Well, that was exhausting.
The Green Bay Packers took a while to show up, but their half-assed effort was enough to beat the New York Jets 31-24 in the home opener.
After staking the Jets to a 21-3 lead, the Packers slowly started to chip away. The defense, that looked all too willing to give up big plays, eventually stiffened and the offense, which had no rhythm early, found enough to outscore the Jets 27-3 from the late second quarter on.
The Packers offense was basically this — throw it in Jordy Nelson’s direction and hope for the best.
Seriously, we’re not really sure what the Packers’ game plan was, but we’re pretty sure someone’s dog took a crap on a piece of paper and they went with that.
The Packers had no running game to speak of and, in fact, didn’t even really try to run in the first half. Aaron Rodgers looked like he wanted to spread the ball around early, but no one stepped up.
Jarrett Boykin, who had two early opportunities, dropped both balls and may have lost his No. 3 receiver role to Davante Adams in the process. Adams contributed five catches for 50 yards.
Randall Cobb, meanwhile, caught two touchdowns, but had only 39 yards receiving. Andrew Quarless was the only tight end to catch a ball and he caught just that — one.
No, Sunday was Jordy or bust for the Packers. Thankfully, Nelson delivered with nine catches for 209 yards and a TD. Nelson accounted for a little less than two-thirds of Rodgers’ 346 yards passing and more than half of the Packers 390 total yards.
On defense, it was a sea change for the Packers from week 1. And that was good for the most part.
The Jets did exactly what we thought they were going to do — pound the ball with Chris Ivory and Chris Johnson. Well, those guys went pretty much nowhere between the tackles.
Ivory finished with 43 on 13 carries and Johnson had 21 on 12 carries.
Gone were the constant missed tackles and gaping holes up the middle. You can probably credit new starting inside linebacker Jamari Lattimore with helping to improve that, but both inside linebacker A.J. Hawk and nose tackle Letroy Guion also played a hell of a lot better this week than they did in week 1.
Hawk had 10 tackles, Lattimore seven and Guion had two.
The real star of the game defensively was defensive end Mike Daniels, though. Daniels finished with five tackles and a sack and looked like the playmaker we expected him to be.
While all of that was good, where the Packers ran into trouble is on the outside.
Basically, all the Jets had to do was get outside the tackles and there was a big play waiting for them. That’s because Clay Matthews is unaware of what outside contain means.
We can appreciate that he wants to make every play. Maybe he even feels like he HAS to make every play, but stay home and take care of your assignment once in a while, huh?
With the Jets running game nonexistent for the most part, that put the outcome in the hands of quarterback Geno Smith, which is exactly where the Packers wanted it.
Smith had his moments, but couldn’t quite rally his team. Or maybe he could have, if some joker wouldn’t have called a time out.
With the Jets down by seven, late in the fourth, Smith lofted a 36-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Kerley in the back of the end zone over two Packers defenders. Great catch, hell of a throw, tie game.
Except… the refs announced the Jets had taken a time out prior to the play and the tying score was erased like it never happened.
The Jets would fail for good a few plays later.
And at the end of the day, a win is a win, regardless of how ugly or torturous it was. At 1-1, the Packers are tied for the NFC North lead after both Minnesota and Detroit crapped the bed earlier in the day.
Not sure what you were watching, but Guion did not play any better. He was getting pushed all over the place for the first 3 TD drives by the Jets. He barely got on the field in the 2nd half, and there was a noticeable difference when he was not on the field. Boyd didn’t record any tackles, but he also didn’t get pushed all over the field. I hope to God we don’t see Guion in the starting lineup anymore. Overall, good win though, they fought back and showed some heart.
I couldn’t believe how poorly we started. A fumbled snap on the first play of the game? At least we were able to pull out the win. I thought Lattimore looked great, and the OL did a better job than they had the week before. It looks like Boykin is going to lose his job to the rookie – and I am glad to see the high pick paying some dividends so early. I’d like to see Janis get a chance to do something as well.
I don’t 4 sacks is much of an improvement; granted one of those is on A-Rog, but even 3 is unacceptable…
At least 2 were on A-Rod, in the same drive (pretty sure it was a 3-and-out). If the fumble counted as one of the sacks, then there’s another. He did get hit quite a bit and quite early in the first half to be sure.
Saw Marty Mornhinweg getting a switch after the game.
A good win. Great game by Nelson. D stepped it up in the second half. I believe most of the DB’s heard the whistle on the Jets timeout. I know Williams did. The great move by the Jets in the fourth quarter drive is they took 6 minutes of the clock with no points. At least one of the teams was trying to shorten the game with us up by a TD.
