Normally, we talk about the week’s Packers positives in this space but I’m not actually an overly positives person, more an overly contrarian person. So, when the Packers have a meh game or lose and Packers Twitter is saturated with negative takes, I come in with the positives. When the Packers destroy a team that just beat the 49ers, it’s natural for me to come up with some negatives about the week. Let’s get into them.
• The main thing to fret about this week is that the NFC North is full of world beaters. The top four teams in point differential are all NFC North teams and the Packers are last. The Vikings and Lions have both had byes! This isn’t the North of the Aaron Rodgers era where you could pencil in five or six wins a year before the games even happen and you’d never lose at home. This division is tough. Sure, Aidan Hutchinson is out for the year, Calen Williams is bound to have some rookie hiccups and Sam Darnold will inevitably turn into a pumpkin but the hardest games on the Packers schedule will probably still come in the division.
• The run offense and defense can still look bad at times. Obviously, we need to couch this with the fact that both had good games today but there were also drives when Josh Jacobs ran into a brick wall three times and drives when Trey Benson ran all over the Packers D. I’d like to see some more consistency on both sides of the ball.
• It hasn’t been a great season for Brian Gutekunst first-round picks. Jaire Alexander has been hurt and is partially responsible for the loss to Philly. Darnell Savage is on the Jags and Rashan Gary looks like a rookie again. Eric Stokes was benched for a kick returner and a seventh-round pick. Quay Walker looks lost at times and Devonte Wyatt could be out for a month. Lukas Van Ness still doesn’t look like he rushes with a plan. Let’s hope today is a turning point for these guys. Jordan Love clearly had his best game of the season. Gary had more pressures today than he’s had all year. Van Ness is disrupting things and Jaire shut down whoever he was across from. If the Packers want to go deep in the playoffs, these guys need to perform.
• Can’t get out of here without talking about Brayden Narveson who missed another kick today. It will be interesting to see whether they cut bait this week on him and let him go. I’ve been thinking that they’ll wait until the trade deadline and then try to trade for a kicker. But they have two losses this year where the margin was less than the points, they would’ve gotten from missed kicks. I don’t know how much longer you can depend on him.
Mike Price is a lifelong Packers fan currently living in Utah. You can follow him on twitter at @themikeprice.
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