Packers Report Card: Grades From Victory Over Texans

The Green Bay Packers beat the Houston Texans 24-22 on Sunday. The pass defense received the highest grade in our weekly Packers report card.

Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney (29) sacks Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) at Lambeau Field. / Tork Mason/Green Bay Press-Gazette via the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Houston Texans offered the biggest test of the year for the Green Bay Packers.

The Texans entered Lambeau Field with a 5-1 record. Whether this is a sign of the talent they have in Green Bay or more of an indication of how much was missing in Houston, the Packers passed their big test. They beat Houston 24-22 despite being minus-3 in the turnover battle.

This day belonged to Jeff Hafley’s pass defense, which smothered star Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud.

He got a game ball from Matt LaFleur, and that unit gets the highest grade in our weekly Packers report card.

Pass Offense

The highs? They’re high from Jordan Love.

His touchdown passes to Dontayvion Wicks and Tucker Kraft in the first half were as good as you’ll see all season.

The lows? They’re also pretty low.

Love has been a turnover machine. He tied and surpassed Will Levis for the NFL lead in interceptions during the first half. That stat is even more jarring when you account for the two games Love missed.

Love’s gunslinging leads to some big plays for the Packers, but there are too many mistakes that pile up in games like this when the margin for error is slim.

Love struggled with turnovers in the early portion of the 2023 season, as well. He took much better care of the ball down the stretch as the Packers’ offense lit up the league en route to a surprising appearance in the divisional round of the playoffs.

The big plays are great, but against teams like the Texans, taking care of the ball is even more important than it is on a weekly basis.

LaFleur says taking care of the ball is the quarterback’s top priority. Love has not done a good enough job at his first job.

Pass protection, which was good early, started to wither late against Houston’s powerful pass rushers.

The Packers had multiple chances to go up two scores while leading 21-19, but could not due to an inability to block Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr.

Love did throw three touchdown passes, including the 50th of his career, which coincided with Josh Jacobs’ first receiving touchdown of his career.  

Sometimes, all it takes is one drive to flip the script on how your day went.

Because of his final drive of the game, the highs of Love did outweigh the lows.

Grade: B

Rush Offense

The horizontal run game with receivers Bo Melton, Christian Watson and Jayden Reed left a lot to be desired.

It felt like LaFleur and Love went to the well too often with the finesse run game outside of their running backs.

One big mistake came on a third-and-1 late in the third quarter.

Love appeared to signal to his helmet to change the play. Instead of a downhill run with Jacobs, it was an end-around to Reed, who was stuffed by Neville Hewitt.

Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson found success running downhill against a short-handed Texans defense. They finished the game with 17 carries for 87 yards, highlighted by Jacobs’ back-to-back runs of 10 and 27 yards on a touchdown drive that put them up 21-19 in the third quarter.

The other three carries had three carries went for minus-5 yards.

Jacobs is someone that Green Bay could lean on as the calendar turns to November. On Sunday, it felt like it should have leaned on him more.

Grade: B

Pass Defense

This game was billed as a showdown between two of the best young quarterbacks in football.

Stroud was the assignment for Hafley and his defense.

No, the Texans did not have their best receiver, Nico Collins. Yes, that likely would have changed things.

Collins or not, Houston’s offense is plenty powerful, and Stroud is good enough to carry his team to a win by himself.

Hafley’s defense had him in some dark places through the first three quarters.

Stroud finished the game 10-of-21 passing for 86 yards. He was sacked four times, so Houston finished with just 55 net passing yards.

Green Bay’s pressure packages and coverage schemes were excellent.

One quibble would be the lack of discipline from the pass rushers. Preston Smith, Kenny Clark and Kingsley Enagbare were flagged for neutral-zone infractions, including a big one on Enagbare on third-and-5 on Houston’s final scoring drive. That drive ended in a chip-shot field goal after Stroud made a brilliant throw on third-and-11 to reserve receiver Xavier Hutchinson.

