7 Key Takeaways from the Green Bay Packer preseason game against the New Orleans Saints
1. Jordan Love’s hot start slowed down by drops
Jordan Love had a pretty solid game
overall. He showed good mobility and some really nice throws. However, once
again, drops capped Love's production. On his very first throw of the game, Romeo
Doubs got turned around and couldn’t make the catch on a really good throw. However,
the next few drives, Love showed some really nice poise and accuracy,
completing passes of 15, 17, 11, and 21 yards before throwing eventually throwing a
really nice high-point ball to Doubs for the touchdown. He also had a throw to
Patrick Taylor in the endzone that wasn’t complete, but was in the perfect spot
after a long scramble.
After the touchdown, things really
cooled off for Jordan Love and the Packers offense, large in part due to drops
and a fumble by Tyler Davis. Aside from the Davis fumble, Romeo Doubs had his
second drop of the game on a short crossing route, Samori Toure dropped a deep pass
that was close to the sidelines but looked like it would have been inbounds and
Amari Rodgers couldn’t maintain possession through contact with the ground on a
really good throw up the seam for what would have been a big gain on 3rd
down. It had just finished raining, so the weather could be a factor, but it’s a play you
would like to see Rodgers make. Furthermore, it seemed like once the offensive
line starters started to shuffle out, Love was under a lot more pressure. Love did
have one bad stretch of three bad throws in a row, two of which were into the
ground, but aside from that, he played fairly consistent. After the game Head Coach Matt LaFleur did give credit to Love for playing well under pressure.
Overall, Jordan Love had a stat line of 12/24/113 yards/1 TD, however, once again, it could have been much stronger with some help from the young receivers. He also did a much better job of protecting the ball and leading his wide receivers. The “incapable of Love” haters will look at the box score once again, see 50 percent completion on pass attempts, and tell you that Love is trash. You can comfortably ignore those people knowing that his completion percentage should have been over 60 percent and his yardage should have likely been closer to 200 yards. Love has shown consistent improvement and that he is comfortable in this offense.
2. RB3 competition continues to heat up
Patrick Taylor got the start, but
Tyler Goodson shined. Taylor showed tonight that he can get the short yardage
when needed with two 1st down runs on short yardage situations, but
his long run of the night was only 5 yards, finishing the night with 8 carries
for only 27 yards.
Tyler Goodson showed again tonight
that he is a very shifty and quick. Goodson had runs of 9, 9, and 15, all on
the same drive. He finished the night with 10 carries for 42 yards. He also
showed his ability in the passing game with a nice catch and run of 10 yards. The
one knock on Goodson is that he likely won’t break many tackles, but if you can
get him in space, he is hard to catch. If I had to guess now, Tyler Goodson
makes this team and there will be a few plays drawn up for him to show his
speed.
Aside from Tyler Goodson and Patrick Taylor, Dexter Williams showed that he needs to be in the conversation too. With the Packers backed up against their own 2-yard line, Williams carried the ball for four, four, and six to get the Packers some room to operate; he also had a carry of nine yards. Williams finished the night with 5 carries for 24 yards playing mostly behind the 3rd-string offensive line.
3. First round rookies see more play time
Devonte Wyatt seen his first game action of the preseason, and Quay Walker played more snaps than last week. Wyatt had a few nice snaps where he showed good pursuit of the quarterback, forcing them to scramble. Walker also showed a couple nice plays, one in particular where he shadowed Ian Book perfectly and shut down his scramble quickly. We’re still waiting for their first “splash” play of the preseason, but each of the player finished the night with two tackles.
4. Young wide receivers continue to ride the roller coaster
Romeo Doubs once again made his
presence felt, but in a good way and a bad way. On the first pass attempt of
the game, Jordan Love made a beautiful throw to Doubs, but it seemed like Doubs
looked over the wrong shoulder, got turned around a little bit, and couldn’t
make the catch. On the second drive of the game that resulted in a field goal, Doubs
made a really nice catch in tight coverage for 17 yards. On the third drive, Doubs
had another drop on a short crossing route and it almost seemed like Doubs wasn’t ready
for the ball. However, he later made up for it on the same drive with a really
nice high-point catch resulting in the first touchdown of the game. Doubs also
had another 17 yard catch in the game, but it was called back because of a penalty
on Tyler Davis.
Amari Rodgers had an up and down
night, with essentially all of his production coming in the running game; he
had two carries for 15 yards and showed his speed on end arounds. He did have 2
catches, but they only amounted for 5 yards; he had a drop on what would have
been a big completion and extended another drive.
Lastly, Juwann Winfree had a really
solid night with 3 catches for 41 yards. There was one throw where either he
ran the wrong route or Jordan Love made the wrong read, but overall, he is
making a good case to make this team through the first two games and it may
put the Packers in a tough spot on who to keep.
5. Like the defensive line last week, the inside line backer position showed good depth
Both Isaiah McDuffie and Krys Barnes showed that they can play as well. McDuffie had a strong game last week, and followed it up with another strong performance against the Saints. He was all over the field and near the ball. There was one play where McDuffie seemed to miss his coverage, but aside from that, he had another strong performance with 6 tackles. Barnes also made a really nice break on the ball for a pass break-up and added two tackles. With the emergence of McDuffie and the experience of Barnes, the Packers may have four players that they feel really good about at the position.
6. Special Teams déjà vu
Once again Special Teams continued to struggle. Aside from the three big returns that they gave up (two kick returns and one punt return), there was a play where they had 10 players on the field (flash back to the playoff game), and another where they had 12 players on the field that resulted in a penalty; luckily it was 4th and 15 and the penalty didn’t result in a 1st down.
One punt Amari Rodgers caught at the 3-yard line was a bad decision, and with another penalty, pinned the Packers at the 2-yard line. It’s possible Rodgers was told to return the punt no matter what, but the Packers had a couple decent punt returns, but the single kick return went for only 18 yards. Lastly, the one bright spot would be newly signed kicker Ramiz Ahmed made all of his kicks, including a 45 yarder that went straight down the middle with room to spare.
7. One potentially costly injury opens the door for young players to step up, and they did
Vernon Scott, how was vying for and
likely leading the competition for the third safety, went down with a shoulder
injury, and it didn’t look good. Scott left the field in clear pain with his
arm hanging down at his side.
You never want to see an injury, but two of the safeties behind Scott stepped up once the injury happened. Shawn Davis had a really strong night highlighted by a fumble recovery and a long return that set up a field goal. He also added 5 tackles, one of which went for a loss. Newly signed Micah Abernathy also responded in a big way. Abernathy, who was playing in the USFL about a month ago, made a gorgeous interception along the sidelines. He also read a screen perfectly and blew up the play for a loss of 5-yards. He finished the night with an interception and four tackles.
All stats in this post were sourced from ESPN.
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