In a game that neither team seemed to want to step up and win, the Green Bay Packers and Houston Texans faced off in a matchup between NFC and AFC postseason favorites. Thanks to a last-second field goal, the Packers earned their third home win of the year and fifth overall, beating Houston 24-22.
It was far from a clean game from both sides, although the Texans forced Green Bay to commit three turnovers. Two interceptions from Jordan Love continued a concerning trend of Love not taking care of the ball, but he was able to right the ship by throwing for three scores.
Defensively, they did a fantastic job keeping CJ Stroud in check, limiting the young quarterback to only 86 passing yards and 10 completions. Jeff Hafley’s unit sacked Stroud four times, including two from Eric Wilson, but they were gashed on the ground to the tune of 115 yards and two scores from Joe Mixon.
Offense
Love threw an opening-drive interception, as his pass to Dontayvion Wicks was picked off, turning into a Houston field goal. An ill-advised throw from Love near the end of the first half helped jumpstart a touchdown drive for the Texans, as Love overshot Christian Watson over the middle and was easily intercepted.
To make up for his turnovers, Love threw for 220 yards and connected with Tucker Kraft, Wicks and Josh Jacobs. Finally ending the longest drought in NFL history, Jacobs caught his first-career receiving TD, as he is still the record holder for the most receptions without a score in a career.
Jacobs was efficient on the ground, turning 12 carries into 76 yards. His five receptions only went for 16 yards, but it shows that the offense will do whatever it needs to to keep him involved in both areas of the offense.
Romeo Doubs led the pass catchers, hauling in eight passes for 94 yards on 10 targets. With the trio of pass catchers finding the end zone, Watson was the forgotten man, only seeing two targets and recording one reception.
It wasn’t a pretty showing from the offense as a unit, but they did enough to get themselves in a position to win. In their game-winning drive, Green Bay only needed 1:44 to get into field goal range, as Love connected with Doubs for 18 yards (two catches) and Wicks for 13 yards to get into range for Brandon McManus.
Defense
Stroud is one of the NFL’s best, young gunslingers, consistently picking apart defenses and leading a high-powered offense. But what Hafley and his defense did to him, that was an absolute masterclass in how to shut down a QB.
A problem area this year for the Green Bay defense has been the pass rush, but Sunday’s performance from this position group was impressive. Recording four sacks and seven QB hits, this unit lived in the Houston backfield all game.
Wilson’s two sacks paced the pass rush for the Packers, while Rashan Gary and Xavier McKinney each recorded one of their own in Sunday’s win. Gary led the team with three QB hits, as he put together one of his best games so far this year, hopefully turning a page from a slow stat-sheet start to his season.
With Nico Collins on injured reserve, Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell have stepped into bigger roles in the Houston offense, and were expected to fill those for the high-powered Texans offense. Instead, the two receivers combined for five receptions, all coming from Diggs, showing that this offense was unable to get anything going through the air.
Mixon ran wild on the front seven, averaging 4.6 yards per carry, including a run of 32 yards. While the front seven had their way when rushing the passer, stopping the run was not something they were able to do, which needs to continue to be a point of emphasis moving forward.
Looking ahead to Week 8, the Packers are back on the road as they travel to face the Jacksonville Jaguars in an attempt to get to 6-2 on the year.
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Mike Johrendt has been an avid fan of the Packers ever since he can remember. He is now a writer at PackersTalk and you can follow him on Twitter at @MJohrendt23
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