Still, of all the phases, Hafley’s pass defense was far and away the best unit on the field. In fact, it was one of the best performances by Green Bay’s defense in recent memory.

It was so good that LaFleur gave Hafley a game ball.

Grade: A

Rush Defense

Houston’s offense did not find much room to roam in the first half with one big exception: Any play the ball ended up in Joe Mixon’s hands.

Mixon had 11 carries for 81 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. He knifed through Green Bay tacklers with relative ease as Houston continued to feed him.

During the second half, the Packers tightened the grip. Mixon got 10 carries in the fourth quarter and was held to 26 yards. He was unable to seal the deal late in the game.

If the Texans could have picked up one more first down with Mixon’s legs, they could have run the clock all the way down before Fairbairn’s field goal. Instead, back-to-back tackles for losses set up third-and-15. Stroud’s pass was incomplete, stopping the clock before the field goal.

Overall, Mixon finished with 115 yards on 25 carries.

It wasn’t a great performance, but they made enough plays late in the game to get the offense the ball back.

Grade: C

Special Teams

The Packers made a big change this week at kicker with Brandon McManus replacing the inconsistent Brayden Narveson.

McManus’ debut was met with a raucous ovation when he made his first two extra points.

Everything around him? That was a disaster for Rich Bisaccia's unit.

Keisean Nixon made one of the biggest blunders of the game with the team leading 7-3 and having just forced a three-and-out on defense.

On the punt, Nixon backed away at the last possible second. No fair catch signal, no call to get his teammates away from the ball. The ball bounced off Corey Ballentine and was recovered by Houston’s M.J. Stewart at Green Bay’s 11.

They had a holding penalty called on Arron Mosby that wiped out Nixon’s big return on the opening kickoff.

Following a touchdown to Dontayvion Wicks to take a 14-10 lead, Bisaccia’s unit gave up a 41-yard return to Dameon Pierce to put the Texans in business.

Jayden Reed fielded a punt that carried him into the end zone. Instead of a touchback, he was tackled at the 4.

Against a team like Houston, which was the best special-teams unit in the NFL the last two years according to Rick Gosselin’s annual rankings, the Packers needed to be at their best.

They were decidedly not at their best.

Until the very end of the game.

With the game on the line, Daniel Whelan and McManus saved Green Bay’s bacon. Whelan made a great hold on an awful snap, and McManus kicked a 45-yard field goal as time expired.

Would the Packers have made that kick last week? Who knows.

The Packers don’t need to worry about that anymore.

Grade: C

Coaching

LaFleur is a really good coach. There’s no arguing that at this point. He has piled up wins in the regular season at a rate few coaches have seen.

That being said, his team has made too many mistakes this season. They are the youngest team in the league, but there are simple mistakes that have not been cleaned up.

LaFleur’s decision to take the ball after winning the opening coin toss backfired after Love was intercepted.

In a coaching battle between two of the top coaches in the NFL, it felt like Houston’s DeMeco Ryans once again got the best of LaFleur simply due to the lack of discipline and overall sloppiness displayed by LaFleur’s team.

LaFleur essentially admitted as much after the game.

“I never felt settled as a play-caller,” LaFleur said.

The team has played seven games now. At this point, the penalties and sloppy mistakes are a trend.

Hafley’s defense, all things considered, was excellent aside from a few chunk runs by Mixon.

They held Stroud to less than 100 passing yards. All of Houston’s points in the first half came off turnovers or a big return on special teams.

Ultimately, LaFleur and Love were able to cobble something together to lead the game-winning drive.

On this day, however, Hafley is the only coach saving the team from a low mark.

Grade: C

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The #Packers didn't play their best game on Sunday. But, in pulling off the incredibly rare feat of winning while going minus-3 in turnovers, they did what great teams do:

Find a way to win. ⬇️https://t.co/tqONzrAZPP

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 21, 2024

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