said. "We’re going into the playoffs. We’ve got to kind of flush the season and have a clean slate. We’re going in 0-0. As we know, anything can happen in the playoffs."

Any sort of playoff run for the Packers will require much higher efficiency from the passing game. A week of preparation looks to be a short time to fix all the issues they’re facing, but, if Love’s assessment is right, they just need to sharpen up execution in a few moments to find the success that they’ve been missing.

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