Three Overreactions From Packers’ Loss to Eagles

The Green Bay Packers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles 34-29 to kick off the NFL season on Friday. Here are three takeaways from Week 1.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) was the best player on the field in their loss to the Eagles in Sao Paulo on Friday night. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – No game is prone to more overreaction than Week 1. Unscouted looks, rusty veterans and rookie debuts add an air of uncertainty. Throw in a 10-hour flight and a soccer field that doubled as a skating rink, and the Green Bay Packers’ 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles is particularly hard to judge.

Nonetheless, in a day-after-the-game staple, here are three Packers-Eagles overreactions. Here’s what’s not an overreaction: The Packers’ season will hinge on the health of Jordan Love.

1. Jayden Reed Isn’t Just Wide Receiver 1

To say Jayden Reed was the Packers’ unofficial No. 1 receiver entering the season wouldn’t have been a stretch. After all, he led the team in receptions, receiving yards and total touchdowns last season.

Following the release of Aaron Jones, Reed is the Packers’ best playmaker. Plain and simple. He was last year and certainly was on Friday night. Christian Watson might be more explosive. Romeo Doubs might be a better route runner. But nobody is as dynamic.

Reed caught 4-of-6 targets for 138 yards. He had a 70-yard touchdown catch, a 33-yard reception on the sideline in the waning moments to give the team a pulse and a 33-yard touchdown run. Those were the Packers’ three longest plays of the game. In seven opportunities, he gained 171 yards. The other 51 plays gained 243 yards.

“With this room, it’s any given week,” Reed said after the game. “Anybody can make those plays I made today in the room. So, we’re very dynamic in that room, so I don’t look at it as a Wide Receiver 1 thing. I think we all are 1s if you ask me.”

Reed, who would have had a truly monster game had his 38-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter not been nullified by a 12-men penalty, said the “small details” on offense will make a big difference.

“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of guys that can make plays,” Reed said. “We’ve just got to keep finding ways to get better at executing our job so we can get everybody involved and we can be a powerful offense.”

2. Tucker Kraft Is Tight End 1

During an abbreviated training camp due to the torn pectoral suffered during the offseason, Tucker Kraft made more plays than Luke Musgrave in the passing game. With his physicality as a blocker, it was fair to wonder if last year’s third-round pick would supplant last year’s second-round pick on the depth chart.

Sure enough, Kraft played 64 of 67 snaps against the Eagles while Musgrave played only 17.

Kraft caught 2-of-3 targets for 37 yards, including a 29-yarder. Musgrave didn’t catch either of the two targets. Meanwhile, according to league data, the Packers averaged 8.35 yards per carry with Kraft on the field compared to 1.00 for Musgrave. There’s some small sample-size stuff at play with that comparison but it’s noteworthy, nonetheless.

If Love is out for an extended period, the Packers might have to go with more two-tight-end sets to help power the running game and give some easier completions to Malik Willis. So, it’s obviously too soon to write off Musgrave, but 64-17 in Week 1 is a startling number.

3. Same Old Defense

For teams with inept offenses, the most popular player in town is the backup quarterback. For teams with bungling defenses, the most popular person is the new defensive coordinator.

So it was with Jeff Hafley. The defensive line loved the ability to attack. The secondary loved being put in position to make plays. The excitement for this moment had been obvious for months.

“We’re trying to be known as a defensive team,” cornerback Eric Stokes said a few days before the game. “Whenever they think about the Packers, they think about the defense. It’s going to start Friday night.”

Well, not so much. Remember when Charles Woodson said, “It’s the same old Jay” after beating the Jay Cutler-led Bears? Well, it was the same old Packers defense.

By some measures, it really wasn’t that bad of a performance. The Eagles managed only 3.8 yards per rushing attempt. Jalen Hurts, one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the NFL, was mostly a nonfactor as a runner. After intercepting only seven passes last year, Green Bay picked off Hurts twice. The Eagles were limited to 4-of-14 on third down.

On the other hand, it was the same old, same old.

After a big-time interception by Xavier McKinney and a gift fumble, the Eagles’ next four possessions went 11 plays for 70 yards and a touchdown, nine plays for 70 yards and a touchdown, 15 plays for 57 yards and a field goal and two plays for 70 yards and a touchdown.

When it was time to win the game, Hafley’s defense looked suspiciously like Joe Barry’s. The Eagles led 31-29 when they took possession with 7:52 remaining. They ran 16 plays for 67 yards, picked up six first downs and drained all but 27 seconds off the clock. Only a fumbled snap limited the damage to three points.

The Packers couldn’t stop the run. They were guilty of penalties. They missed a few key tackles. They couldn’t get off the field, with the Eagles moving the chains on third-and-7 and second-and-13 during the final drive.

“We just got to get off the field as a defense,” said Rashan Gary, who had one sack and one pass defensed. “That’s the most frustrating part. It’s all physical.”

There would be no overreacting from McKinney, the big free-agent addition.

“Defensively, I think we know what we have to do to improve from this game,” McKinney said. “Obviously, it’s just one game, Week 1, so the world’s not over. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of time to fix it.

“What was said in the locker room is just having a sense of urgency knowing that we’ve just got to go into next week with that sense of urgency and ready to fix the things that we did wrong. We’re going to be critical of ourselves watching this film on the way back, and we’re going to be better – a lot better – next week. I think we know we didn’t hold up to the standard that we wanted to be defensively, but we’ll get that fixed and I don’t think we’ll have an issue moving forward.”

More Green Bay Packers News

Aside from Jordan Love's injury, it was a day of wasted opportunities by the #Packers offense, @JoeyVZ_ writes.https://t.co/jaQ1sObbJ6

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 7, 2024

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