The Green Bay Packers looked on the verge of an impressive blowout of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road through two quarters on Sunday, but a nose dive by the offense following a turnover and a near-collapse late by the defense forced Matt LaFleur’s team into needing to stop a two-point conversion attempt with 14 seconds left to avoid overtime.
De’Vondre Campbell made the play, and the Packers escaped with a 14-12 victory over Tom Brady and the Bucs.
Here are the stars, studs and duds from the Packers’ big win in Week 3:
Stars
DL Kenny Clark: He’s on some kind of run to start the 2022 season. Time and time again, Clark is physically dominating one-on-one blocks. He’s tossing centers and guards aside and causing immediate pressure and chaos. On Sunday, he forced a field goal attempt with a sack and later cleaned up a pressure from Jarran Reed with another sack. On the Bucs’ touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Clark bowled over the center and probably should have drawn a holding penalty. He finished with three pressures and a run stop, but even those disruption numbers don’t adequately quantify how well No. 97 played in Tampa Bay.
S Rudy Ford: Yep, a special teams star. Ford uses deception and incredible speed as a gunner (the Packers call them flyers now) to cover punts. On Sunday, he made one immediate tackle and forced three fair catches inside the 20-yard line. The Bucs just couldn’t block him on the outside. His “block in the back” penalty on a punt return was a questionable call. Ford is a game-changer for Rich Bisaccia.
P Pat O’Donnell: Yep, a second special teams star. O’Donnell downed five punts inside the 20-yard line. In fact, all five were downed inside the 15. And his net average finished at almost 45 yards. O’Donnell was a big reason why the Bucs had so many long fields to traverse on offense and the Packers consistently won the field position battle on Sunday.
Studs
WR Romeo Doubs: He caught eight of eight targets, produced 49 yards after the catch and was consistently open, even after the Bucs went to press man in the second half. His explosiveness in space and in-and-out of routes is obvious every single week.
QB Aaron Rodgers: He RPO-ed the Bucs to death in the first half, killed the blitz, played well under pressure and only had the one turnover play. The Packers needed him to play more decisively in the second half against man coverage, but the first half of quarterback play was very good. And his throw to Lazard in the fourth quarter against a free rusher was sublime.
WR Allen Lazard: The two penalties were questionable. Lazard played physical (always hunting blocks) and made clutch plays. He caught a touchdown pass on a run alert, made a huge third-down conversion on a slot fade in the second half and then ended the game by calmly recovering the onside kick.
CB Eric Stokes: He played 50 snaps in coverage and gave up just one catch on one target, and he made the tackle after only a six-yard gain. Excellent perimeter coverage from the second-year corner forced Tom Brady to look elsewhere.
LT David Bakhtiari: In just his second game in almost two years, Bakhtiari looked a lot like the Bakhtiari of old. He gave up just one pressure, and even on that snap, he recovered well and allowed Rodgers to escape to his left. His 35 snaps were mostly uneventful, and that’s a good thing.
CB Keisean Nixon: On a second watch, there were some coverage issues over 57 snaps on defense. But that’s mostly to be expected for a No. 4 corner against Tom Brady. Nixon still forced a key fumble, disrupted a pass into the end zone forcing a field goal and downed a punt at the 2-yard line. Nixon played a team-high 73 snaps, including 16 on special teams.
LB De’Vondre Campbell: Almost 40 percent of his team-high 14 tackles came on the final drive, but he blew up one drive with a tackle for loss on a screen and then made the win-clinching play on the two-point play.
CB Rasul Douglas: Tom Brady got him on a few completions early, including the big play to open the game and a fourth-down conversion on the first drive. But once he moved to the perimeter following Jaire Alexander’s injury, he was dominant, forcing two incompletions (including a pass breakup). Douglas made three “stops” (or tackles creating a failure for the offense) after catches and gave up only 41 total yards over 50 coverage snaps.
WR Randall Cobb: Less is more with Cobb. He ran only 18 routes but still created two huge plays. The veteran slot receiver picked up 17 yards on third down to extend a touchdown drive and then created a 40-play play to start the third drive.
Duds
OLB Preston Smith: The veteran edge rusher couldn’t get much going against right tackle Tristan Wirfs. Smith didn’t have a single pressure over 38 pass-rushing snaps and didn’t have a stop over 51 total snaps. He did help blow up a trick play in the second half.
RB A.J. Dillon: The big back missed a few running lanes and finished with a 2.7-yard average over 12 carries, and he also dropped a pass as a receiver. Overall, his 14 touches gained only 38 yards. His 22 yards after contact were a season-low, and Sunday was the first time all season he hasn’t forced a missed tackle.
