Green Bay Is A Juggernaut But There's Still Room To Improve

That felt good. 

Heading into the season, you would’ve been happy with the Green Bay Packers winning one of these first two games. They were in a tough spot, playing two formidable opponents in five days to start the season.

However, both of these games were at home, and after the dominant Week 1 performance, I wanted to see the team continue the momentum and build on the success — and they did. The Packers were dominant from start to finish against a really good team with Super Bowl aspirations. However, this game was much closer than it should’ve been.

I am not a huge fan of Thursday night games, and I am especially not a fan of early-season Thursday night games. It’s early-season slop on top of short-week slop. However, this was a highly anticipated matchup between two outstanding teams, coming off dominant Week 1 performances, with two extremely exciting quarterbacks. Still, that didn’t stop this from being a sloppy affair.

My keys to this game were which offensive line could hold up better. Green Bay’s line was beat up, with Aaron Banks and Zach Tom sustaining injuries that would hold them out this week. Meanwhile, despite a victory last week, Washington showed some weaknesses along the line against a strong New York Giants defensive front.

We saw that manifest for both teams. To many people's surprise, Anthony Belton was the starting right tackle for Green Bay after Darian Kinnard was the first one off the bench in last week's game when Tom got injured. 

However, Belton and Kinnard ended up rotating throughout parts of the game. I’m happy Belton got some game reps in a situation that didn’t cost them. Still, the offense felt much more functional when Kinnard was out there in the first half. However, Belton settled in and ended with a solid performance.

Washington couldn’t block anything. The Packers’ front was getting consistent pressure and consistent push all game. Green Bay’s defense had four sacks, 12 QB hits, and held the Commanders to just 19 carries for 52 yards. Micah Parsons ended with eight pressures. 

Green Bay's offense was able to move the ball consistently, but the defense is really what won this game. Washington had no answers for the Packers D.

Let's get into some other takeaways.

The offense moved the ball but left too many points on the field

Green Bay completely dominated the first half. However, a hot start on the first drive was stalled by mistakes. After first downs to get the ball into Washington's side of the field, the drive stalled. Josh Jacobs false-started, Belton held on a beautiful touchdown pass to Jayden Reed, and Kingsley Enagbare had a premature substitution. Finally, Love underthrew a would-be touchdown to Golden on fourth down.

Later, Green Bay was driving up 14-3 with a chance to go up three scores. They crossed midfield on a first-down run by Jacobs, but a questionable hold brought the play back. That led to a punt, giving Washington a chance to score before half after a great return. 

Green Bay’s defense held strong and forced them into a long field goal that missed. That gave Jordan Love and the offense another chance to go up three scores before half. They executed perfectly, setting up a 48-yard attempt, but McManus hit the post.

The game should’ve been nearly over by then. Instead, in a game that Green Bay had completely dominated, Washington had to have felt good going into halftime down just 11 points and getting the ball to start the second half.

In the second half, the Packers had another great drive stall inside the 10. Luckily, their defense kept getting stops, and the offense finished enough of their drives to make this game mostly stress-free.

Special teams

It’s still a problem. Green Bay gave up multiple big returns, both on punt and kick coverage. Had multiple penalties. Brandon McManus missed a makeable field goal (though he bounced back later with a 56-yarder), and Daniel Whelan had a punt go into the end zone with the chance to pin the Commanders deep.

Injuries continue to mount for the offense

Despite a training camp marred by a foot injury, Jayden Reed came into the season looking healthy. Unfortunately, he suffered a broken collarbone on an awesome throw and catch that was negated by a penalty. He is expected to miss six to eight weeks. Fortunately, the offense didn’t miss a beat after he left the game, and at least now he has time to rest the foot. 

Game balls

Matt’s

Keisean Nixon

Keisean Nixon was absolutely outstanding last night. Finishing with five pass breakups, that is more than anyone had all of last season. Now, most of those were against Noah Brown and Jaylin Lane, but they came in huge moments when the Packers needed them. It was a true CB1 performance.

Tucker Kraft

I can’t say enough about this guy, I love him. He’s the offense’s No. 1 option until further notice. He finished the game with six catches for 124 yards and a touchdown. It should’ve been much less, but he refuses to be tackled. 

Kraft even left the game, seemingly due to cramps, but came back and continued to dominate. He did all that, and all he cares about is getting back to practice on Monday.

My bonus two

Jordan Love

Love has stacked two games in a row where he made defenses look like Swiss cheese. His final stat line, 19 of 31 for 293 yards and two touchdowns, could’ve looked even better if he connected with Matthew Golden on just one of the two deep shots where he was wide open. 

However, I'm not going to complain about Love’s performance. He was awesome.

Devonte Wyatt

I can’t write a story about this game without mentioning Wyatt. He had just one sack on the stat sheet, but it felt like more. Wyatt was consistently getting a push in the middle of the line and ended with a career-high six pressures, nearly had two interceptions, and attempted a third.

He and Lukas Van Ness appear to have taken the leaps we had hoped for.

Play of the Game

MALIK HEATH??!

This play was so unbelievable that it wasn’t called a catch at first. I still can’t believe that Heath caught it. The throw was only where he could catch it, the ball tracking was outstanding, and the footwork was unreal. 

Honorable Mention

Jordan Love 

Jordan, it was awesome to see you channel your inner Marshawn Lynch, but please never do this again.

https://twitter.com/packers_access/status/1966301621232525639

You couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the season for the Packers. Everything seems to be gelling at the same time, and the players we hoped could make a leap are making that leap. The schedule lightens up these coming weeks, but they can't lose focus and need to continue stacking wins.