The Green Bay Packers were embarrassed on the national stage Thursday night by the Carolina Panthers. Unfortunately, their surprising defense wasn’t matched by their uninspired offense headed by first-year starter Jordan Love. The Packers offense couldn’t find the end zone, and they were undisciplined. They ranked 30th in the league as they only converted one of their five red zone trips into a touchdown. This blow comes right as the Titans face the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. This adds another level of pressure on a beleaguered offense.
Jordan Love took another huge hit at night. In the process, he became the first Kansas QB to not throw a touchdown pass all season long. Unfortunately, this was compounded by a series of deadly decisions made by the team that ultimately proved disastrous. One of those ugly missteps came when Love attempted a high-risk deep shot to receiver Christian Watson. Unfortunately, Watson drew three defenders, leading to the beatdown of the day’s first turnover.
Then on an important fourth-and-8 from the Panthers’ 13, Love had strike again with the poor judgment. He would eventually admit that it was “a just a bad decision.” Heck told them he busted because he missed the back-side safety that was in cloud coverage. He was careless when he felt the rush and attempted to make cross-field throws. This inexcusable error resulted in a untimely sack during what was a promising drive deep into Carolina territory at their 14 yard line.
On this play in the third quarter, Love tried to “flick one over their heads.” Unfortunately, he instead threw an interception right to safety Tre’von Moehrig. Even with all that, he was wildly inconsistent at the helm of the offense. It’s a far cry from the unit that came into this game tied for fifth in the NFL in points scored.
It was an even bigger blow for the Packers when rookie first-round pick Matthew Golden was lost for the game with a shoulder injury. This loss was another blow to their already ravaged receiving corps. Tight end Tucker Kraft probably tore his ACL in his right knee following a third-quarter collision. This most recent injury thrusts the team into even worse shape on the offensive end.
Even with these obstacles, Watson is still very optimistic when it comes to the team’s upside. We know what type of team we are when we’re all rolling the right way,” he said. And most critically, he knew something had to be better. As he put it, “We absolutely cannot afford to keep making those errors.”
Head coach Matt LaFleur took issue after Sunday’s game with the Packers’ inability to punch in touchdown scores in the red zone. He said, “It’s going to be hard if we can’t get our arms around this.”
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