Since the Green Bay Packers went on a three-game winning streak, playoff expectations have returned to Titletown. The offense has been humming, complemented by a solid defensive effort. It appeared the Packers had five winnable games to close out the season, the first of which was against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football.
The Packers marched into MetLife Stadium having taken down a two-loss Detroit Lions team on Thanksgiving and the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Vegas favored Green Bay by almost a touchdown on the road. The Giants entered Monday night’s game 4-8, and rookie Tommy DeVito was making his fifth career start. The streaking Packers should have easily taken care of New York, who are outside the NFC playoff race. As it turns out, that was easier said than done.
The Giants started the youngest defense in the NFL and humbled one of the league’s hottest teams in the Meadowlands. Jordan Love had a breakout game in Detroit on Thanksgiving, and the youngest offense in the league was producing like a more experienced unit. They should have been more effective against New York’s young defense. Still, the Packers found a way to change expectations as we enter the final third of the season.
Green Bay’s loss is not on a single player. It was a poor team effort, from coaching to special teams to players on both sides of the ball.
Love had a bad game, his first since Week 10. The first-year starter went from outdueling Patrick Mahomes to being outplayed by Tommy DeVito. Love made questionable decisions in the run game and the pass attack and was responsible for two turnovers. He tossed a questionable long ball early in the game that Giants defender Jason Pinnock easily intercepted. Those errant throws seemed to be a thing of the past for Love. Obviously not.
Love and LaFleur were without Aaron Jones, Christian Watson, and Luke Musgrave, three of their top offensive players. The Packers had to rely on rookies Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks for most of the game. Wicks left with an injury, and Green Bay used Reed in seemingly endless end-arounds, including one to try for a two-point conversion at the end of the game. That attempt failed, as did the others, and Reed struggled after an early touchdown.
The Giants game wasn’t just on Love or the offense. Joe Barry’s infamously leaky run defense returned on Monday night and allowed over 200 yards for the third time this season. The Giants rushed for 209 yards on 34 attempts for a whopping 6.1 yards per carry.
New York has the NFL’s highest sack rate allowed, giving up a sack on 16.4% of dropbacks. Rashan Gary and Green Bay’s defensive line should have capitalized on this opportunity. But whatever they did before the game did not translate to anything on the field. The Packers’ defensive front never got close to Devito. They didn’t record a sack and only had two quarterback hits all night.
We also can’t forget about the special teams blunders that the Packers made. Keisean Nixon muffed a punt and then fumbled that same punt to set up the Giants for an easy touchdown. Rookie kicker Anders Carlson’s struggles continued as he missed a 45-yard field goal, going 3/4 on the night.
Green Bay’s team-effort failure feels like their losses from earlier in the year. After a three-game winning streak, the narrative around the team seemed to have been changing. The young Packers were finally growing up and maturing in time for the road to the playoffs. Alas, they are not.
The Giants snapped LaFleur’s perfect 15-0 record in December and sapped this young team’s confidence. Before the Giants game, the Packers looked like a playoff-caliber squad that had the potential to be at their best in January. Green Bay had a pair of marque wins against playoff teams before Monday night. They had a chance to show the world they’d changed the narrative. But, as it turns out, the Packers took two steps forward and one giant step back.
All stats and data via ESPN unless otherwise noted.
