Two poorly played games, regression from a young offense and a funky schedule have combined to steal the spark from the start of the Green Bay Packers 2023 season.
Matt LaFleur’s team needs to reignite the flame coming out of the bye.
An encouraging 2-1 start, headlined by a blowout season-opening win over the rival Chicago Bears at Soldier Field and a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback against the New Orleans Saints in the home opener at Lambeau Field, served as gasoline on the excitement fire of a new-look Packers team led by Jordan Love.
But the harsh realities of being an inexperienced and volatile team in the NFL doused the fire quickly.
The Packers lost back-to-back primetime games — one at home to the Detroit Lions, and another on the road to the Las Vegas Raiders — entering the bye. With the eyes of the football nation focused on LaFleur’s young and unproven team, the Packers mostly crumbled, falling behind 27-3 to the surging Lions at half at Lambeau Field and losing both a fourth-quarter lead and a winnable game to a struggling Raiders team.
Throw in the schedule — the Packers opened Week 4 on Thursday night, closed Week 5 on Monday night and then went into the bye — and the Packers have played two mostly miserable games in the span of over three weeks. From an outside point of view, that’s a lot of time between games to stew over poor performances. From a player or coach point of view, there just haven’t been many opportunities available to respond on the field.
Also, football teams are notoriously routine-driven, and the Packers haven’t played a Sunday game since beating the Saints on Sept. 24.
While a rollercoaster season was to be expected from a young team, the Packers’ lows over the last two weeks have been jarring. Love threw five interceptions, the offense as a whole regressed and the Packers were outscored 37-6 in the first half.
This 2023 season is so dependent on getting a full evaluation of Love, who threw seven touchdown passes against just one interception in the first three games before tossing just one touchdown pass and five interceptions over the last two. It’s fair to wonder if much of an evaluation can be made from the first five games considering David Bakhtiari was lost after one game, Aaron Jones has played all of 48 snaps and Christian Watson missed the first three games and was limited for a fourth. Either way, Love has sputtered.
While facing a 1-5 Denver Broncos team might look like a “get right” opportunity, the truth is the Packers — in their current form — must play well in all three phases to beat any team, including the Broncos. But it’s certainly possible that an opportunity to get healthy (see: Jones) and take a step back from the rollercoaster ride will benefit the Packers, and facing a Broncos team that is also still trying to find its way does provide a chance for LaFleur’s team to gain traction and build some momentum entering a crucial stretch of games that could determine if the Packers are a cellar dweller or a sneaky playoff contender over the rest of the 2023 season.
After playing the Broncos, the Packers will welcome the (Justin Jefferson-less) Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams to Lambeau Field in back-to-back weeks before going to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers. The combined record of the Packers’ next four opponents? 9-17. Again, record doesn’t really matter here. The Packers must find a true identity and execute at a more consistent level or they’ll continue to stumble regardless of opponent.
It’s time for LaFleur, Love and the Packers to find another spark, and maybe one is waiting in Denver on Sunday afternoon. It’d be fitting for the Packers’ rollercoaster ride of a season to finally rise again like the elevation at Mile High after two excitement-draining defeats entering the bye.
