The Green Bay Packers returned home from London with a stunning defeat and a 3-2 record after Sunday’s 27-22 loss to the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
After three weeks of flirting with defeat in the second half, another uninspired and unproductive effort over the final 30 minutes resulted in a loss for Matt LaFleur’s club.
Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly coming out of the Packers’ unexpected loss to the Giants in London:
The Good
Randall Cobb’s resurgence: Cobb caught seven passes for 99 yards on 29 routes run, creating another efficient and productive performance despite more snaps and targets. He caught two passes of at least 20 yards, including a 35-yarder on third down to spark the first drive. Later, he made a terrific toe-tap catch along the sideline. Cobb also averaged almost nine yards after the catch. Aaron Rodgers wanted more snaps and opportunities for the veteran slot receiver, and Cobb made the most of both. The big miss for Rodgers and Cobb came on 2nd-and-10 on the three-and-out possession. Cobb got one-on-one coverage in the slot and had a step across the middle of the field, but the two couldn’t connect.
The Bad
Second-half execution by offense: After rolling to 20 points and four scoring drives in the first half, the Packers offense failed to score over four possessions in the second half, mostly because the passing game wasn’t good enough. Aaron Rodgers took a sack on 3rd-and-8 (missed block by Royce Newman) to end the first drive and knocked the Packers out of field goal range. A three-and-out featured three incompletions on playcalls Rodgers and Matt LaFleur both liked; the execution and finish just wasn’t there on big-play opportunities. On the third drive, the Packers couldn’t covert on 3rd-and-2 and 4th-and-2. Rodgers had both passing attempts batted down, including the game-sealer on a run-pass option against a blitz. The Packers offense, despite multiple opportunities, was unable to reclaim momentum. In many ways, the offensive failures in execution fueled the Giants’ fire.
The Ugly
The defense: After delivering back-to-back three-and-outs to start the contest, Joe Barry’s defense couldn’t find an answer for Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley and a ragtag of Giants pass catchers over a five-drive sequence that produced all 27 points and over 300 yards of total offense. Rasul Douglas and Darnell Savage combined for four penalties resulting in first downs, including two negating sacks. The Giants killed the Packers with crossing routes, a theme for the defense through five games. The pass rush did its part but the secondary let down the unit once again. New York converted six third downs, including three over eight yards. And while the Packers did fine against the run save for one 40-yarder from Barkley, the Giants still rushed for three scores. Darius Slayton, a topic of trade talk this summer, caught six passes for 79 yards as the Giants’ No. 1 receiver. The Packers had just one sack, one pass breakup and zero takeaways. What a let down performance.
