Packer Central

Stock Report: Packers Make Statement vs. Seahawks

The Green Bay Packers entered Sunday Night Football with questions as to whether they could beat a good team. They made their statement in a resounding fashion, blowing out the Seahawks.

Jacob Westendorf

Dec 15, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) carries the ball after a catch while defended by Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon (21) during the first half at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
Dec 15, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) carries the ball after a catch while defended by Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon (21) during the first half at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
In this story:

Stocks

Matt LaFleur channeled Matt Hasselbeck at the start of tonight’s game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.

When the Packers won the toss, LaFleur’s message to the team we clear.

“We want the ball, and we’re gonna score.”

He didn’t announce it into a microphone like Hasselbeck did on that frigid January day at Lambeau Field, but the tone was set.

Josh Jacobs touched the ball on all but one play of a 10-play drive that resulted in a touchdown.

Seven carries, two catches, seven points.

The Packers’ goal was to take the crowd out of the game, and they accomplished their goal.

Big plays from Jacobs, Christian Watson, and Romeo Doubs helped the Packers build a 20-3 halftime lead.

The run game disappeared in the second half. Their first five carries went for zero yards. Seattle made their adjustment there.

Unfortunately for the Seahawks, it was too little too late as late plays from Edgerrin Cooper and Romeo Doubs ensured that the Packers made an emphatic statement on Sunday Night Football.

Here’s our stock report, starting with the Packers’ star quarterback

Rising

Jordan Love

Jordan Love took the league by storm during last year’s second half of the season.

That did not carry over to the first half of this season. Love led the league in interceptions when the team went into the bye week on November 4.

Since that time, Love has thrown one interception, an overthrow against Chicago.

Otherwise, he’s looked every bit like the quarterback who set the league on fire to close the 2023 season.

Love was dealing to start the night. He completed 17 of his first 19 passes. He found Romeo Doubs in the end zone to give the Packers an early 14-0 lead.

Perhaps the biggest development since the bye week is Love is no longer nursing the lower body injuries that clearly hampered him to start the year.

His mobility in and out of the pocket have gotten better each week.

That has clearly made a difference against opposing pressure looks.

Love finished the night with two touchdown passes to Romeo Doubs. He averaged more than 10 yards-per-completion.

The Packers have almost always felt good about their chances in a playoff game because they had Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers under center.

That same type of confidence exists now that they have Jordan Love under center. They can win anywhere if he is healthy.  

Josh Jacobs

The first series of the game set the tone for what the Packers’ plans were for the night.

Surprise, it involved a lot of Josh Jacobs. A 10-play drive saw Jacobs touch the ball nine times.

The only time he did not touch the ball, he was not on the field, presumably resting his back from carrying his team all the way down the field.

When the drive finished, the score was 7-0, and the raucous Lumen Field crowd had been eliminated from the game.

Jacobs did not have the same impact in the second half, where the Seahawks put the clamps on him. He also lost a fumble.

He still makes the list of players who had a good night thanks to setting the tone for the night in the first quarter.

Carrington Valentine

Carrington Valentine got the start out of necessity tonight. With Jaire Alexander and Javon Bullard both inactive, Valentine was one of the boundary corners across from Eric Stokes with Keisean Nixon moving to the slot.

Valentine has been rotating with Stokes for most of the year, but appears to have outplayed him.

Stokes’ innocuous streak of not breaking up a pass or recording an interception since 2021 has been extended after tonight’s game.

Valentine outdid that by the second quarter.

Valentine’s first career interception came on a wounded duck from Geno Smith on a play that Eric Wilson provided pressure.

Valentine did make the mistake of taking the ball out of the endzone, which set the Packers up with bad field position, but the play on the ball took points off the board for Seattle.

Perhaps Valentine’s big play will give him the nod in the rotation that Matt LaFleur insists will continue.

Pass Rush

Edgerrin Cooper was first.

Rashan Gary followed suit on the next series.

At the end of the night, it was seven sacks from six different players.

Green Bay’s pass rush, the darling of training camp, had to show up tonight. With the cornerback situation against Seattle’s trio of receivers, the pass rush was going to be the great equalizer.

That’s something that has been said a lot this season. The quality of the opposing offensive line has rarely mattered.

More often than not, this group has disappointed.

Not tonight.

Edgerrin Cooper

Cooper certainly knew how to welcome himself back to the lineup.

His sack of Geno Smith on the first offensive series of the game for the Seahawks allowed the Packers to double up on them almost immediately.

