Concerns are beginning to mount after the Green Bay Packers defeat to the Denver Broncos in Week 7. Even after the disappointing Week 5 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, a game in which Jordan Love threw three picks and finished with a passer rating of 32.2, there was optimism that this young Packers offense could turn things around in Week 7.
Instead, Green Bay was stonewalled by a Denver defense that came into Sunday as the worst in the NFL in terms of points and yards allowed per game.
Here are the two Packers most to blame for the disappointing defeat.
Let’s preface this by saying that Jordan Love had a pretty decent game overall. He completed 21/31 passes for 180, with two touchdowns and an interception. If Anders Carlson makes the 43-yard field goal at the end of the first half then Love is being praised for another methodical showing while the armchair quarterbacks rip into Russell Wilson. Instead, we can focus on a few key facets of Jordan Love’s performances that prevented the Packers from coming home with the victory.
We begin with a first half that ended with a big zero on the scoreboard for Green Bay. Love had 47 passing yards entering halftime and the Packers only managed four first downs in the first 30 minutes of the game against a Denver defense that could hardly stop a peewee football team in the first six weeks.
That poor first half put the Packers in a nine-point hole entering the intermission. Credit to Love, he led the team back in the second half, as Green Bay’s first three drives resulted in a pair of touchdowns and a field goal.
But then came the final drive. After Russell Wilson took his team down the field to get the go-ahead field goal, Jordan Love got the ball back with a two-point deficit and 3:50 left in the game.
He got the team as far as the Denver 44-yard-line before a holding penalty set up a difficult third and 20 from their own 46. Instead of hitting AJ Dillon for an easy check-down that would have set up a manageable fourth down (after Dillon picked up 29 yards on a similar play earlier in the drive), Love heaved the ball deep downfield into double coverage. Denver intercepted, thus ending the Packers’ hopes of a road win.
