The Green Bay Packers labored through a sloppy and mistake-prone season opener, which ended with quarterback Jordan Love watching from the sideline after he suffered an apparent lower body injury on the third to last play from scrimmage of the 34-29 defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil.
Starting the year 0-1 has never ended a team’s season, but losing Love would likely destroy the Packers’ chances of competing in 2024. The disappointing loss stings but the only thing that matters coming out of Friday night is Love’s injury situation, which remains unclear as of Saturday morning.
Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from the Packers’ loss:
The Good
WR Jayden Reed: The man they call “Bird” soared in Brazil. The second-year receiver produced four catches for 138 yards, one rush for 33 yards, 171 total yards and two total touchdowns. He broke tackles on both of his long touchdowns — the first a 33-yard run, the second a 70-yard catch. Reed also hauled in an incredible 33-yard catch along the sideline on the final drive. The only shame was that Reed got only five touches.
Run game: While it took time to get moving, the Packers run game ended up producing 163 total yards — and Reed, Josh Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson all had an explosive run of 15 or more yards. Reed made a man miss in the open field on his touchdown run, Wilson got a touchdown drive going with runs of 14 and 18 yards and Jacobs produced 80 of his 84 rushing yards in the second half.
Takeaways: The defense struggled overall, but Jeff Hafley’s group did produce three takeaways — an area of emphasis after the Packers produced only 18 takeaways over 17 games in the final year of Joe Barry’s defense. Xavier McKinney got a pick on the Eagles’ third play from scrimmage, and Jaire Alexander took points off the board with a pick in the end zone. Twice, the Packers were set up inside the 20-yard line off takeaways. While the defense didn’t play well enough against a talented offense to win the game, securing three turnovers is going to be good enough to win most weeks in the NFL.
The Bad
Mistakes galore: The Packers finished 1-for-4 scoring touchdowns in the red zone, turned three takeaways into just nine points, committed 10 penalties, had a half-dozen or more slips, misfires or drops in the passing game, missed a half-dozen or more tackles and generally missed opportunity after opportunity to take hold of the game. Coach Matt LaFleur didn’t want to take away anything from the Eagles, but his immediate post-game reaction was that his team lost the game more than the Eagles won it.
How many mistakes did the Packers have in what LaFleur called a “slop fest” of a performance? Andy Herman counted 39:
https://twitter.com/AndyHermanNFL/status/1832324683141623976
The Ugly
Love’s injury: Losing by five points to an NFC contender in the season opener wouldn’t have been a disaster, but losing Love to a significant injury absolutely would be. On the third to last play, Love got hit on the side of his left leg and then was rolled up on as he lateraled the ball to Josh Jacobs. He was down in agonizing pain before being helped from the field. The Packers will hope for something positive from additional testing in Green Bay this weekend. The fate of this highly anticipated season rests on good news.
The field: A soccer field in Brazil couldn’t handle a professional football game. Both teams had to deal with the slippery playing surface, but does this look like an acceptable field for a game in the National Football League?
https://twitter.com/DaireCarragher/status/1832277531367526812