Shorthanded at wide receiver? That reality didn’t matter for the Green Bay Packers offense during Sunday’s 33-30 win against the Carolina Panthers.
“It’s what I always say,” said quarterback Jordan Love postgame, “next man up. And guys stepped up and made plays. Bo Melton, obviously, stepped into that role and had a huge day today. Did a good job. But obviously, things happen in football. Injuries happen. Just have to keep going. Keep fighting. The next guy up has to make those plays.”
Green Bay entered the game without Christian Watson (hamstring) and Jayden Reed (chest/toe), both of whom were ruled out beforehand with injuries. On top of that, Luke Musgrave is still on IR, although he has returned to practice. AJ Dillon played but is dealing with a broken thumb and was limited. Dontayvion Wicks missed the entire second half with a chest injury.
Yet, despite all of that, the Packers offense still put up 33 points—the most in a game since Week 1 against Chicago. As a unit, they finished with 369 yards at 5.9 yards per play, which for context would rank third in the NFL over the course of this season. And unlike in recent weeks, Green Bay took advantage of their scoring opportunities, finding the end zone on three of their four red zone visits.
Leading the charge for the Packers’ offense was Aaron Jones, who was off the injury report and a full-go as the focal point of the offense. Jones showcased his playmaking ability with a pair of tone-setting runs on the first two plays of the game that went for 10-plus yards each. He ended up totaling 127 rushing yards at 6.0 yards per attempt and became the first ball carrier or pass catcher this season for Green Bay to eclipse the 100-yard mark in a game.
Those chunk plays on the ground that Jones generated then took some of the playmaking burden off of Jordan Love and the passing game.
“It’s huge,” said Love postgame about Jones’ performance. “When you can run the ball on first and second downs and get huge gains, kind of just convert and keep those drives going it’s huge. It takes the pressure off the pass game and keeps the defense on its heels trying to find ways to stop the run. But I think just the way we started running the ball on those first couple of drives, it’s huge and got us going.”
In general, Green Bay utilized a lot of two-tight end sets to help offset the injuries they were dealing with at receiver. Romeo Doubs led the team with 79 receiving yards on four receptions, including a huge third-down completion for 36 yards that sparked the Packers’ game winning drive. Before Wicks left with his injury, he had a touchdown grab.
However, in a somewhat surprising development, it was Bo Melton and Tucker Kraft who led the team in targets with six each. The duo combined for eight receptions and 104 yards. Kraft’s role in the passing game has continued to grow in recent weeks, but Melton has seemingly come out of nowhere, with the recent opportunities being given to him because of the progress he’s made in practice consistently.
“I think just with Christian (Watson) being out and J-Reed being out, guys had to step up,” said Love. “Rome (Doubs) had to step up. Wicks had to step up. Just having more opportunities in that role with guys injured. Then obviously with him getting hurt, more guys had to step up. Bo, Malik, those guys were in there making some plays.”
For Love, he finished the day completing 17-of-28 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns, which included a game-winning drive, and the third time in the last six games that Love has given Green Bay the lead in the final minutes.
It’s not a performance on its own that is going to stand out from others, but that also goes to show the growth that Love and the offense has made this season. It was a fairly clean showing by Love, who was in control and in command of the Green Bay passing game from start to finish, despite there being some instability around him at wide receiver.
It wasn’t all that long ago that missing out on key players would have derailed this offense, even against a defense that statistically, has been sub-par.
“I thought Jordan did an outstanding job,” said Matt LaFleur. We just never quite got into a great rhythm in the second half. But I thought the first half, everything was flowing well. But the second half, give them credit, we just couldn’t get a first down on a couple of those possessions.
“I think one cool moment was when we were on the goal line there in the first half and he audible to that quarterback sneak, and I think that shows the level of growth that he’s had in his game. Just to see that and take advantage of it. That was a pretty cool moment.”