1. Ignore the stat sheet when judging Jordan Love's performance
If you solely look at the box
score, it will not look good, however, it definitely doesn’t tell the whole story. Jordan Love’s stats will show that he threw three interceptions, but two of those interceptions were not his fault. The first was a strike right off of Tyler Davis’s hands;
the second was a bobble by Romeo Doubs that the defender ripped away. The third
interception, which was Love’s fault, was a ball slightly behind Amari Rodgers
and the CB made a really good undercut on the ball to make the play.
Aside from the interceptions, Love
had a relatively nice night. He was more in rhythm, got the ball out quickly,
and made a couple good throws on the move. He laid the ball out perfectly for
the first touchdown pass of the game to Doubs. Love hit former Wisconsin wideout Danny Davis for his second
touchdown of the game; Love said after the game that he changed the play at the
line before the snap and was aiming for a back-shoulder throw to Davis, however,
the ball was a little more up field then Love wanted but Davis made a nice
adjustment and took it in for the score. Love did have a few balls that were either
thrown behind or a little high (one that could have easily been an interception
that turned into a Winfree reception); he also overthrew Doubs for what likely
would have been a touchdown early in the game.
You could argue that there was a
total of five drops, but the Juwann Winfree catch should have been an incompletion, so
if you take away the four drops, two of which led to interceptions, Love
finished the night 13/20, 176 Yards, 2 TDS, and 1 INT for a passer rating of
105.4; he also added 4 runs for 24 yards. Coach Matt LaFleur commented after the
game that two of the interceptions weren’t on Love and that he was pleased with
the performance. Overall, there are definitely things for Love to improve on,
but there was a lot of things to like as well, and compared to last year, Love
seems to have taken some strides in the right direction and will look to build
on this performance.
2. Solid night from the offensive line
It’s hard to judge the offensive
line while watching the television broadcast, but they held up pretty nicely. Love
had a pretty clean pocket for the first half and didn’t get sacked; the line only
had one sack charged against them all night on a Danny Etling scramble. There was
also a couple nice runs and a really well executed screen. The push upfront definitely
needs to improve because they were stuffed on a couple third and short runs and Jake Hanson had the only penalty of the night for the offensive line. Overall,
the Packers ended the night with 34 rushes for 141 yards and a respectable 4.1 yards
per carry average and the offensive line held up nicely.
3. Competition for third running back wide open
Tyler Goodson started and seen a
majority of the work. He showed that he is very quick and shifty, but his size
makes it hard for him to break any tackles and he got smacked pretty good a
couple of times. Goodson finished the night with 12 carries for 37 yards (3.1 yards
per carry average) and added 2 catches for 24 yards. Goodson may turn out to be
more of a gadget player rather than someone the Packers would lean on to handle
a heavy workload.
Aside from Goodson, BJ Baylor
showed some explosion on a long catch and run from a gorgeous pass by Etling, and Dexter Williams broke off a nice 25-yard run. Patrick Taylor had a
pretty quiet night and got his hands on two balls that he couldn’t reel in. Overall,
it looks like Goodson is likely leading the competition for the third running back
role, but no one showed enough to pass up Kylin Hill once he’s healthy.
4. Young wide receivers make an impact
Romeo Doubs showed that he can
definitely get behind the defense, but he also showed that he is a rookie as he
had a roller coaster of a night. On his first target of the game, he beat his
defender, but Love over threw him. On his second target, he once again beat his
defender and this time Love hit him for a 33-yard touchdown on 4th
down. He also got behind his defender again later in the game and should have
drawn a pass interference call, but the official called illegal contact instead.
For the not so good, Love made a great throw on the run to a wide-open Doubs,
but Doubs dropped it. Later in the game Doubs attempted to make what would have
been a tough catch, but one he would expect to make, and bobbled it allowing
the defender to take it away for an interception. Overall, he finished with 3
receptions for 45 yards and the touchdown. It may have been first game jitters
that led to the drops, but Doubs certainly showed he is worth the hype and can
get open.
Danny Davis, the undrafted free
agent wide receiver out of Wisconsin, was the recipient of Love’s second touchdown. Love attempted to make a back-shoulder throw, but missed his spot and the pass pulled Davis inside of the defender. Davis was able to make a good adjustment, cut back in to make
the catch, and finished it with a nice run after the catch into the end zone for
the second 33-yard touchdown of the night. Davis finished with 2 receptions, 45
yards, and the touchdown.
Amari Rodgers had a fairly good
night as well. He took a short Etling pass and turned it up field and
showed off his athleticism by tip-toeing along the sidelines and diving for the
endzone. Rodgers also broke off a 50-yard kick return and took an end around
for 4 yards. However, on his one punt return opportunity, he made the fair
catch much harder than it should have been by going to his knees to catch it.
Lastly, both Juwann Winfree (3
receptions for 27 yards) and seventh-round draft pick Samori Toure (3
receptions for 42 yards) chipped in nicely.
5. Special teams still a work in progress
The special teams started out rough
with a penalty on a nice kickoff return to start the game, but somewhat settled
down aside from a terrible kick by a kicker that will likely be off the roster
very soon. Amari Rodgers had the one 50-yard return, but the other 3 returns averaged
less than 20 yards each, granted some of those returns would have been kneel downs in a regular season game. The new punter Pat O’Donnell averaged 44 yards
on his two punts and there weren’t any obvious bad long snaps. Overall, special
teams performed fine, however, if Mason Crosby isn’t healthy soon, it may be time to
panic because there is no way Green Bay can roll into the season with Gabe Brkic as
their kicker.
6. Defensive line shows it's depth
Like the offensive line, it is hard
to really judge the defensive line without the game tape, but T.J. Slaton looked
really good. Slaton ran right through his blocker on the second play of the
game and assisted on a tackle for loss a few plays later. Shortly after those
two plays, Slaton started to see double teams. Jack Heflin made a tackle for loss and had a couple nice stops at the line as well. Additionally, rookie Kingsley Enagbare
and Tipa Galeai had sacks. Overall, the defensive line finished with 4 tackles
for loss and 2 sacks while allowing a 4.1 yard per carry average (if you remove
the kneel downs to end the game). With Kenny Clark, Jarran Reed, Dean Lowry, and Devonte Wyatt all
sitting out this game, the Packers have some exciting depth up front.
All stats in this post were sourced from ESPN.
No comments:
Post a Comment