Cooper was all over the field tonight being used as a pass rusher. He pressured Geno Smith on an incompletion that sidelined him for a key third down in the third quarter.

Two plays later, he was used as a spy for Sam Howell, and kept the pressure on him, forcing an errant throw.

He nearly had an interception on back-to-back plays early in the fourth quarter.

Then of course, following a fourth down stop for Seattle’s defense, Cooper ruined any chance for a Seahawks comeback with an interception of Sam Howell.

You get the picture. He’s always around the ball.

Cooper is still raw, and never been fully able to crack the starting lineup when he’s been healthy.

When he is on the field, however, his playmaking is something the Packers’ linebackers simply do not have.

A big night for the rookie should lead to more opportunities as the Packers continue their march toward the playoffs.

Romeo Doubs

Speaking of players who welcomed themselves back, enter Romeo Doubs.

Doubs, sporting a guardian cap for the first time this season after missing a concussion, made an impact on his first reception of the night.

Doubs caught a slant from Jordan Love at Seattle’s five. He carried three Seattle defenders into the end zone, and the Packers led 14-0.

Doubs also drew a big pass interference penalty late in the first half when he ran by Tariq Woolen.

Had Love thrown a better pass, that might’ve been Doubs’ second touchdown of the night.

Love would make sure that Doubs got a chance to close this game out.

After Edgerrin Cooper’s interception, Doubs made sure this game would go Green Bay’s way.

Jordan Love found him in the back of the end zone and Doubs made a sensational catch for his second score of the night.

Doubs is a valuable piece to Green Bay’s offense. Perhaps he’s not the most explosive player, but he always seems to make big plays in big spots.  

Falling

Keisean Nixon

Whether the penalties were soft or not, Nixon was called for two drive extending penalties in the first half against the Seahawks. He was tasked with a tough assignment of moving to the slot, where Seattle’s star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba does most of his damage.

Nixon has done most of his work on the boundary this season, but with the absence of Jaire Alexander and Javon Bullard, Nixon had to bump back inside.

He struggled tonight after making a game-changing play a week ago.

The Packers may not have a good answer for their slot position. They’re running out of time to figure it out.

Evan Williams

Williams has been the better of the two rookie safeties, but did struggle tonight in coverage. He was beaten on a deep corner route to Smith-Njigba while his eyes were on DK Metcalf, who looked to be surrounded by two of his teammates.

Williams has been in a bit of a slump recently, but will continue to be the starter across from Xavier McKinney as the Packers try to solve the rest of the issues with their middle of the field defense.

Sean Rhyan

Rhyan struggled tonight, specifically in the second half.

With the Packers facing a 3rd-and-1 deep in their own territory, it looked like Rhyan who missed a block on Leonard Williams.

Williams, Seattle’s best defensive lineman, threw Jacobs for a loss and the drive was over.

Rhyan was also penalized for a costly penalty deep in Seattle territory that made for a more difficult third down.

That penalty, in part, forced the Packers to settle for a field goal to take a 23-6 lead late in the third quarter.

On a night where the offensive line was mostly solid, this feels like a game Rhyan will want back.

Second Half Offense

For all the good things that happened early in the game, Green Bay’s offense continued to find ways to shoot itself in the foot once the clock hit the two-minute warning in the first half.

They wasted an abundance of time, forcing them to kick a field goal when they could have scored a touchdown.

Drops, a missed throw, and a fumble from Josh Jacobs allowed Seattle to stay in a game they had no business being in.

The Packers’ offense did not execute, and did not appear to show much interest in being aggressive to put a game on the road away.

Green Bay appeared to line up to go for a fourth down twice in the game. Both times they were attempting to draw the Seahawks offsides.

Both times, Seattle stayed on their side of the line of scrimmage.

The next time that strategy works, will be the first.

Green Bay had a stretch of five drives of the second half saw them go 3-and-out three times, fumble ones, and turn the ball over on downs.

In fact, the only real positive from Green Bay’s offense in the second half was a circus catch from Romeo Doubs that helped put the game out of reach.  

Latest Green Bay Packers News 

Packers 30, Seahawks 13 | Packers-Seahawks TV, odds, prediction | Three reasons why Packers will beat Seahawks | Reliving the Fail Mary with M.D. Jennings | Five first-round NFL Draft options | Josh Jacobs’ memorable game at Seattle | Eric Stokes’ insane three-year streak | Jordan Love is getting hot

Published |Modified
Jacob Westendorf
JACOB WESTENDORF