If you’ve come looking for optimism, I give you the Monday morning Rashan Gary signing. You’re on your own after that.
After a frightful performance befitting Halloween weekend, the Green Bay Packers again showed us who they are. They have no apparent direction, no strengths, and no reason to believe this season will be about anything more than ten additional opportunities to determine who deserves to stick around beyond this year.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Green Bay’s offense couldn’t get out of first gear on Sunday, extending their ridiculous touchdown-less first-half streak to six games. Touchdowns? Stringing together a couple of first downs would be reason enough for a Lambeau Leap these days.
On Sunday, penalties jumped to the front of the line as the Pack continued to play dumb, undisciplined football, an indictment of the coaching staff as much as the players. They had racked up more penalties than yards for much of the first half. They still can’t run the ball. Aaron Jones still appears to remain on a pitch count, and AJ Dillon still looks like a shell of the bruising back we watched a couple of seasons ago.
The passing game is just as anemic. Jordan Love will wow you on one play and cause you to scratch your head on the next – about what you’d expect from a guy making only his eighth NFL start. The organization’s decision to surround him solely with young, unproven receivers has backfired spectacularly.
The return of veterans Jaire Alexander and De’Vondre Campbell figured to buoy the defense. While they were stout against the run facing a team that really doesn’t like to run the ball, they couldn’t get off the field on third down. Didn’t matter if it was third-and-three or third-and-nine, it was as automatic as a Green Bay three and out.
After the game, Alexander called Jordan Addison’s productive day “a fluke.” There was nothing fluky about the rookie’s ability to get separation and make plays against the precocious cornerback. I don’t know if Jaire is 100% healthy; if not, you give him credit for gutting it out. If he is, then he had another lousy day.
As ugly as they were playing, the disastrous injury to Kirk Cousins gave the Pack a chance. Preston Smith knocked the ball out of backup Jaren Hall’s hands, setting Green Bay’s offense up in the red zone with a golden opportunity to make it a one-score game. But Love and Co. could do nothing with this gift, failing to punch it in for a second time from inside the 20 within about 20 minutes of real-time.
So let’s recap: The offense is rudderless, the defense can’t get stops, and the Packers had more penalties than points on Sunday. They’ve now dropped four straight games, and the upcoming schedule does not lead you to believe this will be a November to remember.
They have ten more chances to change the narrative, to provide some hope that there are better days ahead. We expected 2023 to be a transition season. So far, it’s been a season of transgression.