Defense still fucking blows!! Got pushed all over the field again..good thing jets arent that good!! Was that guion or pickett out there? Better get their shit together on defense!! Only gets tougher!!
Totally agree, the ass kisser Capers fans are like, what? our defense is fine. Yea good luck coming back from 21-3 against Seattle in the division game. There is some serious issues with pass rush and getting off the field on third down.
Of all the things wrong with our D, the pass rush is not one of them.
The Pack won despite the coach Mike. Bad time to call an onsides kick. Kick it deep and make them go the distance. Bad call on the challenge. It was obviously a completion and the Jets had already wasted a time-out. It was an impressive comeback. The obvious guys, Jordy Nelson, Mike Daniels, had a great game, but don’t forget about
Mason Crosby. He kept the Pack in the game long enough to allow the rest of the team to get going. Now on to Detroit.
Agreed on MC and the onsides, though usually MM is pretty good with those (credit where it’s due), then did NOT feel like the time to pull one, the way the D had been playing. It worked out in the end, though-thank you Tramon Williams.
I am expecting that Davon House saw the TO called because he was no where near his guy on the called back TD.
HORRIBLE first quarter, and this isn’t the first time that the Packers were slow to show up. I’m thinking of the last time this team played at Lambeau- playoffs, San Fran- for one thing.
Neither Rodgers nor Lacy were sharp at the outset. Fortunately, Rodgers turned it around right before half.
I’m not sure why the Jets stopped attacking the edges with fakes, read options and WR sweeps, but it was a big mistake on their part. Other than Daniels breaking through the line once, I don’t think the Packers ever figured out how to stop it.
Props to Monty for noticing CM3’s habit of giving up the edge. He has really been poor with that the first two games of the season.
Thing I took away from this article was that stuff about CM3 on the outside, but it is not only him…it’s the scheme also. We’re consistently getting burned on the edge. Also, it seems at times the secondary is confused by the cover-2 or whatever type of zone-blitz we’re trying to run. Receivers are finding soft spots on us & the Jets & Seahawks aren’t really known for their air games….
Don’t let the stats fool you otherwise. We played ok defense
I’ll take the win and happy to so so….but…Replace Gino with any marginally decent quarterback and….?
Pack needs to toughen up and tighten up all around.
Glad for the win but it’s hard to feel good about this team. It could have just as easily went to a very mediocre visiting team. Thanks to the weak NFC North we will likely make the playoffs and then lose the first game again. Joy.
And then Marty Moron Weg got pissed and rode off into the sunset on his Harley.
While it may not have been a dominant performance, the Pack showed some fight and didn’t give up. This team has some guts and NOONE laid down. It is something to build on. If the coaches can pluck their heads out of their asses, we might go somewhere in the post season.
Seattle lost one and EVERY other team in the division laid a big fat turd. Fuckin’ Aye, let’s look at the bright side.
Cripes. I guess I spoke too soon. I guess the Bears won. Shit. :/
I’m the MVP of the game
Wow. Way to save the season and make it exciting. Feels like preseason the way we played. We need to rotate more on defense. We have alot of talent on bench and need to exploit it to keep energy up. Like to see pennel, richardson, and house more. Also barrington for hawk would help. Hope they play with more poise to start game next week because this aint preseason anymore.
On to D-Troit as MM calls it…don’t wish for a repeat showing of last season’s game in D-Troit….oi vey!
It was a game, and from the outset that’s the last thing I thought it would be.
God love Marty Morningwheg.
After midway through the second quarter, our defense looked much more like what I am hoping for this season. Attacking the ball and tough as nails against the run. The Jets are a good rushing team and we basically shut that down.
For Christ’s sake, get a new D-coordinator already. I thought this year we were supposed to see a much improved D-unit. That is far from the case. Maybe I missed it but I thought Clay was supposed to be an “impact” player???? Oh, and maybe Aaron should focus a bit more on the game on the field than his game off the field.
Don’t ever question Aaron again. That’s just idiotic!
Not much left to say that hasn’t been stated except this: Take our fucking starters off of punt return. Hyde’s injury is exactly the fucking problem with our key players fielding that shit. You can argue about having the best guy out there for that play but how many times does a team punt on average, 6-8 in a game? I don’t see the benefit, especially with our ST coach and the bang up job he has been doing for the last 4 years. Stick Janis out there and let him get some experience.
Lucky for us Ha Ha continues to get his shit together so safety “shouldn’t” be a weak spot if his injury is serious but it’s a long season.
Their defense was now exposed against an average team…we must also be average to just beat them, we have no impact players on D, even Lacy looked like the same old RB we used to have, ran right into the defense…Rodgers and Nelson got their shit together to win, but Holy Shit Rodgers looks nothing like his once dominating self. Did Sherrod actually play ok? lol