The Green Bay Packers have now won four of their last five games following a wire-to-wire victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. Now at 6-6, the Packers are right in the thick of the NFC playoff race and currently hold the No. 7 seed.
Once again, here are my instant takeaways live from the press box following the Packers’ impressive performance:
— The Packers offense in the second half responded each time they needed to. After a rough sequence before half where they failed to get a field goal opportunity followed by the Chiefs scoring to begin the third quarter, Green Bay responded with a touchdown. After a fourth quarter punt by Kansas City, the Packers kicked a field goal to go up five, then on their final drive, ate clock and kicked another field goal to go up eight.
— As is often the case, it wasn’t pretty for the defense, but in the fourth quarter, they came up with two huge stops. Forcing Kansas City to punt, which then led to a Packers field goal to put them up five. Then on the next possession, Keisean Nixon made an incredible interception. The Packers won the turnover battle 1-0 and the game.
— The Chiefs are a blitz heavy defense, ranking sixth in blitz rate coming into this game. But nonetheless, credit to the Packers offensive line for holding up well against what has been a good pass rush this season. Although, on the few instances where the Packers ended up behind the sticks, the Chiefs pass rush and pressure packages did cause some issues.
— Another excellent day for Jordan Love. We can see in real time his confidence growing, a calmness in the pocket even when there is chaos, and improved decision-making—not only keeping the ball out of harm’s way but knowing when to check the ball down as well. Along with all of that, we saw a couple more really impressive throws from Love as well.
— As the offense continues to grow together we are seeing more and more of the versatility of this unit on display. Matt LaFleur was using a variety of formations, a ton of motion, and different personnel groupings. There was also a continued effort to get Jayden Reed and Christian Watson designed touches behind the line of scrimmage.
— The Chiefs defense has been really good against the pass this season, allowing just 5.6 yards per pass. However, they’ve struggled against the run, giving up 4.6 yards per carry coming into the game. The Packers leaned on the run game and found success doing so. As a team, with the help of a 24 yard run by Patrick Taylor, they averaged over 5.0 yards per rush.
— This success on the ground helped set up play-action, which Love and the passing game was very good off of, generating chunk plays while also being quite efficient. It also kept the Packers ahead of the sticks, which helps to take away some of the bite from the pass rush.
— Once again, one of the strengths of this offense is their ability to spread the ball around and target a number of players on a given play. It makes it really tough for opponents to key in on one or even two players. Tonight, Love targeted nine different players.
— When we think of Mahomes, I’m sure many think of his ability to throw the ball around the field, which he of course can do. But as we saw tonight, this version of the Chiefs offense utilizes a lot of short-area throws, relying heavily on YAC, which they are the best in the NFL at generating. Green Bay did well making tackles and not letting these opportunities turn into chunk plays.
— The Green Bay run defense, however was not very good. In terms of yards per rush, the Chiefs entered the game around league average, but averaged nearly 6.0 yards per carry against Green Bay.
— Anders Carlson had missed an extra point in three straight games – one of which was blocked – and had missed a field goal in four of six games. But tonight, he was perfect from both, and the Packers needed all of those points.
— Travis Kelce had just four receptions but he averaged over 20 yards per catch. There were some big time coverage breakdowns on several of those receptions, with Kelce running wide open over the middle. If there’s a player not to forget about, it’s him.
— It’s not easy to bring down Mahomes as we saw on a few off script plays, but the Packers pass rush continues to pick up steam, coming off solid performances in the last two games. Tonight they recorded three sacks, two of which came on third downs, and all within the red zone.
— The Packers continued with their rotation at left tackle—although Rasheed Walker saw more snaps. Sean Rhyan also got a series at right guard. Adam Stenavich said earlier in the week that this would continue until someone clearly won the job. On defense, with Darnell Savage and Rudy Ford back, Jonathan Owens still got the start next to Savage.