The Green Bay Packers definitely won the first joint practice with the New England Patriots on Wednesday, but the Patriots came back and definitely won the joint practice on Thursday. Here are my key observations and takeaways from what I saw.
— Injury report: David Bakhtiari was back on the field, and so was Tariq Carpenter and Kenny Clark. There were no new additions, but still out was Bo Melton, Lew Nichols, Tyler Goodson, Luke Tenuta, Caleb Jones, De’Vondre Campbell, and Innis Gaines, along with Eric Stokes.
— There’s not many players like Bakhtiari who can not play or practice for a week, step out on to the field against Matthew Judon and perform as well as he did. Bakhtiari is still playing a very high level.
— It was really promising to see Jordan Love’s performance on Wednesday, given all the different looks, movement, and blitzes the Patriots threw his way—all of which are things that I’m guess other defenses will try to confuse him with as well. But when a quarterback and offense does find success, from week to week, defenses will also be quick to key in on what went well and why, and make adjustments from there. It very much felt like we saw that today from New England. I spoke with Samori Toure in the locker room after practice, and he said that the Patriots didn’t really do anything to do different, but were more locked in on what the Green Bay offense was doing, which made moving the ball through the air more challenging, especially with an inexperienced offense that will then have to counter.
— For the most part, Love did go through his progressions, but there was just very little open. We also have to give the opponent credit, and the New England secondary played very well. I think this then led to him forcing a few throws, resulting in a turnover, something he didn’t do on Wednesday. The offense also didn’t generate as many big plays, in part because of how well New England played, but there were some missed throws and drops as well. Overall, just better execution was needed.
— Red zone period: Love was able to connect with Christian Watson twice, once on a post route for a touchdown where he beat the cornerback and another on a jump ball that Watson skied for. Other than that, it was a lot of incomplete passes.
— Two-minute drill (offense): As was the theme, there wasn’t much available but the drive was sparked by a throw over the middle to Watson and a deep crossed by Dontayvion Wicks. Once outside the opponent’s 20-yard line, Love threw a pass just out of reach to Musgrave over the middle. On a rollout to his right, he threw a well placed ball to Josiah Deguara in the back right corner of the end zone. It was a difficult catch but one you’d like to see Deguara make. Then on fourth down, a pass to the end zone went through Musgrave’s hands.
— Two-minute drill (defense): The starting defense started off well against New England in the two-minute drill. However a decent run up the middle, and two quick passes put the Patriots just on the other side of midfield, when Mac Jones found Devante Parker down the right sideline for a touchdown. He had a step on Rasul Douglas who was in coverage.
— Jayden Reed looks so comfortable returning punts. With Kesiean Nixon taking on a larger role on defense, I’m curious to see if Reed does handle some return man responsibilities.
— Linebacker Eric Wilson had a really nice day. He had two pass deflections that resulted in interceptions and during the two minute drill, he forced a throwaway on a blitz.
— Running between the tackles was again tough sledding for the Packers. This has been pretty constant throughout training camp, even against the Packers defense. I’ll also add that it’s not always easy this time of the year when there isn’t full tackling to know exactly how far the ball carrier would have made it, but nonetheless, running lanes were limited.
— The tweet below is from Chad Graff of The Athletic, who covers the Patriots. When this was taking place, I did not see it because I was on the other end of the field watching the Packers offense. What I will say is that, from what I saw in the team period after the one noted below, the second team defense did not play as well yesterday. New England was able to move the ball downfield—not through big plays but working the middle of the field and flats. Although not as dominant as yesterday, the Packers pass rush still wreaked some havoc on Mac Jones, and there were a few plays that ended up as completions, but I believe would have been sacks in a real game. I thought overall the coverage from the Packers first team defense was sound as well. If there was one area where the starting unit wasn’t as stout, it was against the run.
— Starting unit notes: The offensive line was the same as Wednesday, except for having Bakhtiari at left tackle. Elgton Jenkins was then at left guard, followed by Josh Myers, Jon Runyan, and Zach Tom. As I’ve said before, this has largely been the Packers starting unit for most of training camp, and I expect that to be the case come Week 1. On defense, after a really good practice on Wednesday, JJ Enagbare was with the starters, and at safety was Darnell Savage and Jonathan Owens. Tarvarius Moore and Rudy Ford were with the twos, and Anthony Johnson and Dallin Leavitt the threes.
— After a quiet day on Wednesday, what ever tensions had been established boiled over into Thursday, where there were at least six minor skirmishes—or whatever you’d like to call them. Most happened at the start of practice, at one point something was happening about every other play, but eventually, both teams got back to playing football. Packers Keshawn Banks and Patriots’ Anfernee Jennings were both tossed from practice.
— Matt LaFleur praised the receivers coming out of the Cincinnati game for their blocking abilities, and we saw both Dontayvion Wicks and Malik Heath executing in that part of the game once again. Really impressive work by the rookies. I asked Grant DuBose about the blocking mentality in the receiver room, and he said the saying is, “if you don’t block, you don’t get the rock.”
