Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers only had to wait a week to have another late game opportunity to secure the win. This time, unlike previous chances, however, Love and the offense led the Packers to a 23-20 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Live from the press box, here are my instant takeaways from Green Bay’s performance.
— Overall, another very solid and efficient performance from Jordan Love. As expected, the Chargers played a lot of split-safety looks, which limits downfield passing opportunities, so Love was was patient, went through his progressions, didn’t force much, and took what was available, specifically on out routes and passes over the middle where the recevier found the soft spot in the zone coverage. YAC opportunities still allowed the offense to generate big plays, with Love averaging 8.1 yards per catch, and I thought he delivered several nice passes with pressure in his face as well. The result was a well-executed performance that included a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter. Love finished the day 27-for-40 for 322 yards with two touchdowns.
— Just a fantastic grab by Romeo Doubs on that late touchdown. With very aggressive hands he went up and just plucked that ball out of the air. That was a “this is my ball” type of catch.
— The Packers have been missing that go-to option at receiver, and it now appears that should be a shared role moving forward, belonging to Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks. Both have brough big play ability and have excellent feel, knowing where the soft spot of the defense is. What a spark these two have provided in recent weeks.
— This isn’t a stout interior defensive line for the Chargers but the Packers could get nothing going on the ground. AJ Dillon, Emanuel Wilson, and Aaron Jones averaged fewer than 3.0 yards per rush.
— Matt LaFleur said earlier in the week that it was still a “competitive situation” at left tackle. With that being the case, Rasheed Walker and Yosh Nijman rotated series throughout the game. However, the Packers could have stuck with Walker coming out of halftime, who I thought played much better. We also saw a series where Sean Rhyan was in for Jon Runyan, and again, in a limited sample size, Rhyan looked good.
— With a very depeleted secondary, there were a number of chunk plays for the Chargers offense in the passing game, where there wasn’t a defender in sight. In part, this was a product of Green Bay trying to keep everything in front of them. Not surprisingly, Keenan Allen had a big day, totaling over 100 receiving yards.
— With that said, Carrington Valentine continues to impress. I love the way he challenges the receivers and he brings the energy every play. His ability to break on the ball is impressive as well. He’s going to get an interception and maybe a pick-six at some point on a route he jumps. I though, in general, he Corey Ballentine and Keisean Nixon challenged the Los Angeles receivers well.
— The defense gave up another fourth quarter lead, but this time the offense was able to pick them up. Credit to the defense for then forcing a quick three-and-out and then putting the game away at the end. The Packers were previously 0-4 in games where they surrendered a fourth quarter lead. As we have often heard LaFleur say this year, young teams need to learn how to win, and that drive by Love and the offense was another huge step towards accomplishing that.
— It seems to be flying under the radar a bit, but Anders Carlson hasn’t been nearly as consistent as of late.
— Two missed tackles by the Packers led to massive plays for the Chargers. One came on a run for Austin Ekeler for 37 yards, where Devonte Wyatt couldn’t bring him down in the backfield. The other was a 51 yard score where Jonathan Owens whiffed.
— Outside of that 37-yard run by Ekeler, the Packers bottled up the Chargers run game. They too used a heavy dose of split-safety looks, which can leave a defense susceptible against, but they held their own.
— Christian Watson found the end zone, and it came on a crossing route – and on a beautiful touch pass by Love – where he found a lot of success last season. Adam Stenavich was asked this past week about getting Watson more opportunities on those types of plays and he said one reason they havne’t been able to is because of the amount of cover-2 Green Bay has seen this season. In my opinion, I also think there could be more of a concerted effort to get him the ball on those types of plays.
— There were four big drops by the Chargers pass catchers. One came on a third down that ended the drive, one would have gotten a first down inside the Packers 10 yard line, and the other was a dropped touchdown by Keenan Allen. The last came on the final drive on a pass intended for Quentin Johnston that would have put Los Angeles close to field goal range. Two of those drops took potentially eight points off the board for the Chargers.
— It was clear that the Chargers did not want to kick to Keisean Nixon. They either kicked through the end zone or tried a few short-kicks to limit his impact.
— There were a lot of scramble opportunities for Justin Herbert today that he took advantage of, rushing for 70-plus yards. Pressure was there but rarely were those opportunities converted into sacks.
— The Chargers entered the game giving the ball away the fewest number of times in the NFL. The Packers have been one of the worst at creating turnovers. But today, with the Chargers on the verge of scoring, Kenny Clark forced a fumble. The Packers would win the turnover battle 1-0.
— Injuries were a big part of this game. Aaron Jones (knee), Josiah Deguara (hip), De’Vondre Campbell (stinger), Dontayvion Wicks (concussion), and Emanuel Wilson (shoulder) all left and did not return.
