Sitting at 2-5, the Packers fell to third place in the NFC North after losing to the Vikings, 24-10. The Lions don’t look like they’ll be surrendering first place anytime soon. And the Bears have some work to do, to get back into contention if they even will. But the question is, who’s to blame for the Packers struggles?
There is equal distribution of scrutiny to go around, either on the players, Matt LaFluer and Joe Barry. The Packers offense looked really good in Week 1 against the Bears, 38-20 and the defense made Justin Field’s day miserable. But compared to Week 5, the offense and defense has struggled to get on the board. Players backed off the line of scrimmage leaving no tight room for opposing players, deep balls were being thrown by Love, abandoning the run game, or switching to something more soft. The Packers offense was ranked 28th in the league, accumulating just 281.6 offensive yards. The Packers defense ranked higher than the offense being at 17, allowing 12 touchdowns only giving up 337 yards.
With the NFL trade deadline coming up, the Packers could look to add a player or two to help this young, struggling team. Jerry Jeudy is a potential trade target, as Denver could move the young star but Green Bay would have to give up a significant amount in the realm of a late round pick plus a young star. Jeudy only has 222 yards, no touchdowns, compared to last season with over 972 with six touchdowns to his name.
The Packers have had several players on the injury list Aaron Jones had missed the Packers last few games due to a hamstring injury, left tackle David Bakhtiari for the rest of the year after getting another knee surgery which has been brutal for the Packers offensive line and for Jordan Love with guys like Aidan Hutchinson and Maxx Crosby being able to get through. The Packers schedule isn’t as bad going through dealing though with some defensive monsters in Aaron Donald, T.J. Watt, Khalil Mack and Byron Murphy Jr. which spells doom for the Packers offense which is already struggling badly enough.
Since coming back from his ACL tear last season, Rashan Gary has been the highlight of the Packers defense, 9 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 5 solo tackles by himself being the only bright spot on the Packers defense. Aaron Jones, the Packers best offensive player, has not been utilized in the games he has been in, 8 carries against Denver only averaging 4.3 with just one rushing touchdown. Packers fans are questioning why Jones doesn’t get the majority of carries, against teams that have really bad run defenses especially against Broncos.After losing to the Broncos 19-17, in a game the Packers absolutely should have won the play calling was atrocious. The defense allowed the Broncos to score only 19 points but the Packers not being able to capitalize is the more frustrating part after coming off a long bye week.
“We all know it’s up and downs, but I think everyone is frustrated,” Jordan Love said after the game, according to PackersNews.com. “We’ve got to find a way to win. Got to find a way to win these games. We’ve been put in position multiple times where it comes down to [the] offense has to go win the game, and we have not capitalized on that. …. I think going forward, I think the situations are going to keep coming, keep being there until we find a way to capitalize and go win.”
The Packer lost Luke Musgrave, Devonte Wyatt, Eric Stokes, Darnell Savage and Dontayvion Wicks to injuries in the first half. In the second half, Josh Myers, Jayden Reed, Rudy Ford and Chrisitan Watson as the injuries kept piling up. While we don’t know the status, or the severity of the injuries it can be brutal for the Packers having half of the roster sitting out or limited snaps to reduce the severity. But seeing how much potential this Packers team has, with young talent has yet to be fully utilized either from Joe Barry or Matt LaFleur and especially with a young QB in Jordan Love who has shown only little to be the future of this Packers organization with Aaron Rodgers now in New York.
